I Recently Had An MRI Of The Cervical Spine Because

I recently had an MRI of the cervical spine because of terrible pain in my neck and shoulder. Four years ago I had emergency surgery for an epidural abscess(staff infection) on my cervical spine. Woke up as a paraplegic. Months of recovery, six surgeries, both knee replacements,recurring knee infections, right knee taken out spacer put in, knee replaced again, infection returned resulting in above knee amputation two years ago. Have a wonderful "bionic" leg as my grandson calls it, that I fought Medicare for, (that I sometimes can't get on because of constant edema in both legs) that is the least of my problems. My hands, foot, right shoulder and side of my neck are constantly in pain that is getting worse. My last surgery was an anterior lamonectomy leaving me with a plate and four screws in my neck and only 3 months of relief from nerve pain in fingers and foot which returned worse than before surgery. I take a box load of medications including Norco, Methadone, and Gabapentin for pain and various others including vitamin supplements. Nothing seems to give lasting relief for pain, but causes constipation insomnia and incontinence!!!!!!! I am told I have stenosis and the results of the recent MRI were " degenerative cervical fusion and arthritic changes ". I asked the nurse what that meant, what were the changes? She called back and said from my first surgery with the abscess the changes are worse and that I have arthritis throughout my spine that is causing pain in the neck and shoulder area. It is my understanding that spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the spinal cord canal. I am a white female, birthdate 10/6/1941, divorced, live alone but recently had to have my 15 year old companion dog, (border collie/austrailian shepherd ) put to sleep. I am in the process of applying for a service dog. There is neither cancer or heart trouble within my family. I have a physical therapist from a home health agency coming twice a week who also takes my vital signs. Usually my blood pressure is between 100/67 to 120/82. As I said before I have a problem with edema and my legs swelling as soon as I get up from bed in the am, and I have urinary incontinence and insomnia, hyperthyroidism, a history of shingles and cellulitis. Other than chronic pain and fatigue I think I'm in pretty good health. Or maybe I should just say I keep in pretty good spirits. So that's my story. Can you explain the result of my MRI any better than the nurse? What does my future hold? Will the stenosis get worse as I age? If so, will I be able to have another cervical spine surgery from the back and not end up paralyzed again? I don,t think I could go through that recovery process again! Thank you in advance for your help.