I have cervical issues. C2-3 is not bad.
Moderate degeneration @ C3-4 osteophytes associated with bilateral stenosis.
C4-5 Facet arthrosis and moderate right and mild lefet formainal narrowing
C5-6 has spondylytic ridge spondilitic bulge moderate bilateral foraminal narrowing. There is mild canal stenosis identified. The cord is contacted and slightly indented
C6-7 has slight spondylitic change mild bilateral foraminal narrowing.
When my problems 1993 first started I had a disk herniation at C5-6. I was in horrible pain. Doctors would look at my MRI and say, "you shouldn't be in that much pain. Physical therapy was useless and made me feel worse. The only time I was pain free was in 2005 when I saw and atlas orthogenol DC in Asheville NC. I was pain free for 8 mos but then we moved and thter were no other available.
Had many couses of injections that were minimally effective.
I am looking at RFA for the C5-6 nerve. Have read that is works for 6 mos to a year but has many dangers.
Surgeon says cleaning out osteophytes makes them come back even worse withing a few months. Others say he's wrong.
Asked about ADR he says it will make me worse because they over rotate and give to much range of motion. Makes sense but is it true.
I really feel I am getting the run around and the sales job form MDs and DC's. The DC is am seeing thinks an ADR would help me at C5-6 but does worry about to much range of motion.
M6 disk that is more like the real thing but not even in clinical trials in the US.
I asked the surgeon what my condition would be if magically C5-6 disk became normal. He would not venture a guess. He's a fusion guy. Fusions seem barbaric. You'd think a device with end-plates would make more sense since so many fusions fail to fuse. I feel like we are living in the dark ages.
Was put on hellish drugs. One was a muscle relaxer called Skelaxin. If made me restless and nervous but the longer I was on it the worse it got. I had what were panic attacks but the were terrifying and I hallucinated. Found out others had similar experiences. I was given Lyrica but based on the side effects
http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=21723 I am steering clear of that rattle snake.
How does one get the real facts? Being that MDs did nothing but make me worse of the the years and given the people I know with failed back surgery syndrome I don't know what to do.
Checked into that LSI and they said they remove bone and spurs but the surgeon who I last saw says that will make me worse.
Checked into Stenum but they sound like a scam but they do implant M6 disk which makes more sense that a ball & socket. I also found out that they don't test to see if you are allergic to titanium.
I wish there was some standardization and some honest data. I can find out how many home runs any major league player hit but I cannot find the error rates of doctors.
Once bone is removed does it grow back worse than before?
Is over rotation a problem with the ADRs available in the US?
What is the failure rate for fusions?
Why is the infection rate so high in US hospitals? According to Betsy McCaughy and the CDC it is 1 in 20 or 1.7 million hospital acquired infections each year?
Why should patients be required to pay for a surgery if it doesn't work?