Harrison, thanks for responding... this board has definitely been a good source of information along my journey, so thank you for providing such a great service and sounding board!
As for Dr. Z, I did not get a chance to speak to him personally unfortunately. Someone in his office called me back to break the news. The line "not surgically remediable" really felt like a punch in the gut! I tried asking whether she meant that Dr. Z (and the other surgeon who reviewed my case) didn't feel that I needed surgery yet -- or whether things had gotten so bad in my neck that they didn't feel they could help me. She said it was the latter. She basically just told me it didn't make sense for me to make the trip to TX, and gave me a referral for a surgeon in Philly. My gut feeling is that they don't want to take my case maybe because of its complexity -- I don't know. I had another surgeon at UPenn in Philly tell me something similar last fall. He said he could attempt a laminectomy to try to widen the area around my spinal cord, but there was no guarantee that it would help. He also said he would not attempt a two-level fusion on me because he felt it would be too risky.
I'm not really sure about the degree of compression, but I've attached a copy of my latest MRI report, which was taken on May 18th...
My PCP has really not been involved at all in the process -- however, I have been receiving treatment over the past 6 years under the care of the Penn Spine Center, so I consider them like my PCP for my neck. They are strongly urging me to have surgery at this point, as they feel there is not much more that can be done conservatively and I am starting to show signs of myelopathy. However, they are not really providing much guidance in terms of choosing a surgeon or the whole fusion vs. ADR decision.
I'm staying optimistic and hopeful for my appointment with Dr. Bitan next Thursday, and I'm also seeing an orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Jason Cohen) at Monmouth Medical Center that morning. He performed a 3 level cervical ADR for a good friend and work colleague of mine, and he has been recovering very well so far.
Sorry for the lengthy reply, but thanks again for responding Harrison!
Scott
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Diagnosed 6 years ago (at age 30) with multi-level DDD of the C-spine
Have had numerous epidurals, nerve root injections, PT, etc.
Now have severe stenosis and cord compression at C5-6 and C6-7 -- also have herniations and some stenosis at two levels above
Cord compression is starting to affect my legs and movement, nerve pain has increased
Need to find a surgeon soon, hopefully not a two-level fusion
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