Need a little feedback, please - Spinal Cord Disorders Message Board

SKZ · 11-28-2006, 09:52 AM

Hi there,
I am scheduled to see a spinal surgeon on Dec. 19th. When I had a discogram a few weeks ago, they were able to reproduce (provoke) my pain at C5-6, and C6-7. I then went to get a CT scan immediately afterwards, and it showed arthritis with spurring (spondylosis) at C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7. My 3 previous MRIs on the neck showed bulges and spurring also at all these 3 levels. Even though they could not reproduce my pain at C4-5 and they also could not recreate my pain that hurts me ALOT on my left side on the neck, traps, and shoulder...(which I suspect must be from the joints and spurring, since its not from the disks per se).When they do the surgery will they only go by the discogram and do C5-6 and C6-7... or since I have a disk bulge and spurs at C4-5, am I liable to end up with a 3 level ACDF? My big fear is that they do C5-6, and C6-7, and then since I have already a problematic area at C4-5 (with the bulging disk and spurring), wont that C4-5 area just get worse after the surgery because its adjacent to where the fusion will be? The reason I am wondering is because my physiatrist, who is referring me to the spinal surgeon.....was focusing mostly on C5-6 and C6-7.
Man, this waiting for the surgeon appt. is rough. I have so MANY questions.

PearlDoves · 11-28-2006, 10:28 AM

Well, my surgery was because my spurring was so bad it was causing stenosis, myelopathy and radiculopathy and my surgery was to get rid of the spurring, I suppose it depends on how bad it is. My disc was basiclly fine. But the thing with a spur is that it can keep growing. its a good question to ask. If he doesn't do that level, you could very well end up in surgery again later. My surgeon was going to do the level above the level he did as well (was going to do C4-5 & C5-6), but then decided against it once he got in there because it wasn't moving much. Had he decided to do that level, he said it could cause a chain reaction in the long run and cause stress on the upper level which could lead me to surgery again later.... and I could very well again with the fact that my C4-C5 wasn't done either, but its a better risk I'm willing to take, I seem to have a higher chance of not having the upper level done by just having the C5-C6 done.

But if you have a buldging disc and a spur at that level, I really can't see how he could possibily ignore that, but I'm not the expert either so you'll know better once you meet with him.

SKZ · 11-28-2006, 10:46 AM

I forgot to mention that I have mininal Grade 1 anterolisthesis (which means 25% slippage) at C4 on C5 and C5 on C6. This means the upper vertebral body slips forward on the one below.

PearlDoves · 11-28-2006, 01:14 PM

yes I think that's what he was basicly saying I had as well, but he felt at the time it wasn't bad enough to be worth doing another fusion over.

feelbad · 11-29-2006, 08:08 AM

SKZ,just a little suggestion here from someone who has had to see ALOT of seperate surgeons.get a piece of paper(or notebook) and a pen and keep it in a very handy place at all times(i kept mine on the kitchen counter where it was very accessable)and ANYTIME you happen to think of a great question to ask your NS,just IMMEDIATELY write it down in this notebook or paper.if i hadn't done this,honestly,many really great questions would have been lost forever as i would forget them almost as soon as they came to me if i hadn't written them all down like as SOON as they hit my head.

I don't know if you are as bad as i am at remembering things,but this really really helped me alot with getting the best questions down on paper.i actually had three full pages of questions to ask my NS before my cavernoma spinal cord surgery.and he amazingly met with me three seperate times,squeezing me in even between surgeries and stuff just to answer my questions since this possible surgery was a very very major in depth procedure into the inside of my spinal cord.he just wanted to make sure that i was fully informed before actually consenting.also, make sure to actually write down the answers to the questions too,lol.i forgot a couple and couldn't remeber for the life of me what his answer was to some of them.

Just an FYI on the possible reason they could not reproduce that pain in what sounds like mostly within the muscle areas?it could be that that particular pain is being caused solely from constant inflammation inside the c spine.it is actually "triggered" from the constant inflammation going on and not actually stemming from any area in particular of your c spine.believe me,the horrid pain i am currently having in pretty much the same areas as you are is being triggered from my totally screwed up c spine.these are trigger points within the muscle themselves.just as an experiement,and i do this ALL the time just to help relieve that tension and tightness in my neck and upper back area,along with the incredible pain these cause.take a tennis ball and place it into a tube sock? them go to a nice sturdy wall,and place the tennis ball behind your back and the wall.making sure to hold onto the very top of that sock(this just helps keep the ball back there when it sometimes pops out on you,my dog kept grabbing the darn thing whenever this happened,hence,the tube sock approach)and kind of push your upper back into that ball and roll it around til you come across a "trigger point"? you will know it when you hit one as the pain will let you know.then try kind of rolling the ball into it and around it,this just helps reduce that muscle wad in there.after you have done this for a couple minutes,then push really hard into that wad with your upper back and kind of hold it into it for about 45 seconds to about a minute ,every once in a while,just wiggling it into that wad a bit,but honestly after about the 45 seconds,you will actually feel this wad just kind of let go.you have now just gotten rid of one of your trigger points.

this really does work well and was the best thing i could have done when my ins co decided my after surgery PT was not worth paying for anymore since i was not 'progressing' anymore.despite the fact that my PT had magic hands and was always able to work alot of my pain out,they felt it just wasn't worth it.this is when i came up with the tennis ball tube sock idea.i NEEDED a way to continue to work out the constant trigger points that were forming in my upper back.

there are also trigger point injections that you can try too.these work for me for about a week after,but they do offer at least some relief for my agony up there.

my pain in my c spine is never going to go away just because of the ongoing deterioration and other mess that is up in my c spine.but this really really does help me alot with some of the TPs anyway.this doesn't work as well now as it did when i first started doing this back in 03.but since you haven't probably done this before,it should work really well for you.this is just something to try since i am willing to bet that that pain they cannot reproduce is actually muscle pain from the c spine inflammation.this pain can get very severe at times so you would think that it would just HAVE to be coming from something within the c spine itself,but in most cases,its just the overwhelming inflammation.i live with this crap everyday and mine is actually starting to cause c spine headaches now.just lovely.

just give this a shot and see if it works at all for you.if you can get any relief at all,chances are pretty good that it is just inflammation.even just rolling that ball hard against your back once in a while during the day really helps relieve some of that built up tension,which can help avoid the creation of the trigger points.good luck and let me know how things go,K? marcia