Jet - the question you raise is one that I've become really focused on.
The short answer is that I mostly notice the radiating arm pain; but I do have some amount of neck pain. The key issue seems to be whether the neck pain is arising from the same apparent source (i.e. very clear foraminal narrowing at C5-6 and C6-7) - or whether there's something else going on at the level of the two thin discs.
Having met with 5 surgeons and received several different potential solutions, this has become a central focus in trying to figure out what to do. In particular, if the neck pain is basically just arising from foraminal narrowing and impingement of the C6 and C7 nerves (which can also give rise to some amount of neck pain in addition to the arms), then a foraminotomy (a slight increase of space to provide additional room where the nerves are exiting) could cure both problems and allow me to hold onto the discs for a longer period of time, while technologies countinue to advance.
On the other hand, if the neck pain is coming from something else, then the foraminotomy might fix the radiating arm pain but leave me with substantial neck pain - suggesting I should have gone ahead with discectomy.
I'm now trying to figure out if there's any way to help better diagnose the source of the neck pain to help predict which pathway would be better.
Any thoughts welcome!
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Originally Posted by jetharvey
Do you have neck pain too or just radiating pain?
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