Confused...again.

[My Monster]

I will attempt to not get long-winded. I have been going to PT for my neck and shoulder. PT won't touch my shoulder until I go to Ortho, well I did that today. He says he wants to do surgery but won't do surgery on my rotator cuff until I get some more ROM in it first. He did give me a Cortizone shot and a note to PT to start on my shoulder. With me so far? Ortho says, yes there is arthritis, yes there is separation and yes RC is a fricken mess that will require surgery. He looked at my neck x-rays, (they were on the same CD) and stated that I need to get to a Neurosurgeon, that it looks "real bad". Great. He spent a lot of time looking and talking about my neck. He said that I am looking at surgery on my neck based off the x-rays and wanted to know why I was going to a Neurologist before a Neurosurgeon. I told him that my Primary wanted an EMG done first to figure out where my nerves were getting pinched off. So it ended with him telling me I needed to prioritize my surgeries.

1. Epidural for my lumbar spine. (Kinda want to hold off on that until I get my "new" C&P exam, SC for 10% DDD.)

2. Knee surgery to clean out some of my meniscus (10% SC for arthritis, didn't know you could claim meniscus separately but will put in for it.)

3. Shoulder surgery (VA denied and diagnosed shoulder strain, well I am going to fight that one with them as it is now diagnosed as arthritis, separation and R/C.)

4. Cervical neck surgery ( based off of the Ortho doc's opinion, and my Primary's.)

Which to do first...? I put in a claim for my neck, received the Notice to Assist, will send it back asking for more time to gather my "evidence" ( doc write-ups, MRI's and Radiologist's Report ). My VSO is waiting for my EMG results to fight my CTS denial, the Ortho and PT report to fight the shoulder denial. I am so fricken' confused on what to do...I am coming up on my 1-year post retirement date. I don't want to take the damn "shot-gun approach, but several of my doc's have said that I have a multitude of problems that I should of had addressed while I was on Active Duty and are amazed that I made it this far before bitching about the pain.

HELP!!!

Monster

[SLEDGE]

Monster,

Hang in there.

Everything is going along much, much better than I would

expect and I have been there.

You are on the path to getting healed and your doctors are

willing to help you get there.

Just keep chugging along a little while longer.

I see a better quality of life in your immediate future.

sledge

[My Monster]

I am trying to hang in there it just seems every time I go to the doc they seem to find something else wrong. I just retired Aug 09 and all the doc's are amazed these things were caught sooner. I am hoping to get the neck fixed first and for most. They don't want to touch anything until that is corrected. My shoulder pisses me off in that the VA denied anything being wrong with it when I went for my initial C&P exam in Jan 10.

[My Monster]

Update time. More tremors of the hands and arms. MRI report came in, my PT said that it is consistent with my symptoms. Report reads:

Normal disc height, alignment maintained. Moderate endplate discovertebral degenerative changes from C3 through T1 with disk space narrowing, anterior osteophytes and multilevel discovertebral osteophyte complexes. Type II modic endplate degenerative changes C3 through C7, most pronounced from C5 through C7. No fractures or subluxation is present. There is an atypical hemongioma with in the T1 vertebra.

C2-3 there is a focal small central disk protrusion which does not result in narrowing of the bilateral subarticular recess regions or the bilateral neural foramina.

C3-4 there is a broad based disk osteophyte complex resulting in mild to moderate narrowing of the bilateral subarticular recess regions and the left neural foramina. There is moderate narrowing of the right neural foramina.

C4-5 there is a broad based disk osteophyte complex resulting in mild to moderate narrowing of the bilateral subarticular recess regions and neural foramina.

C5-6 there is a broad based disk osteophyte complex that effaces the thecal sac. This results in moderate narrowing of the bilateral subarticular recess regions and the bilateral neural foramina.

Anyone know what the hell all that means?

Neuro diagnosed CTS. Then we started getting into the neck exam. We started with motor strength and stopped as soon as I told him about my shoulder problems. Doc about freaked when I described my tremors along with the shooting pains, numbness, and tingles that go down my neck and into my fingersin both arms. He ordered an EMG, Nerve Conduction Study and an over night EEG to rule out seizures. Now I am in a holding pattern for the tests.

Went to the initial VA intake exam...that pissed me off something fierce. Tremors started in the waiting area, I could barely finish the questionnaire. I was asked about 3 times if I had Parkinson's. I do not. Doc finally comes in notices the tremors and asks how long that has been going on. I told him about an hour, he said "we'll they are either legit or you're one helluva an actor". I wanted to kick him in the nuts. No offer of assistance. I moved my head around, cracked something in my neck and the tremors stopped. The wonderful doc asked what I did to make them stop, told him, he said I need to be careful with that because I could easily move that bone spur deeper into the nerves and make it worse. On a good note he gave me a referral to see a psychiatrist for my depression that is getting worse with all this going on.

Monster

[blackbird]

Hey Monster,

Normally anytime you see narrowing, especially moderate narrowing of the neural foraminia, you have nerves that are being compressed. This almost always causes pain in the area controled by that nerve. You appear to have this going on from C2 to C7. The osteophites or bone spurs can also be a problem by digging into nerves, depending on where they are. I may have missed it but did your doctor you visited mention surgery or sending you to a neurosugeon???

Blackbird

[My Monster]

Blackbird,

The neurologist is waiting for the test results before we discuss what we are going to do about it. I can't believe how fast my body has gone downhill, I haven't even been retired a year yet!

[blackbird]

I know it's rough. You always have this master plan that you will work until a normal retirement date and if you are lucky and plan well maybe you get to retire early. Then something like a back problem can change your whole life. I tell myself everday that at least I can still walk around a little and I get to spend more time with my kids. And no matter how bad it gets, I always remind myself that it could be worse, because I have seen people in worse shape.

I hope things will start looking up for you soon,

Blackbird