anterior cervical fusion/choking and swallowing issues

After my surgery On Dec 3 to c3-4, I was picked up out of bed and then I felt bone move over bone in T1, T2 and then c6-c7 buldging 2mm disk and 7th nerve is innerated and 6th nerve is denervated. both my ears closed and have ringing all the time. My brain shook and my vision got distorted/blurry and then I felt a glove-like effect in both my forearms. In my 3rd week after surgery trying to heal my neck, I had terrible pains in my head and the more I moved my neck, the worse it got. 3rd to 4th week after surgery, I started having trouble swallowing on left side even soups. I would eat and then get burning in my mouth and tongue from just soup. I could barely eat any food. I started to move my bowels 7 times a day and couldn't keep anything in for nutrition. I would go to the bathroom and then start eating again to feel better. At around 3 or 4:00 pm, the feeling would stop and then come and go. I started to shake in bed and have tremors all over my body, went to 5 hospitals. My body would shake at the hospital and then weakness that I could hardly walk and surely thought I would die. I was getting pain in my frontal ribcage and my stomach hurt really bad. I would feel something going thru a tube in my urinary tract (weakness). I was getting horrible nerve pains down both my arms, pain and burning in my back. I have pernicious anemia, had my gallbladder taken out at 28, belly button hernia repair, surgery to my collarbone (right) and didn't heal correctly where arm is leaning forward. Had screw removed from shoulder because of pain and then ligaments tightened. Would get stabbing pain on the crown of my head and pain in the mid back in thoracic where scapula is.I was diagnosed with neuropathy and there are times my neck will spasm alone (where normally my whole spine would spasm, so something doesn't feel like it's connected) and I would go lie down and I would get tingling throughout my body from head to toe and I would feel paralayzed for hours not being able to move. When I could my pinky and 4th finger in both arms felt tight. and tips in my finger in my left hand felt numb and right hand. I have loss of sensation in the tips of my fingers. I feel like my neck is locked where bone moved over bone and my lower neck feels tight. I get pain in my upper arm and forearm when I pick it up feels like it goes numb and I get wrist pain in both fingers.I went to the doctor 2 weeks ago and after I got up from the chair my upper lumbar or lower thoracic felt like it was going to break in half and then I went to the store to pick up meds and I got throbbing in all my organs from my breasts all the way down to my pelvis. I have herniations in my lumbar and tears on both sides and sciatica is a problem with left leg and then a nerve is impinged in right leg.Is all this coming from my neck? I get a bad feeling down my arms and legs and nervousness, and upper back pain if I don't take and 0.5 pill of Ativan to relax it. I was also getting where my spine would throb and my heart would just accelerate and beat heavy and fast and I would start to hyperventilate by breathing heavy. Neurologist said this is coming from my neck and my regular doctor said my neck looks terrible but they don't want me to have surgery because of what happened. Do I have any hope of getting this fixed? I would fall meloncholly to sleep and I my brain would tell me I moved my leg, but I never did and other parts of the body. I get painful pulling in my temple more on the left side and I have to go lie down. I can't gain any fat on my body and have having trouble to keeping my weight up to 112 pounds. I don't know what to do or what doctor to see to fix this.  

I too get a tightness where I had the anterior 3/4 fusion and I find that I have a feeling of tightness, pulling and a lump on left side of my throat.  I have to keep clearing my throat every couple of minutes....it feels terrible.  It comes some days and some days comes back.  But I also have a nodule on my thyroid.  I will have to make an appointment for that.  But for some reason something is not right on the left side of my neck....I don't have that problem on the right side of my throat.  My throat feels different on the left side too.  I don't know what else is wrong with my neck......but I'm sure I have loads of problems after the injury the day I came home from the hospital.

Lisa

 

 

 

 

 

do you still get the choking feeling after having the plate removed?......My husband lifted me the day I came home out of bed and the worst happened. I felt a vertebrae move or shift to the right (I had 2 colorbone surgeries and my shoulder looks lower than my left side) and I felt a glove like effect in both my forearms, right and left arms. Then a pain coming from c6,c7 (which was a small central herniation now is a 2mm bulging disk and my 6th nerve is being pinched but I think that is c5-c6. The pain went up the left side of my neck to the back of my ears and both my ear drums closed and now I have noise ....a shhhh noise in both ears constantly. then I felt my brain shake (I mean literally) and then my vision became distorted....blurred every day and still gets that way now from Dec 4, 2013. I was getting pins and needles in different places of my head during the recovery of my throat and could not do anything about it. I thought it would go away. But 3 weeks into healing my throat, I started having problems swallowing and food would get caught in my throat and then I would get burning in my tongue after having 1/2 a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I could barely eat anything at that time. I started moving my bowels after each piece of food I ate. My body was not retaining the nutrients I was eating and therefore, I was very weak and I would get shaking throughout my whole body. doctor told me I could sleep in a bed with c3-4 and had no restrictions but I had to twist my body to get my legs down and then move my upper body off the bed and so I was twisting the nerves in my spine. I could feel the nerve in my back that had exited my spine. I went to 5 different hospitals who said there was nothing they could do for me and simply diagnosed it as anxiety. I was fighting for my life. My husband said I wasn't feeling well because everything I ate was going right through me. I also got off a chair in my doctors office and felt my lower thoracic would break in half and going to the pharmacy, my internal organs then started to throb. I also have pernicious anemia, but having problems with my spine was due to twisting my body and the doctor not restricting me to a recliner for sleep. I'm a complete mess now where if I don't take Ativan to relax my muscles, my spine will spasm and neck and I'll get burning in my back where the scapulas are located and upper back and then I have to lie down and then my heart starts to be fast and heavy and then I start breathing heavily and then my whole body goes limp where I can't even move my arm. A neurosurgeon just told me that's happening from the pain I'm experiencing. Also my blood pressure is high and that too is from pain. I'm on remeron which is antianxiety and antidepressant which I only take 1/2 a pill and I'm at least able to sleep., I have severe pain in my upper arms, under arm pit pain, occipital pain, headaches, pains in my chest, floating ribs, legs too. Neuro doctor did EMG and my arms and legs have muscles that have increased signal and decreased signal which is alarm....I think for nerve damage. I just want someone to fix that bone that moved in C8 or T1 because it hurts badly and feels tight to the point it is unbearable. I feel the nerves are impinged and very tight where the bone moved to the right. But they sure as hell are not going in through the anterior part of my neck again. It would have to be the posterior....I have enough problems with the swallowing. The skin in my fingers and hands don't look right and I'm losing a lot of my hair when I wash it. I pray to god that this one neurosurgeon would try to help me.....but I do not want another fusion and would consider the artificial disk instead. I just hope that I could get thru this year without something happening to me and possibly have them remove the plate at c3-c4 and fix the other problem in c8, T1. Thanks for posting

I have had this since my surgery 2 years ago, feels like something stuck and i have to keep pushing on my throat to move something back over, my voice is still really deep everyone i talk to on the phone calls me sir and i am not. Been to 3 ear,nose and throat doctors cant find anything. this is driving me crazy. If anyone can help with this issue please email me at jenny.wilson @ky.gov.

All of these posts are so old, so I don't find it useful.  Plus the question never gets answered.  Think I'll go elsewhere...

yES I WENT THROUGH SAME PROCEDURE AND HAVE DRINKING PROBLEMS--THIS SURGERY IS BARBARIC AND THE DOCOTRS DO NOT TELL YOU THE TRUTH OR THE OUTCOME-TRY NOT TO HAVE IT DONE. TONY

I also had the same fusion and noticed that my neck was sticking in certain position and then started having problems swallowing as I still do even if just taking medicine. I did have a lump where the incision was placed and my doctor went in and put a drain in. That took care of that issue. 2 years later I have been battling with a bacterial infection in my body called c diff and have had to fecal transplants and have been put on the strongest antibiotics the health care system has. I believe I contracted it while I was in surgery or because the plate was not put in properly. All I know is that I was fine and after this surgery it has left me with out much of a life. I am having mine removed on Sept 10th and hope to find some relief. Hope this helps. Good Luck!!!

OOOOOOH you poor people! This is crazy to read all of the negative reactions to ACDF surgery. I had 2 level C5-C6 disc fusion using the SYNTHES ZERO-P device. Not only does it actually provide some movement (even after fusion), but the Zero-P pat means ZERO protrusion which is the common problem when it comes to post op swallowing. issues. I am only 7 days post op, off all medications, walking about 1/2 mile twice a day, and have very little pain. I can also move my head side to side without a ton of discomfort. I WOULD RECOMEND HAVING THE PLATES AND SCREWS THAT PROTRUDE REMOVED FROM YOUR NECK AS SOON AS YOU ARE FUSED! You will feel like you were supposed to feel. If you want a recommendation in California, look at the Spine Institute for spinal restoration in Santa Monica and in Beverly Hills. Im eating regular food...even sourdough bread and peanut butter and whatever else. Im hungry :-) Thats the only thing I can say that's negative! Oh and before my surgery? I was basically unable to do anything...zero quality of life. Now Im FREEEEEEEEEEE

What are you doing for exercise now? I too had to give up yoga as I could tell it was pulling on the hardware. Was going to enroll in pillates but after your post have decided against it.

yes i have went through two surgeries and this second one is a nightmare. i do feel that food and pills stick in my throat. i hurt so bad and a lump comes up by incision. He went over the curve in my neck.. my question is whats next.

Hello Everyone, I had the same surgery 5&6 6 months ago. Same horrible feeling like theres a lump in my throat, swallowing is tough too. I feel it the most when Im active, bending over, using my upper body-walking ect.... never goes away. my surgeon tells me this is unusual and nothing is wrong. My ENT even said everything looks fine. However, theres definetly wrong. Sometimes I feel like my breathing is restricted too, I,m going to see another Dr.

I had an acdf in March and I have a choking cough every single night when I go to sleep and I have an increase of mucus in the back of my throat. Anybody else having this issue?

That seems to be an issue with a lot of forums. People do a search to find out more information about a problem they're having, but if the problem goes away, no one seems to come back and pass along the positive news. They're just happy the was resolved/resolved itself over time, and they don't think any more of it.

Anyone find a cure for the lump in the throat feeling 24/7? Had c5/6/7 fusion. Lump in throat started prior to surgery. Feels like someone is pressing a thumb on my neck. Had barium swallow, endoscopy, neck ct, sonogram, all negative. Very frustrated. They said I have sinus disease but the only symptom I feel is mucus dripping down my throat. I've been told a nerve can be compressed by swelling in the base of the neck which can cause globus but I'm 3months post surgery still with the feeling. Has this feeling gone away with anyone post op? How long did intake to go away untreated?does anyone suggest a treatment? Thank you!

Did the lump ever go away. I'm three months post up still with the lump.

Yes, I haveexactlythat withc5/6/7 fusion along with a lump in my throat feeling