Just got back from the doctors office, I'm being referred to a neurologist. As the PA put it - "there's a heck of a lot going on in that neck of yours!" So, all I know now is it could result in anything from PT to surgery; and yet, I'm still not freaking out. Must be because I'm so glad to actually know something is going to be done!

So - for you medical types, heres the impression from the CT scan:

Degenerative changes throughout the cervical spine, most pronounced in the facet joints and with bulky anterior and posterior osteophytes at the C5-6 and C6-7 levels with focal narrowing of the central canal and narrowing of the lateral recesses bilaterally but with the right side much more severely affected than the left (even though the facet degenerative changes are more severe on the LEFT, the right neural foramen are more severely narrowed than the corresponding left). Although soft tissue is not well evaluated on CT, the severe right lateral recess narrowing implies right nerve root impingement at the C5-6 and C6-7 levels. Clinical correlation requested.

Absence of the lamina at the C1 level is likely a congenital variant.