[jmunjr]

Hi everyone, I hope my post is appropriate.

I'm 51 and have a congenital fusion at C5-6 and a lifetime of sports and in particular Crossift in 2012 caused a bunch of herniations, particularly at C5-6 and C6-7. PT and steroid injections, mostly PT, helped the problem get a lot better within a couple months and more or less stabilized since, though like an idiot I still continued doing Crossfit until 2016. In 2017 I noticed long drives started causing neck pain on the left side and in 2018 after I started working on the PC again for really long periods (programmer), I really started having issues, and the past 16 months have been constantly painful and difficult, with numbness in the arm, though not detrimentally so. Since 2012 I have gone to 3 or 4 doctors about this and they all said disc replacement was not an option due to the advanced nature of the disc degeneration, among other things. I am scheduled to have C4-5 and C6-7 fused on Wednesday.

So this is sort of a last minute inquiry to see what people think, if that is even allowed. It seems no matter which doc I see they tell me disc replacement is a no-no, and they all do that surgery. I have felt like it would be unwise to try to find someone who will do it. It also makes sense that doing ADR on two separate levels would be kind of difficult, particularly in getting the alignment just right, but that's just a guess.

I have numerous MRI results and reports. Do people here even look at them?

Anyway, I meant to write this last week but didn't get approved right away and was away from the computer for a while. Thanks again.

P.S. - one other thing is the PT people a year ago believe I have an elevated first rib causing some of the shoulder and arm issues. My doc isn't convinced but said that could be the case. Regardless, I do have numerous issues that are strictly neck related, so the surgery should still help me.