7 weeks post-op posterior cervical spine surgery

hi this is sham , i had anteroir cervical discectomy 7 weeks back. before that i had problems like weakness in the lower limbs and pain radiating for the past 12 years. at last when i consulted a neurosurgeon he asked me to undergo the ACDF surgery. before operation i was ok and i was able to walk. But after the surgery the worring factor is that, i lost the motor function , numbness , bowel and bladder dysfunction. when i consulted to the neuro doc he was confident and assuring me short time of recovery. its really worring me and where will my life end up with.
has any body come up with the same situation.please post me.

Hi sham! I had a discectomy 8 yrs ago but i suffered for 5 years before that with pain,weakness,swollen leg and foot,numbness, I was misdiagnoised from every thing like: sinking arches, get molded foot supports, Or, Oh you have a slight bit of arthitis in your hip causeing all that pain, go home and take all these anti inflamitories!! ya rite, now my stomach has holes in it from all that c**p!!

I had 3 sets of cortisone epidurals before they decided on surgery, and I swear, the person doing the epi, nicked my sciatic! Surgery made it worse, I have no feeling in my bladder, it takes for ever to pee, and forget about any sexual pleasure, I can't feel it!

But with your situation, if you are still not having any motor function, go see someone else, did they suggest phyisio Therapy? maybe a pool excercise program? Don't give up hope!! keep me posted!

Hi Gillmor06.
Just wanted to do a post to let you know we are in the same exact medical condition. Me, like you, have endured all of the test, physical therapy, treatments, etc. Have had MRI's and EMG's ran numerous times only to be told they look fine!
I had ACDF almost 2 years ago. No one (unless they suffer with this too) knows how debilitating this pain is!
I, also, was a very active person. I worked 40 hrs a week, standing on my feet and very active. I love to work outside and garden. I raised a daughter by myself, even sent her to college.
Now at 47 yrs when I should be enjoying life I am suffering just as you are. I had to give up my job of 30 years (I constantly did repetative work) and apply for disability. I tried to go back to work thinking that "getting back into activity" would help my pain...it only made matters worse. After 7 months of working I absolutely could not stand it any longer and had to go on medical leave.
The really sad part is that because none of my test show anything SSA keeps denying my claim.
I guess what amazes me the most (check all the blogs) is that you and me are just like thousands of other people that have had this surgery. Yes, some seem to be doing great but there seems to be a great deal of people who are not.
What's the answer? I don't know but I sure wish I did know! Living like this is hell to say the least. There is one thing I did discover Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. I have most of the symptoms...but have not been to the doctor yet to get his opinion if this is my problem or not. You may want to check it out just in case.
Please keep posting. To any others reading this if you have been in this situation and have found an answer to what is causing the pain...please post it for us.
Thanks!

Hi anneliese,

I've been thru the surgery twice - the best thing to do is REST! I was lucky - after the first week, I did a little work from home each day - laptop on a lap desk...watched a lot of movies, read some great books and talked on the phone to friends. If you can follow the Drs instructions, you'll be up and around in no time - enjoying the summer! Take it easy...it's you neck-remember? I hope this helps!

Hi all who have experienced cervical spine surgery. I am 3 weeks post-op and over all in very good shape. Before surgery, I had 14 years chronic neck pain. Then back in Dec 06, I aggravated it with snorkeling in the Carribbean, and developed migranes, and non-stop head, neck, shoulder and upper back pain that caused total lack of a normal life. I didn't know if I could stand one more day with this pain. I was getting twice weekly muscle massages and had been doing yoga for relief for years. Finally got neurosurgeon and MRI. Doc recommended surgery with plates and fusion, and I hopped on it. Two weeks later I was in for surgery and it could not have been soon enough. For all who wonder if you should have surgery, I say, you will know when your pain is just too much to bear, and that is probably five years past the time you should have had it. The doc said I should have had the surgery five years earlier, and I can't agree more. Three days post-op, I have no more pain from vertibra bone on bone and I couln't be happier. :-D

Now comes the hard part, I have no patience for recovering once all is done, and I am going out of my mind while waiting to be normal enough to live out in the world once more. With my lack of patience, I venture out with my husband to visit with friends and end up back home feeling exhausted and discouraged. There is only so much sleeping, TV watching and just plain lounging around one can do without getting a headache from just that, lying around. But when I try to do any activity for long enough to fell alive again, I am slapped back down. I've read that recovery takes several months. It helps to know I am not alone. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to moniter activities so as not to have such a roller coaster recovery time? %-)

As for muscular spasms, yes there are many. But when you've lived with horrible nerve pain for as many years as I have, you really can't complain much about some little old muscle spasms.

All the best to all of you survivers of spinal pain and surgeries. 8)

Hi all,

Well, I am not one to write about myself or about my surgeries. 17 years ago I had cervical surgery on my back. It was a laminectomy discectomy at the L4,L5 level. My surgeon (Neuro Surgeon) was one of the best there is and he did a marvelous surgery. I was back on the racquetball circuit within 4 months. I have not suffered any back or leg pain since then. However, I dove into a wall while playing racquetball some seven years ago. Since then I have been suffering with tremendous neck pain and shoulder pain. I also had a little numbness (not too much) down my right arm. I stopped playing RB 4 years ago an missed it tremendously! So, like a complete fool, I sought out the same surgeon to find out about my neck pain. We had an MRI done and found that there was a considerable amount of compression that was cutting off the spinal fluid going thru the spinal cord. I had severe compression at most of the levels which my surgeon felt could only be corrected by cervical surgery. The plan was to go thru the back (posterior) and to do a partial fusion at the C4-5 levels. He would then place a titanium plate, with screws, along with harvesting my own bone graft for securing the plate and screws. So, I went in for what I thought would be another easy operation. Wrong...when I came out of the surgery I had four (4) plates and eight (8) screws holding my neck in place. I had plates at C2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6 and 6-7 levels. The surgeon said when he got into my neck he could not believe all the disease he saw that did not show up on either the CT scans or MRI's we had done. I thought after the surgery I would be back playing RB. With four plates and eight screws, I think my playing days are over. I might add that my identical twin and I were born with natural fusions at the C1-2 level. Imagine if that had not been the case

My surgery was performed on 9/19/2006. It is about a year now and here is what has happened. It turned out that during the surgery somehow the phrenic nerve was damaged so I now have a paralyzed right diaphragm. This is a forever paralysis since it is irreversible. Ok, I can live with that. What most concerns me is the persistent pain I have in my neck and right shoulder. Bye the way, there is some very good news to share. After the surgery I was in agony from excruciating pain in my right shoulder. I was unable to even lift my right arm off of my side. I really thought I would never gain the use of my arm again. I went thru a months weeks of physical therapy but gave up because I saw no improvement. About two months ago I started seeing some improvement in my right arm and shoulder. Now, I can lift my arm into the air (with some pain) almost as high as I could before the surgery. My friends and family are amazed that I am able to do this since they saw how mush pain I was in and how tough it was to life my arm off of my side. The moral of this part of my story is "do not waste a whole lot of money on rehab" your body remembers the muscles and nerves that were damaged in the surgery. In most cases your strength will return, it will just take time.

I wish I could say that the pain has dissipated since my surgery. Unfortunately, I still have the same pain I had before my surgery. I also have a stiffer neck likely due to scar tissue that formed after my operation. I wore an Aspen collar for 5 months and I am sure that didn't help the stiffness either.

One of the posts I just read spoke about someone who went through a similar surgery more then two years ago. It said that the pain in her neck lasted for a good year and a half, however, she is now feeling much better. That was music to my ears. I hope what you have just read will be helpful.

I wish all of you God's speed and good healing!!!!

Grumpy

P.S. The moniker Grumpy has nothing to do with my disposition. I am a very happy and lucky man. I just had my first granddaughter and I want to be called Grumpy. My kids hated the idea but now love calling me Grumpy. Let's face it. Grumpy is a name that no one else will ever want to be called. That makes me unique.

Since my neuro surgeon told me that I need to do the cervical surgery for my C6, I was confident that this is going to be just a routine and simple surgery plus I will recover in short period with no more numbness and pain on neck & shoulder. But (sigh), after reading all these messages and comments, I guess that most of you did not recover well after the surgery huh? I am a bit confused now and my surgery is just around the corner which is on this coming Monday (8th Oct 2007). Should I proceed or should I look for other alternative such as physiotherapy or acupuncture? Help...

My surgeon led me to believe the same thing that this surgery is simple and that recovery would be fast. He even told me that I could drive the day after surgery! Bologny! It's been over two years and I still can't move my neck back and forth to pull out safely or turn very well to back a car. I've even had physical therapy twice post surgery.
However I can't tell you not to have this surgery. Some people, I guess, get along great after this surgery. However some do not. It's just a chance you have to take.
I live in a very small town (pop 10,000). I know of three other female women, age 40+, that have had this surgery in the last 2 years and all of us are still having problems.
I guess I have to wonder why the medical field is determining this surgery such a sucess when I know people that it has had the opposite effect on.
My advice to you is continue doing research. Make sure your doctor is being up front and tells you all of the positives and NEGATIVES of this surgery (my surgeon did not mention most of the negatives). And maybe a good thing to do is put the surgery on hold until you cannot stand the pain any longer.
Granted I was in a great deal of pain prior to surgery...but I'm in much more pain post surgery.
Good luck to you and let us all know how you make out.

I had a discetomy and cervical spine fusion about 10 years ago. It reduced my back pain alot, but I developed some problems swallowing that have never disappeared completely so I have to watch how I eat and what. I just developed some kind of a change in the same area that is causing severe pain in my back, shoulders, and arms.. Still, the benefits outweigh the problems. I had several years of diminished pain.

I did extensive research on this and discovered that the disc fixed with ACDF surgery only last 7-15 years then you have to have it again.
Is this what is happening to you?

I had a spinal fusion on C6-C7 about 3 1/2 years ago 12/4/04. A week ago underwent another spinal fusion for C5-C6 5/22/08.
Both times Smptoms were Neck and arm pain and then loss of strength in left arm. The first time around, pain before the surgery was undescribably painful. Never had taken any kind of pain medicine in my life and was taking oxicotin which barely took the edge off. After losing the strength in my arm the ns advised if I didn't have the surgery the likely hood of regaining my strength was not good. At that time he advised that I had another bad disk (C5-C6) which wasn't bad enough to operate on at that time. I had the surgery and was very uncomfortable for the first 6 weeks. My job is in the office typing all day so had to cope with a lot of discomfort (sitting is probably the worst position after having the surgery) I would say for the 1st year. My doctor and PT both advised that it was OK to resume running. Year two I began training to run a half marathon which I'd never done before. I was able to accomplish my goal and never felt better in my life. I was pain free for about 2 years. Two weeks ago, woke up with horrible neck pain just like before. Thought I could fight it and took 800 mgs of motrin and heat. It helped a little. By the end of day one was really in bad pain. So, being the fool that I am, thought I could work the pain out with excersize. Hmmm, probably not such a bright idea. After running 3 miles I worked thru the pain and for the 1st half hour after felt fantastic. By the next a.m. loss of strength in my arm again. This time I could tell it was not the same muscle and assumed it was the other bad disc. Went to ns and he advised once again the surgery was necessary after reviewing the MRI and examination. Surgery was 5/22/08 and am actually feeling fantastic a little after a week post-op. My number one concern is that I am going to screw myslef up by not listening to the doc and doing things I shouldn't. Anyway, at this point and time I am very glad I had this second surgery and hopefully no more bad discs. As far as running goes, may get back into it but no more then 3 miles everyother day which is probably a reasonable expectaiition. I think exersize is one way of helping the body heal of course keeping it in perspective and gradually working up to a goal and not overdoing is extremly important.

Hi all,
I had this procedure done 5 weeks ago to C3/4/5/6&7. The op took 6.5 hours. I now have 10 screws & 5 plates in my neck but the movement is surprisingly good.
I have had severe pain in my shoulders ever since. It does vary each day with numbness in my fingertips and sharp pain in my shoulders but the pain in my hip has gone.
The surgeon said this could last 3 month with a 6 month recovery.
I am taking Lentogesic and nurofen plus 3 times a day and am managing to go to work, drive my car but thats about it. As a design electrical engineer my work consists mainly of design work at my desk & PC so no strenuous work. My knee keeps on swelling and is also painfull.
I was back at work in week 2 so not so bad, seeing that I am 67 this year.

Hi, I was told by a ns that I need to have both posterior and anterior surgery on C4,5 & 6. Reading all your messages I am terrified. One reason I am a bookeeper and cannot be out of work for 6-8 weeks. I also have cerebal Palsy which makes any pain for a normal person 10 times worse for me because my muscles tighten up so much. Has anyone had both surgeries done at the same time? How long did it take for recovery? Thank yoy for any responses.

Hi, Im awaiting surgery and dont have a fixed date yet. After seeing the surgeon I was left feeling a little un-sure about what's going to happen. I will have bone from my hip taken and fused to my spine, after two discs are removed, also I have diabetes type 1. has anyone else experienced any complications or also are diabetics? I'm wondering if I will be able to return to the same type of work after, as this is a work related injury, I need to do repedative heavy lifting as a shipper/receiver wharehouse guy.

I had my last cervical neck surgery june 26th. this was my 8th on in 3 years, hope all goes well with you.
Judi