Pending Cervical Surgery, 2 levels I have DDD & Spinal Stenosis - Help

lenrap · Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

I have had back issues over the years and about 15 years ago suffered from a piece of my L4-5 disc that broke off and was pressing on my nerves. I had drop foot, intense pain that required hospitalization with morphine every 4 hours, until I found a neurosurgeon who knew what was wrong and operated to remove the piece and clean up the remaining disc. He save my life at that time.

I have had two Carpal Tunnel surgeries and 5 (yes 5) trigger finger releases on my two hands. This was done years ago and frankly if I had to do it all over I may not have done the Carpal Tunnel surgeries, because you still get pain when typing and working with your hands for long stretches.

I have had numbness, tingling, etc. for some time now and thought it was because of my messed up hands, only to find I have DDD and Spinal Stenosis in my Cervical vertebra. All this time I had a large osteophyte growing in my neck and pressing against my esophogus which made it hard to swallow some food and large pills.

I went to an ENT who sent me for an MRI only to discover that there was severe degeneration of C3-4 inervertebral disc. There is a diffuse osteophyte formation stetching across the entire width of the spinal canal, stretching from unconvertebral joint to unconvertebral joint. There is a small left foraminal strenosis and moderate central canal stenosis.

On my C4-5, the intervertabral disc is degenerated. Thee is a bilateral unconvertebral joint spur formation resulting in mild-moderate bilateral formaminal stenosis. No central compromise is noted.

On C5-6 The intervertebral disc is severly degenerated. There is diffuse osteophyte stretching across the entire width of the spinal canal flattening the ventral surface of the thecal sac. Focal central osteophyte results in indnetation of the cervical spinal cord centrally. The foramina appear unremarkable bilaterally.

C6-7 Both levels demonstrate relatively sever degeneration of the intervertebral disc with circumferential osteophyte formation stretchiing across the entire width of the spinal canal, flattening the ventral surface of the thecal sac, but not causing spinal cord or never root compression. Nor foraminal compromise is noted.

The impression is that I have relatively severe multi-level disc disease with spondylosis from C3-T1, The single worst levels is C5-6 and a moderate central spiinal stenosis at the C3-4 level.

Now I have been to 4 top doctors in New Jersey and New York. One is the head of Neurosurgery at JFK in Edison, NJ who said I should go for the surgery to remove the osteophyte that is quite large and giving me the swallowing problem and also to remove the disc, put in a bone graft and fuse the vertebra with the instrumentation. He said it wasn't a bit surgery and I would be out of surgery and home the same day. He doesn't believe in treating things on an MRI or Xray unless there are symptoms.

I explained I was also going to see the Chief of Spinal Surgery at the Hospital of Special Surgery in New York City and he approved. He did say that orhtopeadic surgeons tend to think different then neurosurgeons. The bone guys, look at the film, see a problem and go in to take it out or correct it. They don't look for answers on why this happened and how to prevent it from happening again after the surgery. I was told once I do this it could create problems higher up in the neck or even have a return of the osteophyte.
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In New York, I met with my other doctor who said I also needed the surgery, so both agreed. He then wanted me to go to a ENT surgeon who specializes in head and neck surgery and I found out would be the surgeon to open my neck for the spine surgeon, since that was his specialty. He explained that they wanted to be sure that there is no damage to the two major nerves in the path of the surgery.

Then the spinal surgeon takes over and removes the disc, puts in the graft and the instrumentation and closes. The neurologist I was sent to see didn't like the level C3-4 and showed me how the stenosis had closed the opening and there was no spinal fluid in that area to protect the spinal cord. He also noted that it was already under pressure and the shape was not normal. He said this is the cause of the tingling in my arm and hands, numbness, and back and neck pain. He said with this condition if I had an accident or anything that hit my neck it could cause swelling, leaving some scarring and that could be big trouble.

The doctors I am using are:

I am using Doctor Frank Camissa, Jr. in New York.

hss.edu/physicians_cammisa-frank.asp

If you do a google on this man, you will be impressed with his background. The Neurosurgeon in New Jersey is Dr. Gregory Przybylski Director of Neurosurgery at the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center, Edison, New Jersey.

njneuro.org/bios/przybylski.asp

So you can see from their profiles, they are the best out there, but now I am freaked out. The reports are going back to the Spinal surgeon and I am asking for another consultation to see if I need a two level procedure instead of the one. But that also freaks me out since the two levels below are also self-fused by the osteophytes. So I would basically have 4 levels fused.

I can tell you that the discomfort is not that bad now. I am getting used to the tingling, but fearful of permanent nerve damage if I don't so anything. I am concerned about the surgery which I am told would keep me in the Hospital in New York for two nights on the one level. Now remember the Neurosurgeon said I could go home the same day and it was a short operation.

So now I just took a Swallow Test and was under a Flouroscope and they also told me I have spurs on many other vertebra in my back. I am 64 years old in decent health other then these issues and don't know what to do.

Will I be better taking care of this now? Will I get so bad that they would still have to operate years from now again when I am older and there is more risks. Should I simply do the two levels now and be over with it? Will I be able to function normally with all these fused levels in my neck?

Any suggestions or experiences would be appreciated. The NJ doctor said I would wear a collar for about 2 weeks, in NY they said 4 weeks at which time I would return and they would X-Ray my neck to see if the bone graft was working...I only wonder if it doesn't take, what then, all over again?

I keep thinking of my future. My father lived to 93 years old and didn't have this problem, my mother was 87 when she died. Does this mean I will be in a wheel chair or bent over a walker in the next 10 years or so?

**edited by moderator**

Pending Cervical Surgery, 2 levels I have DDD & Spinal Stenosis - Help

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