Can Someone Please Give Me Insight?? Waiting For A Response To Other Question Posted

[NaniKai]

Today I'm waiting to go to an appointment with the referring Orthopedic Physician to discuss the MRI results with him. I posted a question yesterday though and have yet to receive a response.
I'm finding that there are multiple procedures that I fall into for the categorial classifications. I'm really confused if I do end up having surgery which one that I'll fall under and what procedure they'll actually do. I guess I should leave this to the professionals but right now I also feel like I'm on information overload and I'm searching for answers and help. I can't post in the doctor/patient forum because of it being closed so where do I actually obtain answers to the questions?
I keep reading postings in the meantime but I'm still coming up with little comfort into my own maladies. It's just frustrating to know that I have these symptoms and have MRI results but no real answers as to what I should do. I know that I have options, two to be exact, therapy and surgery. I want therapy first but six weeks is a long time to go through it and then find out that it didn't work. Do I really want six more weeks of these symptoms, when clearly I had enough because I sought treatment. I would give anything to sleep like a normal person, to be able to just lay my head on a pillow and wake up eight hours later refreshed and ready to greet a new day. Instead I wake up more often than not in dire pain and headachey. I've resorted to setting the alarm (a person who has never used an alarm clock to wake up for school, work or appts, relying on my circadian clock) on my cell phone to keep the pain medicines in my system and thereby keeping the pain at a threshhold that I tolerate. I recently ran out of pain meds and discovered a living hell. I was told by the neurology PA that it's not that I have increased pain but that my pain is unbearable without pain meds, I just have a very low tolerance/threshhold without them when the pain returns. He said that it's not a drug denpendency and to not be concerned but it's important that I keep my pain under control. It's quite an ordeal for my night time sleep because I have to put a pillow under my knee with the knee replacement, wrap a heating pad around it, put a cervical pillow around my neck and then add to this...I take water pills...getting up to the bathroom is a huge routine of throwing everything off and putting it back on when I crawl back into bed. Is it any wonder that I'm completely awake by the time my head hits the pillow again? When I finally get my legs and neck in comfortable positions I can return to sleep but it doesn't always happen right away and sometimes not at all. So much missed sleep...so little patience during the day because of it, viscious cycle that I want to end. So now the questions are, where to begin and what to do? If anyone has any response to what procedures work best for C5-C6 with nerve compression, neck, shoulder, back and arm pain, please share them.
Thank you in advance for your time and responses, greatly appreciate any and all.
NaniKai...

[sage1]

I know I havent read more of your history.  But cant they suggest something else?  Have you had a second opinion?  Have you had nerve meds such as neurontin, elavil.  Do you know of a good surgeon?  And if you are taking diuretics -do you take them early in the am?  Definately not at night.  Would you consider a catheter at night?  Dont drink after 5pm.  Do you take a muscle relaxer to let the verterbrae relax beneath the muscles?  What type of mattress do you sleep on?  Just some thoughts, dont let them further frustrate you, I am only trying to help.  Sage

[NaniKai]

I appreciate your thoughts and questions. I do take Lasix but I have to take it at night as I am a very active person during the day. I also walk whereever I go and so it's best for me to get all that out of my system before my day begins. Really too inconvenient to be walking and have to run for a bathroom and be searching for one at the same time when I'm out and about.
Today's visit:
Okay this doc wanted to crack jokes during my whole visit with him but the one thing about him is that he's very thorough while doing so. He examined my neck and said that it's very tight on the left side and has a lot of muscle knots because of the problems with it. He is sending me to a chiropractor who has this machine that stretches the neck and hopefully that will alleviate the bulges that I have. I found out that I have two bulges, not just one. I got to the doctor's office and the neurology office hadn't yet sent the results of the MRI scan. That really ticked me off so I got on my cell phone and called them. I quickly gave the cell phone to the LVN and they hung up on him. I wasn't standing for that and so I went over to the neurology office and called out the one that hung up on him and then walked out of the office with the MRI scan results in my hands!!! I did not want to make that visit one in vain and so I had to do what I had to do. The doc said that I also have arthritis in my spine. The bulges are at C5, C6, C7 with nerve compression. As I sat in the doctor's office I was leafing through magazines and I saw this one article on stretching the neck by placing a theraband over the forehead and securing it to a fixed object. It just looked painful and not something that I'll try. He suggested Fosamax and asked about some other drugs to try in addition to the muscle relaxant. Because I take pain medications (Vicodin and Phenergan to keep the Vicodin down) I refuse to add any type of muscle relaxant to the regimen. Hopefully therapy and that machine at the chiropractor's office will help. I've read extensively on the DRX 9000 and if that's the one, I'm more than willing to try this as opposed to surgery. He said though if this doesn't work, surgery is next. He told me to stop pretending everything is okay because it's not. I have hideous arthritis in my hips according to the testing that has been done so far. He told me I'm at great risk for fracturing the hips. Next visit, xrays of the entire spine, neck and pelvis. Diagnosis: FALLING APART BEFORE 54TH BIRTHDAY!!! :O

[NaniKai]

I sleep on two featherbeds (down) and a foam memory mattress. I have to have all this because of trochanteric bursitis and arthritis in my hips. I also lay my pillows straight up and down instead of straight across on the bed (normally) because it gives my back and neck more support as opposed to the normal way of doing things. I sleep on four pillows and a body pillow tucked lengthwise behind all of the other pillows. I use this many because of acid reflux ...just in case Prevacid fails me for some reason ... most times this med works but on occasion (depending on diet) it fails.