C6 ISSUES

Had pain in shoulder and numbness in deltoid and thumb. Really cannot drive a car or sit comfortably.  MRI reveals

C3 - C4 Mild left nueroforaminal narrowing cause by uncinate hypertrophy
C4 - C Mild bilateral nueroforaminal narrowing cause by uncinate hypertrophy
C5 - C6 MILD POSTERIOR DISK OSTEOPHYTE COMPLEX SLIGHTLY FLATTENING THE VENTRAL ASPECT OF THE THECAL SC BUT WITHOUT EVIDENCE OF LIMITING CENTRAL CANAL STENOSIS OR CORD COMPRESSION. THERE IS MILD RIGHT AND SEVERE LEFT NUEROFORAMINAL NARROWING CAUSED BY UNCINATE HYPERTROPHY.

Really not sure what this means but physiatrist recommends a cortisone shot by radiologist and then surgery if that does not relieve it. I think I should maybe see a surgeon first for an opinion before I take the fluoroscopy radiation. Any ideas on this and / or acupuncture? Ouch!

[Kalvin]

It looks your symptoms match up well with the severe foraminal stenosis at C5-6; you might want to have this confirmed by EMG because the deltoids are supplied by both the 5th and 6th cervical nerves. C5 can also cause shoulder pain, the reason I mention this is because my surgeon thought the majority of my pain was coming from a specific level, and there’s no denying, it was the worse. And after surgery I found out that there were other levels invovled.

C5-6 is obviously where the majority of your pain originates, but C5 could factor into this due to the mild bilateral stenosis at C4-5. Just because it says mild on the MRI, doesn’t mean it is. I know this from personal experience. Just make sure their certain before they operate.

You bring up a real interesting point with the fluoroscopy, not many people consider the radiation. I’ve never had spinal injections, but I have had fluoroscopic guided screw placement in my neck and back, now you have me worrying about it. Just kidding. They also do low dose radiation CT guided injections, you might want to look into that because if these injections help and you don’t have to have surgery, it’d be well worth it.

From looking at your MRI, you don’t have any disc issues so even if you have to have surgery, they would probably just do a Foraminotomy, which is a lot easier to recover from than a fusion or disc replacement. Let us know what you decide and how it goes.

Take Care