Hi everyone, wanted to follow up with some more info.
On August 21, I had a cervical laminoplasty from C2-C7, along with a foraminotomy at C5-C6 and C6-C7 on the left side (that is the side where I have had bicep/forearm muscle atrophy and weakness/spasms/tingling for the past 4-5 years).
I am very lucky to have had it done at the Hospital for Special Surgery out here in NYC, which is the #1 ranked hospital for orthopedic surgery in the US (as ranked by US News & World Report). My experience has been nothing short of amazing.
It has been a day over two weeks from the day of surgery. I had all of my pre-surgical workups done about a week before surgery. This included physician check up, heart EKG/echocardiogram, fluid checks, neurologist check, etc. Most comprehensive care I have ever experienced.
I had disc bulging at C5-C6 and C6-C7, with minor bulging at C4-C5 and C3-C4. Because of the more severe cervical spinal stenosis (narrowing of spinal canal), the disc bulges (which are at about 4-5mm, not huge by any means for those of you that have had MRI evals done) they were impinging on left side nerves and into my spinal cord. MRIs showed almost no fluid between the discs and my spinal cord. This is bad, meaning high risk of paralysis if there was a sudden trauma to my neck (e.g. bad car accident, giant uchi mata onto my neck, being stacked hard, etc.)
You can look up lamniplasty, but basically the surgeon made an incision on the back of my neck from about the base of my skull (the bottom of my hairline) down about 5". He cut open the lamina, which is the part of the vertebrae you can feel if you run your hand up and down the spine. One side of the lamina was scored, the other cut completely through, and he uses it as a hinge/opens it up on one side like a door. Use titanium plates to hold them in place from C4-C7. He completely removed the lamina on C3 to preserve motion (looking upward) and did a slight mod on C2.
This is sometimes referred to as spinal decompression. He said that when he cracked open the lamina, the pressure was immediately relieved and he could see the spinal column in that area get full of spinal fluid.
He then did the foraminotomy on the left side, which is clearing of the bone spurs surrounding my nerves going down my left arm. The spurs were causing tingling/numbness, muscle atrophy in bicep + forearm, and general weakness.
I woke up in the hospital in the afternoon, totally drugged up. First thing I noticed right away was that I HAD NO MORE SYMPTOMS IN MY LEFT ARM. Fucking amazing. All the familiar positions that I knew would trigger tingling in my arm -- no tingling at all. In the two weeks since I have not had ANY symptoms in my left arm. My muscles also seem to be firing better, but from what I understand this can take up to 6 months (and lots of therapy) to get the nerves to fire correctly again.
Before, when I would try to hold a left bicep flex, you could see the muscle "stuttering"/quivering. Now it is significantly less.
Recovery was painful for the first few days. Spent a couple of days in the hospital doped up on percocet/Flexeril/dilaudid (god I loved that pain pump). Had bad muscle spasms in my neck/upper back for a few days. Went home on day 3 and just took pain killers/muscle relaxers for another 3-4 days. Slept about 16 hours a day. Started walking a bit to get the blood moving. I only had to wear a soft collar for a couple of days, since the procedure was motion preserving.
My neck and upper back/shoulders are still a bit sore, but the scar is basically closed with some scabbing on it now. Don't have to leave it covered up anymore. I can walk pretty much full speed now. Neck is a bit stiff but I am slowly stretching it out. Still hard to carry anything/bend over -- was told not to use backpacks or lift anything heavy for about 6 weeks total.
Time will tell if I return to BJJ (which I would still really like to do), however doc said I could go back to anything except grappling/wrestling. I specifically asked about olympic/compound lifts, CrossFit, etc. and he said it is all good to go after the 3 month check up (I had previously said 6 month recovery but it is only a 3 month recovery -- nice!)
Anyway, it has been a great experience so far, not having these mechanical/neurological deficiencies that I can feel every day. If your symptoms are NOT clearing up after a year or so, or you are getting muscle weakness/atrophy, I highly recommend going to see a surgeon. This has been near miraculous for me. I have debated over this decision for a very, very long time (been getting surgical consults for almost a year) because I have heard so many horror stories about spine surgery. But damn this has been amazing.
I will try to get my hands on the X-rays and follow up MRIs and will scan in the before MRIs so you can see how the bulges were affecting me before/after.
Best of luck to everyone