Since I am new to this area I needed to establish myself with new healthcare providers. I did the 2 ortho already...one for the neck and the other for the knee. The ortho group though should have given me an appt with their knee specialist but anyways if I need my left knee redone I will probably need to go outside the area.
So a couple of weeks ago I had an appt with my primary care dr or family dr. He did a full physical and everything seems to be fine. Blood pressure is lower than it has been in years and was a little shocked at what it was. I had brought in my reports from my C Spine MRI and EMG that I had done a little over a year ago. I brought up the problems I had been having since my appt with the ortho neck specialist.... mainly muscle cramping in the right arm, headaches and numbness. These things come and go but the most were new within the past month.
He gave me three options and I agreed to have the MRI and EMG repeated and see if there was any material differences from the previous tests.
So I get a call last Friday from the Dr office saying they got the results back from the MRI. They want to send me to a neuro surgeon. Hmmm, ok. I then ask, are there major differences from the last testing. ????? The report doesn't mention a comparison. They say spinal stenosis is mentioned.
Well damn
First this is nothing new but the main thing is and I would think very beneficial in terms of proper treatment is how much, if any, this has gotten worse over the previous 13 or so months??? At the very least I would love to treat the symptoms as I am not looking for spinal surgery any time soon.
pm update
I went down to the Dr's office this morning to get a copy of my MRI report. As I am walking out and reading it I noticed several mnetions of "comparison to previous study".
Someone at that office needs to learn how to read I think lol.
The results:
Still Moderately severe to severe spinal canal stenosis and no change at C5-6 and C6-7. Disc herniations are the causes of these stenosis.
Good news is that a small lesion probably represented by cord edema at C6-7 level is pretty much resolved....or corrected itself.
I am going ahead with a neurosurgical consult and should hear on that shortly. Something I don't understand is how these symptoms and their underlying causes keep popping up and disappearing. In any case I still need to manage the symptoms.
On a lighter note... Shelly is off traveling this week. She is heading to Omaha (yes, Nebraska in the middle of winter) for work for a couple of days so Thursday and Friday it will just be us guys.
The end of the month we are heading to MI to see my brother-in-law get promoted to Liutenant JG (Coast Guard). I think I have that right anyway lol. I think we have a day trip planned for Detoit...we'll see
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2 comments:
very informative. there are a lot of non-surgical ways of treating spinal stenosis...check this link i found: http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/article4088.html discussing the options.
Thanks for the comment. I don't have persistant problems. I thank god for that. The only problems I have are an occassion head ache which can be very severe.
I will call it a head head ache but it feels like a ton of pressure at the base of my head in the back. I am guessing when that happens there is a build up of pressure?? Kind of the same thing happens if I look up and hold my neck/head a certain way.
What happens is alot of pressure, lots of throbbing pain and nausea. I had a couple episodes where the first time I laid on the couch and was affraid to move and it eventually went away. The second time I couldn't go through it again so I went to the ER. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me something for the pain and something for the nausea.
I take that pill for nausea every night and have not had but one severe episode once since spring where I have had to take percocet.
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