Newly diagnosed and being sent to Neurosurgeon!

Sorry to hear that, like you I woke up one day with the pain too 3 years ago, I've not seen a neurosurgeon so can't help with that but I'm sure others will be able to, best advice I can give just now is try not to let it get you down, just do what you can when you can, I've had the meds but am now pill free as they weren't helping & wasn't sleeping with them, my pain isn't as bad as it was 3 years ago thankfully, I do have bad days but I've accepted I've got this for life, just take it day by day, when are you seeing neurosurgeon 

Pam

Hi micwebb

When you go to see neuro surgeon make sure you know what your options are regarding treatment

and medication if you need it. Also have you tried swimming?Just gentle sometimes that helps.

See if you can be referred to to a pain clinic.

But as I say if you have to write down all the

Questions you have because sometimes

when you go in your mind can go blank

(or is that just me)lol😊!! Good luck and take care

As I always say it is not what you cant do its what

you can little and often always tomorrow

Jeanette

I woke up like you in mid August with similar pain.  Went to my GP, begged for an XRay, and started heat (Thermophore or rice sock), cervical traction (pump up style I bought on Amazon, not the over the door water bag type), NSAIDs, rest and Tramadol/Hydrocodone, and Ambien to sleep at night (hard to sleep when you're in pain).  Next, I went to the neurosurgeon.  That took another two weeks.  Got an MRI that, like yours, showed "marked narrowing" at C5-C6 on both sides.  Through an odd coincidence, I ended up seeing two neurosurgeons for two opinions.  Both recommended conservative treatments (non-surgical). They also scripted me with 4 mg Zanaflex (an antispasm muscle relaxer that is very effective).

 Because I have good insurance, I did 15 sessions of accupuncture, 2 X per week, which seemed to help reduce the pain and spasm a lot.  I was also sent to a neurologist, who poked me til I bled in places, but I was oddly asymptomatic that morning and he concluded (wrongly as my repeat symptoms made clear) that I might have carpal tunnel in my left hand, even thought I am right handed and the symptoms came on acutely from the nerve entrapment - his misdiagnosis has haunted me since).  I also had a few deep tissue massage therapy sessions.

The cervical air traction, the heat, the Zanaflex, the accupuncture, massage, lots of NSAIDS and pain killers and lots of rest did help.  That, plus the "tincture of time" which tends to heal in most cases.

My symptoms kept coming back though, so I begged the neurosurgeons' P.A. to help me get a cortizone shot.  That really did the trick. It helped better than any of the other treatments put together.  For cervical arthriitis, the shot is given right at the C7-T1 juncture, which is right between the shoulder blades using X-ray flourescopy  to guide the needle.  It was a huge relief.

Surgery is always the last option, if the other treatments do not work.  Only a QUACK would operate on you right away, or if your symptoms were severe enough (complete loss of function, bladder or bowel incontinence, etc.).  The reason is simple:  their options are limited (at least according to the two best neurosurgeons I saw) to disc fusion or artificial disc replacement.  And, since you could improve with the other treatments, and you could get worse or not improve from the surgery, they will not generally recommend surgery until the other treatments have been tried and failed.

In retrospect, I wish I had advocated sooner for the cortizone shot.  It made a world of difference.  In fact, if someone had given it to me a year  ago, I might never had gotten worse in the first place.    Hang in there... take it one day at a time.