Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion (ACDF) recovery

My daughter, who is 26, sent me this saying the other day. I'd like to pass it on to you since you asked if you were being tested.

"I know for everything there is a reason even if I'm not wise enough to see it".

I do know how you feel, believe me. Nobody knows until they have been in this situation. Keep trying for disability. It took me nearly 3 yrs and yes the money is tough (like you don't already have enough to worry about). But you, like me has paid into it and I feel that is what it is there for...insurance in case we are unable to work.

Just a warning in case you haven't already experienced it...people will do everything, say everything to make you feel guilty about not working and applying for disability. Pay no heed to those that are so ignorant. Let them walk a mile in our shoes and they'd do the same.

Keep us posted.

Hi all - had ACDF with donor bone and plating 10 days ago (12/8/09) on c5-6 and c6-7. I havent had shoulder pain or numbness since the surgery. When they got in, they found a lot more damage than the MRIs had shown. Bone spurs were loose and almost ready to poke through the spine. Took pain meds for 5 days. Slept on recliner for 3 nights. Back at work (from home) at the computer all day (many breaks). The worst part has been swallowing. I can see my adam's apple id shifted a bit to the right. It doesn't hurt to swallow (since day 7), but I just have to remember not to swallow big stuff (like quarters :-) ). I had tried steroid injections and even a RF Nerve Block. Surgeon was great - glad I did it and I hope to be on my bike or swinging a golf club next spring...

Hi everybody,
I had c5-6/c6-7 acdf surgery Jan 5th and i feel much better (Jan 17) than i did pre-surgery i had severe left arm pain/neck pain & numbness in 2 fingers tingling & was miserable for 1 year i did everything before agreeing to surgery epidurals/trigger point injections PT medical massage meds, patches and i had enough. Its not even 2 wks post-op and the numbness went away the shoulder & arm pain gone I do have pretty bad muscle spasms in my shoulder blade area & still feel like a golf ball feeling in my throat eating better but still feel like some food is getting stuck incision looks great a bit sore but mostly its the muscle spasms that bother me. I'm taking muscle relaxers and have a numb feeling on part of my throat on the outside along with a bruise like discomfort hoping this will go away soon as I read some people have strange things lasting a long time, I want to feel myself again & return to work without any pain I'm a single mom & feeling a bit scared that i will have new issues to deal with anybody a long time post op and have lingering side affects??? thank you good luck to everybody guess it depends on the person the damage & definitely the NS

I had my ACDF of c5-c6 on 1/26/10 at Univ of Miss. for degenerative changes and pain from straining to hold an aircraft door closed inflight for 20 minutes. Before the surgery I was having severe pain in my shoulder, loss of muscle mass in my left arm. The pain in my shoulder may also be from a slap tear in my left shoulder. In the OR they found bone fragements where the ligaments pulled bone off the cspine. Post OP I was up and walking the halls about 5 hours after getting back from the OR. The first few nights I did not sleep well. Slept on the couch almost sitting up. It has been close to a week now and I am getting some strength back, shoulder still hurts. The surgeon told me I did not have to wear a cervical collar but I did the first few nights and when in the car. I am planning on going back to work tomorrow for a few hours, light duty in the office if I feel alright in the morning. Good days and bad days for sure. Havent had any pain meds other that over the counter stuff in several days.

I am now about 4.5 days post op from a c5-c7 ACDF and I have read a lot of these blogs making sure I am doing the right things to recover. I had donor bone used and do not have the second surgery site to deal with and i can't imagine why they still use that technique ( a little counter intuitive if you ask me). All I want to do is get up and move around being the active person I am so its a little disappointing i will be recovering for so long. I am not in very much pain while I am active and find that sitting for too long gets painful. Honestly the worst part of my experience so far has been the feeling in my throat that makes it awkward to eat and drink. I have read that it could take 1-4 weeks for this problem to resolve and look forward to that day. My initial symptoms of numbness and disability in my right side were gone when I came out of recovery. I do have a little bit of pins and needles still in my left fingertips which was not present before surgery but is most likely due to some small amount of swelling still at the surgery site. I hope everyone who does have the surgery has the same results I have had so far as I am feeling great and confident in my recovery. By the way I am just 28 years old and can't find a cause of the trauma to my spine...besides a few possible awkward landings as a pole vaulter in high school (1998-2000).

Hi, please help, I had anterior cervical surgery on 2-03-10 and it went fine however prior to surgery the doctor informed me that the incision would be 1-2" either on the left of right side of my neck however post surgery shows otherwise. My incision is at least 3-4 inches and runs across the middle of my neck. Also there's another small incision in the back of my neck approx 3/4-1 inches long. I'm CONCERNED. I called the doctor office and spoke to the nurse and she said it's an illusion because the clue might cause folds on my neck which seems like the incision is longer than what it is. I can tell you it's not an illusion, I can see the cut. They also told me that there isn't suppose to be any incision in the back of my neck and that the doctor do not have any record of it. I can't believe what I just heard, should I be alarmed? The incisions are there no doubt because I can feel the cut and there's glue and tape on it. When the I had my surgery there was a nerve doctor there to monitor my nervous system, i'm wondering if the incision in the back of my neck was a result of that. I'm going in to have them check the incisions, Please HELP. Thanks in advance.

I had anterior cervical surgery on Tuesday of this week. 2/23/2010. Before having the surgery I read post that scared the heck out of me. No one seemed to have anything good to say about the surgery. Well I went through with it and feel Great!!! My pain in my right arm was gone immediately and I have no numbness. I had a wonderful surgeon and I'm sure thats makes a difference. I just want to tell everyone that the surgery is not what it hyped up to be. It was a easy surgery and yes as with every kind of surgery we always have a recovery period. But besides the incision in my throat I feel wonderful. Not to much pain meds probably only when I sleep and I'm already eating normal things. So I hope that this makes some sort of clear note on the surgery for all those that were in my shoes a few days ago and want to cancel thier surgery!!!! It's fine go through with it.

Thanks,

hi all. i had ACDF of c4 thru c7 on 12/18/09. all was fine for the first three or so weeks, and then the pain came back, with a vengence. before surgery i had severe neck pain, a numb left arm and left hand. now a little more than two months post surgery, i have bad neck pain, severe left shoulder and forearm pain, numbness, tingling and burning in my left hand. after surgery, my index fingers and thumbs on both hands were numb at the very tips. now the numbness for the index and thumbs on both hands has gone down past the second joints of the fingers and past the joints on both thumbs. now the middle fingers are beginning to go numb. driving hurts me tremendously. trying to sleep anyway besides on my back puts me in terrible pain. sitting upright in a straight back chair also puts me in terrible pain. i have been back to work for three weeks at a labor intensive job. every day that goes by, it is getting harder and harde to function. ihave a an MRI scheduled for 03/01/10. hopefully my NS can give me something to go on.

Hi everyone

I am 4 weeks post op from a c6-c7 ACDF and I am over the moon with the results. I feel like a new man and all my symptoms have disappeared! So I thought id share my experience
I was suffering badly for 4-5 months as the herniated disc was compressing my spinal cord and causing mylopathy! Symptoms were weak shaky legs, loss of balance, numbness in hands, stomach and lower back, bowel incontinence and erratic functioning, weird stretching feeling in my stomach. It was an absolute nightmare and I felt like my body was just gradually shutting down completely.
I too was terrified about having the op because of the risks involved(which are very minimal but I just feel like I am unlucky at times and something bad is bound to happen to me) anyway I had no choice really because if things had got any worse it could have paralysed me the surgeon told me. Whilst I was on the waitlist for the op my symptoms had improved a little but had reached a plateau and weren’t getting any better.
The 5 hour op seemed like 2 minutes as I was under anaesthetic and when I came round I was in quite a bit of pain but the morphine really helps. After 3 days at home taking it easy I stopped taking the pain meds as I felt much better apart from a stiff neck and abet of difficulty swallowing. Since then I have just been getting better and better and really got my life back. All the symptoms I had have gone. Occasionally I will get a bit of neck dis-comfort but I just ease back at this point and relax and it tends to go away. In the mornings I am a bit achy but it goes once I am up and out of bed. Suppose that is to be expected after just 4 weeks.
I am going for a follow up appointment in 2 weeks and I guess they will take an x-ray to see how it is healing. I will be going with a huge check list of do’s and don’ts to ask the surgeon about as I want to eventually get back into the active life style I had. I know I won’t be able to do everything and may have to be more careful in future but as long as I’m well informed then I will hopefully be safe.
I think this injury was caused by body building and over doing by increasing my weights to fast and not warming up sufficiently! I have now lost most of the muscle I gained from weight lifting for 4 years and have titanium plates in my spine at 26 years old! Pretty annoying to think of the wasted time and effort but in the grand scale of things it doesn’t matter. I can still walk and can lead a normal life again so I am happy and grateful!
My advice to anyone about to go for the operation who is scared like I was, is to not worry about it too much, the surgeons are very skilled and have probably performed hundreds of ACDF’S(it is the most common back operation) they don’t just let anyone lose with a spatula. If you have spinal compression like I had, get it sorted as soon as possible and don’t delay as the symptoms could be irreversible if left for too long. If you’re surgeon recommends getting it done it is probably wise to follow his advice
Don’t pre-occupy your mind with the horror stories you read on forums as most people who have had it done successfully probably just get on with their life and don’t come back onto forums, whereas people with bad experiences always will. Hopefully these people will make a full recovery soon. Time is a healer!
Anyway best of luck to anyone who is having an ACDF. Hope I’ve e given someone who was in my position 4 weeks ago a bit of encouragement and put their mind at ease a little.
IL try and come back in a couple of months with an update on my health but if anyone wants to ask me anything in the meantime feel free! :-D

Hey daniel sorry to hear it hasnt gone too well for you.Hope you're on the mend now!

i know it cant always be avoided as everyone needs to earn a living, but doing a labour intensive job so soon after the op couldnt of helped.I think its at least 6-8 weeks before you can get into anything strenous again.I had the numb hands symptom aswel before my op and wished id of eased right back then because it got progressivly worse and started effecting my legs etc because i carried on lifting

anyway hope everything has turned out alright for you! take it easy, your health is the most important thing!

I too was scared about my surgery from all that I had read on blogs and other places. Scared for my health, my family and my career. I am a 40y/o fireman who was injured in the line of duty approx 10/2009 and herniated disc at C6/7 with compression of the spinal nerve and pushing into the spinal cord causing severe right trapezius pain, shoulder pain, tricep weakness, elbow and forearm pain with numbness to two of my fingers. After trying rest, anti-inflammatories, ice, pt, tens, narc pain meds, muscle relaxants, etc. for six months with no relief I opted for surgery. After a lot of research I found a top surgeon who does pro athletes (NFL, NBA, MLB), firemen, etc. and returns them to successful long careers after acdf surgeries. I had surgery about 10 days ago (C6/7 acdf with titanium plate and screws) and awoke with my radiculopathy symptoms gone! 1 day stay in hospital and home w/ hard collar. First day or two with fair amount of muscle pain from the procedure and difficulty swallowing. It's been almost 10 days and I am feeling better every day. I'm limiting my range of motion, wearing my collar whenever doing any type of activity and following the DR's orders exactly (no BLT's = no bending, lifting or twisting) at this point I'd say my biggest complaint is the swallowing but that is improving as well. I'm looking forward to continuing my career for at least a dozen more years and I know I can do it with good exercise and prevention methods. Just wanted to post here so that others about to have the surgery hear some good stuff too. Before my surgery it was hard to find much on the web about good outcomes and that was pretty scarey. But I know the success stories are out there... it's just that many of them are out doing active things again and not having time to post a report on outcomes. Good luck and go into this with a positive attitude and a stellar surgeon.

I am 1.5 weeks out from C5-6 and C6-7 anterior fusion. I NEVER wore the neck collar except in the car. I have been driving for 3 days now and on the treadmill for 3 days. I am still feeking some mid-back pain which I am hoping is residual swelling. My triceps feels stronger already with decreased tricep tingling. Again, my surgery was at The NE Baptist hospital in Boston and they were spectacualar and I fely very comfortable with my surgeon. Hopefully, all the pain left over will be gone soon, BUT overall I am glad I had the surgery. BEst of luck to anyone having this and make sure you feel comfortable with your surgeon before doing anything.

Mike from Rhode Island

Hi Mike,

are you wearing your collar when you drive or only when riding in car? I've got my 2 week follow up on the the 17th and amoung other things we'll be talking about driving. I was just wondering how I could drive with a collar on. How's your mid back pain? Hopefully it's gone now if not soon. the swallowing problems are gone and I'm feeling better each day. Good luck on your continued recovery!



Ess in Cali.

Well, two week appt. done - all is looking well and on course as expected. reflex now back in my right arm. Cleared to drive in another week, but with no collar. Was told it is actually illegal to drive with one on. Hope everyone else is moving forward as well. Good vibes to all of you, hang in there!

Ess

9 days out had levels 4/5/6 done with titanium plate
and a ctr done on left hand at same time
these posts scared me to death
there is hope
already my pain is better

make sure you do your research
get a good surgeon
but there is hope
it is not as bad as some of these posts make
you fear
just be realistic in your goals