Please can you help me with this annoying and stressing pain down my left side. It started 4 weeks ago when I had awoken up with a stiff neck, Thinking that a good massage and a few trips to get an acupuncture done would help relieve some of the tension that I was feeling in the neck. After a few weeks of aches and stiffness, I started to get a feeling of numbness down my left arm right down to my thumb. Concerned with this unfamiliar sensation, I decided to go to see my GP about the symptoms. I was sent for a CT scan, ultra-sound scan and finally a MRI scan....the results were that I had a pinched nerve also with mild arithirits in the discs.
MRI Cervical Spine says
Torticollis to left. C5/C6 degeneration
There is reversal of the normal cervical lordosis. Vertebral body height and intervertebral disc space height is maintained. There is loss of hydration in all of discs from C2/C3 to C6/C7.
Significant left posterior disc bulge at C5/C6. This is causing mild flattening of the cord anteriorly; however there is no abnormal cord signal.
Left C6 nerve root is compressed by the disc in the left C5/C6 neural exit foramen.
There is some neural exit foramen stenosis on the right at C5/C6 with possible compression of th right C6 nerve root.
CONCLUSION: There is reversal of normal cervical lordosis. There is left posterior disc bulge at C5/C6 with probable compression of the left C6 nerve root.
Please can someone please explain whats this is trying to tell me. I'm gathering from this that I have something thats compressed with nerve roots. Will this mean I will have to have some kind of treatment done, and if so what is the next step taken with someone with my condition. Is there anything I can do to ease the pain and feelings that I'm having down my left side of my arm? Please can you help me to understand this.
I'm hoping for some good news to help get my arm back to working properly.
Thank you for your help.