feelbad

generally when the gait and the hyper reflexes are part of your symptoms,it usually is more cord related than just a spinal structure type issue.was there any mention of myelomalacia on that report?this does sound like these particular symptoms along with a couple others are indeed from the c spine herniation.stenosis would give you alot of pain and radiculopathy type symptoms but would not ,in most cases actually affect gait,balance or the reflexes to the point where yours are.

just at what areas did they do that EMG on?have they done a full spine MRI or just the c spine area?how severe was that head injury?did they do at least a CT on your brain?

given the symptoms you are having,it would have to be(the lower torso and the reflex issues)either cord related or possibly brain related in order to affect those ares further down since actual spinal nerves would correlate to a very specific dermatome up around the area of the actual problem,not distally like down to your feet.just what type of docs have you seen so far and what were you told by the hospital when this occured?

you most definitely need to be seeing a good neurosurgeon for the best overall eval of your symptoms and possible cord involvement.this is what i would do in your situation.you really need to find out just how much cord affectation you have right now.having a normal EMG would still be possible even with a cord injury.all an EMG really does is show nerve flow impairment of some degree.depending on just what they actually tested would also make a big difference in whether you had a normal or abnormal EMG.i had,back in 02,a totally normal emg despite overwhelmig pain(from a herniation) and intermittant numbness and tingling in my right arm down thru the first two fingers of my hand.

i now have a very wide reaching spinal cord injury but despite the wide symptomology i have and affectation of many body areas,including my legs in a few different ways with gait/balance problems and hyperreflexia too,the only part that showed abnormal on my EMG were the nerves that go to the fine motor functions in my left hand.that was the biggest area of actual nerve damage,everything else is just from the types of cord/spinal tract damage itself.you really DO need a consult and eval from a good neurosurgeon,not just a neurologist,a surgeon.just for the best look at what you are dealing with here and what is actually being affected and/or could be fixed.

just what does it state exactly in your MRI report about the area of that herniation and cord affectation.depending on how it is actually worded can sometimes tell alot.i somehow missed your second post about the T spine involvement?what does your report state about that area of cord contact?the more detail you can provide the better.Marcia

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3-22-01,herniated C-6-7
11-20-01,placement of hardware for failed fusion
9-22-03,removal of cavernous hemangioma that was inside spinal cord. Neuro damage to L hand L leg and R leg.