Spinal cord compression

[willy851]

Has anyone had a compression of their spinal cord in their neck? I am having issues with my hands going numb and sore wrists. I also have burning feeling on my thighs and my left foot gets ice cold and numb. The problems with my legs have been bothering me for years. I brought an old MRI with me to the neurologist and he noticed a pinch in my spinal cord. I just picked up the results of the latest mri and received a call from my family doc about the compression of the cord. My hands were tested for carpal tunnel and he said that's what is causing that problem. I won't see my neurologist again until Monday.
Has anyone experienced this and what was done to repair the problem.

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine you, I can not offer you the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that you need, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about your health concern.

There could be possibility of pinched nerve in cervical spine in which pain may be referred and perceived as occurring in the back of head, shoulders, arms or chest, rather than just the neck. Other symptoms may include vertigo, nausea (dizziness). Even then if you suffer continuous headache, please arrange an appointment with a neurologist right away who will evaluate the further underlying disorders by clinically examine you & ordering MRI or CT scan here that may be the main reasons of your headache attacks & other symptoms and can provide you an appropriate treatment. Hope this information proves helpful to you. Take Care & Regards!!!

[kay290]

Yes, I had compression from C5-6, C6-7(two discs) that were degeerative, herniated and spinal canal stenosis. Initially I had alot of neck pain with radiculopathy symptoms(constant numbness in fingers). Then I had an Epidural injection that threw me into a multitude of neuro symptoms including what you have. I had decompression surgery due to the fact that I was not sure whether my symptoms would progress to needing a wheelchair, walker or a cane. I am doing better, but symptoms may take up to a year to resolve if it isn't permanent damage. I had symptoms for 6 months before having surgery.

[willy851]

Thanks for the response.
I will see the Neuro tomorrow.  The only doctor that said anything about the MRI was my family doctor. There are two disks compressing the cord. C4,C5 .   They have been pushing on it for at least two years. I had a previous MRI that another doc never commented on. Even I can see the problem. So I am fairly pissed off about the fact that nobody ever commented on prior MRI.
The symptoms that caused me to get tested was my left foot is ice cold and I feel like I am walking funny. But the symptoms go away after a few minutes.

[ggreg]

Well, I didn't have compression of the spinal cord, so I cannot really shed much light on that.  But I had compression fractures of my thoracic spine in a car accident.  The impact made the bones in my spine squeeze downward, and since they had nowhere to go, they bent my spine out to the right.  My spinal cord was not damaged, but since the nerves and muscles connected to the spinal column were all yanked to one side, the disks vaporized on impact and thus I had bone on bone, well, you can imagine the kind of pain I was in.

They took the moderate route of treatment, which is rest, bracing, physiclal therapy, and medicine.  I had to lay flat on an air mattress in the hospital for six weeks, which is the rest part.  Then I was given a metal and leather back brace that I wore for months after, and also got some physical therapy.  Of course I had medicines on board the whole time.  

So, I'm not sure WHAT the docs are seeing on your pictures, or what you should expect.  But I would guess if your spinal cord is "pinched" as you said or "compressed," then they'll either do the moderate treatment thing similar to me, or they'll want to do surgery of some kind to take the pressure off your spinal cord.  Either way, I can tell you I healed up and for 30 years I didn't have too much discomfort, altho my back would hurt now and then, and since I'm old now, it hurts a lot worse, but that's another story.