Cervical arthritis

[Dogmama]

This is a wonderful thread. My cervical disc issue has worsened, with heavy, weak arms being my most prominent symptom. It's not constant but I went to PT last week and am starting some exercises. I too am scared. I had an L5S1 directory 9 years ago and recovery was slow. No problems today but I certainly do not want to rush into surgery. The doctors here in AZ are horrible so getting a good opinion will be tough.

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Sorry to hear about your AZ doctors experience. I'm in Tucson & have an excellent orthpaedic spine surgeon - PM me if you want his name. He did my C4-c-6 about 8 years ago.

Now, the disks under the fusion are garbage and my last MRI said "advanced arthritis with stenosis" - that's why my arm is numb again. So, if you're prone to arthritis (I am - inherited - thanks Grandma!) it may just travel down. I'm doing acupuncture next week because I don't want to do injections or surgery. Have not done acupuncture yet so we'll see...

[itself]

So fusion vs disc replacement? There seems to be those choices.

[luvmyguys]

I had a herniated disc in February and March of this year, and I had a conservative surgery where the herniated parts of the disc were removed, but the rest of the disc was left in place. Prior to that, I was under the care of a chiropractor (she's the one who sent me who ordered the MRI and sent me to the neurosurgeon) who tried spinal decompression to alleviate the problem. Since I knew we were dealing with something nasty, I got a second opinion from an orthopedic surgeon, who agreed with what the chiropractor was doing (no manual adjustments, but the spinal decompression was fine). The spinal decompression alleviated the pain significantly, but my disc was too messed up to be corrected without surgery - the MRI showed a 9 mm disc protrusion and the neurosurgeon said he took out multiple fragments. The pain was gone, but my arm was still weak and I still had persistent numbness in my index finger.

My husband was having issues with some arm weakness, and this chiropractor was able to correct the problem with the spinal decompression. It might be something you can look into as a last resort prior to surgery.

The advice that I was given in several places was to avoid hardware (plates and screws) if at all possible, if a fusion is recommended.