anterior cervical fusion/choking and swallowing issues

Thankyou so much for sharing. I think now I am going to CANCEL my anterior cervical fusion surgery which I'm scheduled to have on Sept 20. If I can just find a doctor who will prescribe something for the almost constant pain, I'll learn to live with the other discomforts that go along with severe kyphosis. But I don;t think I could handle the problem with swallowing. My doctor even warned me that I may require a feeding tube for the rest of my life. Good Luck to all of you. and thanks for sharing.

I hope you found out by now that your thyroid gets screwed up and it changes your voice and your surgery is to blame. Is it hard to breathe here and there now? If yes, you might have VCD - vocal cord dysfunction (lump in throat, can have a hard time swallowing, can't breathe well, coughing are symptoms). Get a FULL panel thyroid test of not just T1, T3, T4, GET what your thyroid TSH LEVEL (stimulator hormone). I bet you have BOTH of these things. Also, check your magnesium levels. The only thing that can be done is speech therapy but get some serrapeptase enzyme to see if that will help the pain of lump in the throat plus it helps inflammation and if you still have scar tissue. I have read upping your Vitamin D3 to 9,000 units help and maybe small doses of amitriptyline (starting at 10 mg and keep increasing to the point it really relaxes you at night and sleep well, only take at night makes you sleepy). Pretty sad there is not a super instant cure). I swear our vocal cords "recoil" from the horrible inflammation that starts when the fibroblasts set up to make scar tissue (surgeon moves that neck bone out of the way to fuse the vertabrae). I was just fine after my surgery for the first 2 weeks and then heck broke out and my ENTIRE neck was on fire for over 3 weeks and I had read that serrapeptase enzyme (take 240,000 spi) that helped the pain so much, 2nd month is when I got the "lump in the throat", hurts to talk plus it feels like you have a bad case of laryngitis! Also read, if these symptoms don't go away within the first 6 months of your surgery, you will have this sentence the rest of your life! if anyone is reading this before your surgery, read up on homeopathic way of getting rid of stenosis by taking high amounts of glucosamine chronditin for six months, there is only one case I read about that it did work for a guy's stenosis, there are some AMAZING natural path ways to fix whatever your problem is, I learned so much this year, fixed my kidney disease, working on my osteoporosis and cataracts, had horrible headaches 24/7, a couple of words from a natural store mgr who said, "oh, you need trace mineral drops", our soil doesn't have enough nutrients in it anymore, and NO MORE HEADACHES, that opened my eyes to start reading what cures what. Biggest FYI, by time we are 50, we do not make enough enzymes to get what we need for our bodies and we eat not so healthy stuff on top of it that is why so many people cannot fight the diseases that we get...a Dr. John Bergman (chiropractor by day, teacher by night, has 2 phds) and a master herbalist Patrick Delves say, 97% of our diseases and be cured!! Start reading to help yourself! Allyson

Guest over a year ago-anyone that have the same problems is all from having neck fusions but the docs don't tell you the bad side effects. This surgery can ruin your thyroid and that is why your voice hurts, you cannot talk right, you will have to get on thyroid medicine (get full panel on thyroid, t1, t3, t4, AND tsh to see where you are. Natural path way is to take maca. You can develop swelling problems, some will have to have a feeding tube put in. You can also get VCD (voice cord dysfunction where you cannot get enough air, if you do not get help and you have this at the 6 months point, you are stuck with it for life. For ones that have it where the nerves are affected, wait til the bones are fused and get the metal out of your neck, it usually is the thing that irritates (understatement) the nerves the metal itself. I wish I never did the surgery! Allyson

I had c5-c6/c6-c7 ACDF surgery five weeks ago from today. Its been quite the 'journey' and I can relate to nearly all the testimonies I have read on this and other sites from others who have had the same surgery. I can say that it was much more radical than I anticipated. Or so it felt that way to me... I experienced a lot of fluid build up in the neck/throat two days after I was released from the hospital and was back 'under the knife' that day again to reduce the swelling. I am, however, now getting better and stronger each day but continue to occasionally have that choking/lump sensation in my throat. Because the incision is directly next to the esophagus, I have to assume its from the tissue swelling around it. I continue to apply an ice pack and it does help. Most importantly, the torturous nerve pain (electric shock zapping in my left arm) is gone. I have a little pain in my left fingers but told that's common and may subside. I've not been this pain free in nearly four years... I'll take it!

I have the same swallowing problems after surgery as well. Sometimes I still get food stuck for long periods of time. During my battle with this issue I have found that, if you bend over and swallow water really hard while remaining bent over the piece of food will eventually dislodge. At least it did for me.

I am 4 months out. 10 years ago I had 5, 6, and 7 fused. This time it was 4 and 5. So 4 thru 7 are now one. This time I had the swallowing problem. I would have to crush pills or get the pill stuck and taste some really horrible pills by them getting stuck until they dissolved in my throat. It has gotten quite a bit better. I can finally swallow pills. I feel like there is an actual pocket in my throat that catches food a lot of the time. I am now a very slow eater concentrating on chewing really well and I still get things caught. Tonight I had a piece of corn stuck. I usually get it out by a quick hard cough. It's so very frustrating though. I hope your throat heals soon.

Hello - I just had anterior fusion, and now I am having throat issues. Hard to swallow, hard to sleep - feels like the hardware is choking me. I dread going to bed. Hard to talk - feels like my vocal cords are hitting something in my throat. So scared. Did your symptoms get any bette??

I'm in this thread, Aldo had a 2 level neck fusion w/ plating in 2016. It's taken 20 months for slot of my choking & voice changes to stop. I still have to be real careful, but I think the worse is over! Good luck to you, I think from my experience my neurosurgeon gave me to a quicker recovery time then it really is.

Had c 5/6 fusion in 2013 it is a lifelong problem be careful eating

I had a 5/6 c 6/7 fusion in march 2017. I have swallowing issues which I had a barium swallow test which came out fine. I was sent to a neurologist because of tingling issues and swelling in my legs and joint, fatigue and other issues after surgery. The neurologist did blood work and diagnosed me with RA even though I tested negative. I visited my family practitioner today due to weight gain and he pulled up my tests from the neurologist and said the neurologist overlooked that I have a low T4 level which is a thyroid issue. I start mess for that tomorrow. I'm now so confused I don't know what to believe. I do know however I don't want to live with these swallowing issues but my surgeon says I have no other option.

I was fused C5-7 with a plate in 2005. Then, C3-5 in 2013. I have had great relief using natural joint supplements and SupraOmegaPlus. I barely ever need pain pills. 3 X's only since 2015. Please find my story at Melanie Ward's utube #MySiselStory

Yes I had the same symptoms until I went to see my Gastroenterologist. It was time for a colonoscopy and an EGD. I went to the hospital, a simple 30 minute outpatient procedure. My gastro doctor ask me if if I had any problems and I told him I had difficulty swallowing and choking and gasping for air. During the procedure he dialiated my esophagus and magic appeared. No more problems at all. FIXED COMPLETELY!!! Good Luck!

I have the feeling like someone is grabbing my neck. It is annoying and also a lot of migraine...I am so scare, but believe I don't want to die. Life is ...ok! But good. Hehehe...

I’m sorry that you are having these symptoms as I am having them too. I had ACDF in 2012 on C2-C7. The last couple months if I turn my head and my mouth is open it makes this crunching, popping sound accompanied with shooting pain & & feels like it gets stuck. I get such severe pain from base of head to temples and sensation like there is a lump in my throat or tightening. These symptoms have come & gone for weeks at a time, but because prior to surgery I had such severe migraines where the pain in my neck & head so severe & light, noise, smells were intolerable, I would fall down, & nearing lost all ability to use my right arm, I still say this surgery gave me back my life. During these symptomatic periods that i am having now, I went to a different surgeon to get an opinion. Apparently my last surgeon used 3 less screws then usual & the screw that anchored everything was stripped & loose in the surrounding bone. He said at some point I could pass the screw. So when i get these symptoms, i get panicky because at that time. 3 of the 5 discs hadn't fused. At the time, i did it want to do anything, but at this point I'm thinking I need to resist this problem. I just haven't met a Dr that i would like to week on me as to get further work done requires the best of the best.

I have followed and been a part of this thread for a while now. My neck is fused and plated at 2 levels, my spine is also fused with 2 artificial discs, bad accident. The amount of people posting about swallowing issues, including myself, and the amount of suffering I keep reading in this thread makes me sad. How could we all have ended up with so many issues and yet our doctors didn’t prepare us for this or help us with the difficulties? The only doctor out of my 13 that helps me with my swallowing issues, talking issues and choking issues is my really concerned gastrologist. My neuro surgeon who did the surgery seems mystified by all the problems his surgery has created. I just had heart surgery Oct. 2017 and I had such a easy recovery. My neck fusion in 2016 is a never ending nightmare of issues. I hope everyone in this thread finds answers, I wish we could organize ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** posting of social network links, groups, invitations, or usernames is not allowed *** Please read our Terms of Use and help each other with our experiences!! Take care and don’t ever feel alone!