From Spinal Stenosis to Tendonitis

In a previous post, called From MS to Spinal Stenosis, I described how three neurologists told my wife that she had MS before they finally ordered MRIs and noticed the narrowing of her C5-C6 vertebre. This ultimately led to the diagnosis of Stenosis.

The last neurologist referred us to a neurosurgeon who pointed out the narrowing in the MRIs and said that there's a good chance surgery would eliminate the bi-lateral arm pain she was experiencing.

We went to another doctor for a second opinion, a highly-regarded neurosurgeon. He looked at the same MRIs and examined / interviewed my wife. His conclusion was that the narrowing was not significant enough to account for the problem. At best, surgery would have a 25% chance of relieving the pain. His opinion made sense to us because my wife has no neck pain, and significant narrowing of the spinal column would certainly cause neck pain. (Also, his waiting room was way more crowded than the first.) But he did recommend that we get an EMG test (Electromyogram).

Taking a different tack, we went to an Interventional Radiologist who dealt a little with pain management. At this point, we were starting to suspect that this had nothing at all to do with the spine, and that it was a more severe case of Tendonitis in both shoulders, with pain radiating down into the arms. This Radiologist injected the more severe shoulder with a steroid, which actually helped.

But this isn't the last round of musical diagnoses....

From MS to Spinal Stenosis

After my wife's attack of Transverse Myelitis in September 2006, the follow up visits with her neurologists consisted of ...

• Cursory reflex and strength tests.
• Discussions of pain med dosage.
• Comments like, "You probably have MS."

But the most recent visit went like this ...

• Cursory reflex and strength tests.
• Discussions of pain med dosage.
• Comments like, "You probably don't have MS."

This time, we actually had an MRI we could look at and actually see Spinal Stenosis.

My wife is still reeling from this new development. After more than two years of hearing about how she harbors rare, inexplicable and incurable diseases, we now have something that's common and treatable. So on the one hand, she's certainly glad that she not under the sentence of MS. However, she's extremely apprehensive about having surgery to remove the impinging tissue.

There's also the uncertainty of how much pain is caused by the lingering effect of myelitis, and how much is due to the stenosis. If she knew that an operation would mean that she could stop taking Neurontin, Baclofen, Cymbalta and Ultram, she'd probably be hopeful. But suppose she undergoes a successful operation and still has the same pain as before?