Cervical spondylosis

hello my name is Lauren I am newly

diagnosed with cervical spondylosis at 28 years old my story has been one of pure mystery for my doctors apparently, I was diagnosed with slight narrowing of my c4/c5 disc which I was told is mild spondylosis and loss of cervical curve but all my symptoms have been anything but mild

my list of symptoms include:

.mostly left sided neck pain

.muscle spasms all over my

body mostly on my left side but usually in my upper back and tops of arms

.muscle tension in my neck, base of skull, shoulders and upper back

.chronic headaches

.on off small bouts of dizziness

.on off fast heart rate

.pulsitile tinnitus mostly when laying my head down or when i put headphones in and i also get normal tinnitus which usually lasts about 10 seconds at a time

.vision issues which can include blurry/double vision

.memory and concentration issues

.on off head shaking and hands

.head feeling on off heavy and like its stuffed up

.on off breathing issues and swallowing difficulty

.muscle cramps

.feeling sick and faint

.ear pains and noise sensitivity

.jaw clenching and pain

.clicking, popping and clunking in my neck

.on off full spinal and hip pain

.fuzzy giddy head feeling when i turn my head to the left

but I have no loss of range of motion im sure i have more symptoms ive not been able to remember at this time also!

so far I have had 3 mris including head and neck, thoracic and lumbar and a cervical spine mri, upper back x ray and cervical x ray, I got my eyes tested by an optician, had multiple ecgs, shoulder ultrasound and so many blood tests im suprised I have any blood left to give!

my symptoms started when I was 26 in september 2019 I had a weightlifting accident at my gym where i fell back too hard on a weight bench whilst holding heavy weights above my head whilst about to perform a chest press it didnt hurt me at all at the time i just had mild upper back pain which i thought at the time was from banging it on the bench as when i did i heard a 'pop' in my upper back i thought i popped a disc it was that loud but i carried on going to the gym weightlifting for several weeks afterwards thinking nothing of it but slowly but surely over the coming weeks i started to experience strange things happening to me and eventually came out in full blown upper body pain to the point i was struggling to stand up, lay down or even wear a bra and my head felt awful and i was feeling breathless with chest pains which lead me going to a&e multiple times and the doctors, doctors first said muscle strain or sprain but once it hit the 6 month mark and i was still in chronic pain struggling in and out of work (im a cleaner) and I had still not been able to return to the gym and i was still experiencing these other strange symptoms and at this point I developed chronic anxiety and severe depression to the point i didnt want to be here any more as i couldnt live my life how i usually would and fitness was a big part of my life so i knew something else was going on all while i never related it to my fall at the gym as it honestly never hurt i just took it as a warning to be more careful in future but now i look back i would of seriously strained my neck to stop 30kg falling on my face! so after 6 months i finally got sent for scans my first head and neck mri showed nothing then a week later i got my upper and lower back mri which also showed nothing 3 months after that i got a cervical spine xray that showed my slightly reduced disc height at c4-c5 and loss of cervical lordosis they said nothing found on my scans explained my symptoms and was even blamed on anxiety! so I was sent for physio therapy and counselling and after 2 failed nhs physios who tried telling me it was all stress and in my head! I then paid privetly for my own physio who tried working on my posture and did gentle cervical traction and massage and as our aim was to get me back in the gym doing what i love which was weightlifting my exercise was light weight training based but after 3 months i was getting no better and was struggling with my exercises my physio ended up writing to my doctor to get me further testing as he knew i was suffering and struggling too much for what had been shown on my scans so I then got my cervical mri which showed nothing different to my cervical xray so doctors at this point are absolutely stumped with me i have to go for an mri on my inner ear to see if this is causing any issues then im going to push for a neurosurgeon as i know everything is coming down to my neck as disease has been ruled out and i never suffered anything before my accident so i know its deffinetly related

so what ate my thoughts? my thoughts are my spondylosis is possibly a secondary condition caused by trauma which is why my symptoms are so rapid rather than general neck wear and tear spondylosis which appears over years as I am quite young to have this condition i also think i could have micro soft tissue damage probably of my facet joints which is causing irritation to nearby areas which is causing muscle tension which is causing the straightening of my cervical curve which is leading to the spondylosis but i dont think my spondylosis is the reason im suffering i think most my pain is soft tissue issues thats not being picked up on the imaging ive had done so far but ive done alot of research myself as doctors havent really been of much help and im still on the path of getting help but for now i literally just cope and still try live my life best i can taking each day as it comes as i dont want to rely on pain medication and they starred to make me very ill with my stomach, the longer ive suffered ive kind of learnt to accept things which eased my anxiety around it but i still suffer depression as i am still restricted in life all i can do to keep my fitness up is walk which i try to do alot of but some days the pain has me bed bound for days but laying down for me is the worst but my head feels to heavy to keep it up when its bad

i suppose my main point here is do my

symptoms seem typical of spondylosis? and also would a neurosurgeon be best to see for my symptoms and who can investigate and diagnose facet damage?

thankyou for reading i know its long aha!

also just a reminder you are never alone ive never felt more alone dealing with something no one around me can relate to and because i dont look ill or like im struggling having my mental state blamed by people i love had hurt me the most out of everything! its been nearly 2 years and people are only

just starting to believe me so i totally relate to that. keep strong and keep pushing you know your body better than anyone!

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