I am a new member here and just thought I'd share my story....
In June of 2002 I went into the doctor for what I thought was a pinched nerve in my right shoulder; I thought it was from playing soccer. He gave me Flexeril (a muscle relaxor) and sent me on my way. The "pinched nerve" got worse and I began feeling numbness through my right arm and up through my neck and right side of my face. I went to the doctor again 3 weeks later; they did CT scans and could not find anything. So... I took it upon myself to go see a chiropractor; long story short, he did adjustments to my neck, spine, etc on one day; the next day I awoke with double vision! This is when I freaked out! I demanded a referral from my primary local clinic where my health insurance was contracted with to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where I live. I did get the referrals; they did MRI's and immediately saw that I had CM and needed to have the decompression surgery. For the week leading up to the surgery I still had the double vision; numbness, tingling... the double vision made me constantly nauseus; all I wanted to do was sleep.
I finally had the surgery and I can say that it was a complete success! This was 7 years ago! Since then, I still do have numbness in my right shoulder, a little bit of dizziness from time to time, but it is something that my body seems to have compensated for. I am very active; I a run about 5-7 miles per day (only on treadmills though, as concrete is too tough on my neck), I lift weights, skydive, etc.... I am luckily able to stay very active!
I rarely think of myself as having had CM; do I still have it even though I am post-op? Anyway... I am thinking about this now becasue a close friend has just been diagnosed with CM; luckily she will be having her surgery done at Mayo Clinic as well; which is ranked #1 in the US for Neurosurgery.
I am hoping that people do realize that there are brighter days ahead once you get a correct diagnosis and surgery; anyway... this was the case with me. Obviously, I am not completely "back to normal" as I do have the numbness, some aches and pains, etc... but I think I have been able to adapt and almost shut out those physicalities; your body has a way of adapting to its new condition.... I do forget that I went through this 7 years ago, but it is good to remember this from time to time as it keeps me grounded a bit.