Newbie with cervical spine issues

[Ben]

Hi all,

After experiencing paresthesia in my left arm a few months ago, I had an MRI with the following results:

C4/5: mild central and mild bilateral foraminal stenosis
C5/6: mild central, severe right and mild left foraminal stenosis
C6/7: mild central, severe left foraminal stenosis
Straightening of normal mid cervical lordosis.

My neuro wants to take a wait-and-see approach, he's very conservative. I had a course of oral steroids which didn't help, but then had an ESI in November which seemed to help for a while. I'm in a reasonable amount of pain; need to take opiates to sleep but avoid them during the day. NSAIDs have wreaked havoc on my stomach so I'm too scared to take them anymore. My symptoms have been up and down - sometimes I feel almost normal, other times like hell. I have pain in my left arm, numbness in hand/fingers, and right arm as well but not as bad. I've also been recently experiencing weird leg and toe sensations as well, and a burning behind my right hip, so I probably have lumbar issues as well (or myelopathy).

Anyway was just wondering if any thoughts about what I should do before resorting to surgery? I'm interested in anything that can help - pillows, zero gravity chairs, collars, exercises, traction etc.