Spine Fusion or TOS

Hello, I'm a 35 yr old male, Hispanic, 5'5" 170lbs, and in the military. I'm writing to you to see if you may give me some advice. Five years ago I had an incident where I got shocked on my left hand, but did not notice until I switched hands. Later that week,  I went to the doctor and he did an EMG and noticed that there was a great loss of sensation to my left arm. The doctor did mention Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and having double crush syndrome and that he would need to do further evaluations. Well time past and I deployed overseas. I later changed duty stations and went to a new command. Prior to the shock, I knew I did not have much sensation on my hand and was able to tolerate a good amount of pain, like a smashed finger, a punch to the arm, heat and cold. My fingers would sometimes feel like they were asleep, but as the day progressed, I would not think about it and eventually I would go on with whatever I was doing. Recently, about a month ago, my thumb, index, and middle finger went numb and having the pins and needle feeling. I'm also having  discomfort on my neck and shoulder.  Well it has been like that since with no change. I did go back to the doctor and they performed an MRI and X-RAYS and sent me to a spine doctor. He told me that he found some liquid in my spine and on discs C5 thru C7 and that I would need surgery. He said he would need to do a decompression and fusion of all three discs. I really don't know what to do? Should I get the surgery, or should I wait to see if it is something else. If you can, give me some advice to what I should do.

[JainMD]

Hi,
How are you feeling?
As I am reading your post I would like to say that with help of EMG you can't say there is loss of sensation in your arm.
Patients with Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) are more susceptible to developing Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, and vice versa, this phenomenon has been termed the double crush syndrome.
Do you have arthritis, diabetes, and alcoholism or thyroid disease?
Patients with arthritis, diabetes mellitus, thyroid disease, and alcoholism have nerves with increased susceptibility to the development of superimposed nerve compression.
The cornerstone of nonoperative therapy is a carefully regulated program of muscle strengthening and postural re-education exercises.
Exercises must be continued until muscular atrophy and weakness is reversed and correct posture is developed.
If a carefully supervised exercise and postural program fails, and the patient has intractable pain, surgery may be indicated.
I would suggest you can go ahead with other therapy to alleviate your pain like steroid shots and start physical therapy.
If the pain, numbness still continues, then the option left is surgery.
Keep me posted about your thoughts.
Bye.