[Runner16]

Hi Jeep,

Sorry you are on this board but the upside is there is a wealth of information here.

Originally Posted by jeepbrew

No other apparent degeneration along the spine. Our assumption is that the damage

I'm 49 but my other discs look "pristine" according to several docs. Some ask if I had an injury and others say DDD. I asked if DDD then do I worry about other discs...docs said no one knows but all spines degrade with age.

Originally Posted by jeepbrew

He said he believed my primary problem (neck pain) was due to non-stop muscle spasms....Doc #3 recommended I see a chiropractor before doing any surgery (good idea, not sure why, but I hadn't thought of that yet).

Muscle spasms HURT. I am not sure what come first but I'd tried muscle relaxants, predinisone, codeine, Hyrdrocodone, ketamine, etc etc. Ibuprofen works the best if I take large quantities. Docs recently told me to stop as I can't take this much. sigh. Chiro worked for me for about a year but then I had a concerning episode (I do not blame them) with shock like nerve pain. I was fine following but it was a wake up call for me. Truth is I wasn't upfront with them about my symptoms as I figured it would resolve on its own and I was trying to just "fake it till I made it"

The last 2 months I found weekly massage helped the most with spasms and pain. it isn't a long term fix and expensive but it helped.

Originally Posted by jeepbrew

Doc #4 - He also said he is only 70% confident I'll wake up with an artificial disc, and to realize there is a 30% chance he'll have to fuse it. Sounds reasonable to me; how about the rest of the community?

I'm headed for surgery and my doc said the same, my odds 9:1. It struck me as an honest? approach as Doc said when they see the discs it tells a story. Some ADR's may not fit all spaces and he will not remove a lot of bone. I was told in several consults that the final decision on ADR vs fusion and in some cases even type of ADR the decision is made during surgery. I will accept a fusion over an ADR if it is likely to fail.

Originally Posted by jeepbrew

A little bit more info. Neck pain is still my primary problem that I face 24x7 it seems. Some days are better than others. Some days I think, "Hey, I can live with this. I don't need surgery." Other days it is so excruciatingly painful that I wish I was on my way to the hospital to have it fixed. Is that normal? Outside of the "pain", I do still get tingling in the fingers from time to time, but not near as often as I did before I started taking Gabapentin. Also of note, the fingers that tingle are my middle, ring, and pinky of my right hand, which the doc noted is not typical for the C5/C6 issue, but he also said we are all wired a little bit differently, so it is possible that the problem is related.

Ha. Read my post from last Decemeber where I had a mysterious pain free few weeks. I thought I was experiencing a remission I have thought I could get by so many times I can't count. But I have steadily declined, I've given up all of my sports (long distance running, cycling, mountaineering etc etc) and these days I don't do much, my days are all about managing my pain. Read other posts but I asked this same question and it is very normal. I had a terrible bout 2 weeks ago and last 2 days have been ok. Re tingling, I have had my whole hand, all fingers at times, numbness disappear and return (the worst was early on 6 months and never returned), 4 fingers, now it is my middle, index and thumb for the most part. I think the symptoms are approx to area/damage not absolute lines. My symptoms change all the time, move through my arm shoulder, scapula all left side. It is a carnival of activity anymore. Good times.

Originally Posted by jeepbrew

Sorry for the long post. Looking forward to interacting with the community. Feel free to ask me any questions!

My apologies for the long response hope something helped.

Take care, Runner