Cervical spine disectomy, fusion and titanium plate at C6-C7

I'm 37 now and had my c6c7 fusion with cadaver bone 10yrs ago not touching the herniated disc below. Prior to it I had a severe palsy in my entire left arm and the associated extreme pain, and limited mobility in turning my head. The  surgery fixed the palsy and I can turn my head more. For the most part the pain and random twitching never went away, but were much easier to live with than before. I'm left-handed so to those on the fence I say take the chance, but don't expect miracles. As of Dec of last year, I started getting severe pain in my left wrist, hand, and fingers, with the associated dreaded twitching that renders the hand useless at times. Still, not as bad as before the operation. I'm exploring new treatments and will post if anything comes up. For those of you, like me that have the terrible twitching ask your docs about cyclobenzaprine because it helps call them for me. Also, I'm not advocating doing on a regular basis, but a shot of liquor with pain and relaxer meds has gotten me through some rough nights.

Can you please tell me who done your surgery? I had mine dome at the steadman hawkins center. WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE. You pray for relief everyday. I just wanted a normal life after surgery, maybe with alittle pain, But mine pain is well as the drs rate you on a scale from1-10 well mine is at about a 30-50 everyday, im so gratful you do not have to live with this awful pain.

Hello Sandra

So very pleased in the success after surgery. Have had 2 myself, L-C spine would like opinion from other qualified
Docs. May have been botched, should they be able to help would appreciate your response.

Please, provide the contact info website ect.....

Thank You,

RAA

i HAVE THE SAME ISSUES AS YOU....WISHING I WOULD HAVE NEVER HAD THE SURGERY EITHER. NOW MY PROBLEMS ARE BACK BUT ITS THE DISC UNDER WHERE THE FUSION WAS, SAME AS LEFT ARM AND LEG AND NOW HAVING TROUBLE SWALLOWING. MY LIFE HAS TURNED FOR THE WORSE!

I had C5-C6 fusion with a cadaver bone insertion which worked, it has healed, but now it's been 8 months and BAM! I can't move! It hurts sooo bad, Doc gave me Flexeril which is like taking tylenol NOTHING works, he said to try therapy, HELLO! I've been to therapy so many times over the years I can become a physical therapist without any schooling, just by memory. Pain shooting up to the back of my head, down my shoulders, back and upper arm! Took X-ray, C5-C6 is fine, now it's C6-C7 which shows pinching, I am demanding an MRI to see soft tissue because this pain AIN'T normal! It's constant, sometimes I have to physically hold my head with my hands because my neck hurts so bad trying to support it! Sometimes they seem like they know your pain better than you! HELLO! I've had 2 children and kidney stones! At least those pains go away after a while, this, not so much! 24/7!!!!!!!

 

I am like you. I had the surgery two weeks ago and have a little pain from the beating your body takes on the table , but other than that, there is no pain in my left arm anymore. It feels great again! These people with problems must have some other underlying problem that wasn't corrected.

I had spine surgery Oct 2012 I was doing really good no pain. They put titanium plate on c5 - c6 - c7..then two months ago I start having shooting pain in my chest - left arm - back of neck and front if neck . Can't swallow too good and neck turning red. Awful pain. They put me on pain meds. They say if I don't do surgery again will loose left arm. They pain is unbearable. I don't know what to do but I can't take the pain..what do I do????

I've had this surgery C4 C5 C6 C7 & I'm in more pain today then before surgery. My surgery was in March of 2012. my left side of my body was effected. arm weakness, tingling and spasms. I can't turn my head left or right too good without pain. and worse when I drive. I have the severe burning as well. chronic pain now since surgery. the incision on the front of my throat has to be redone cause it was done horizonally and now it's pulling at my throat. not able to look up. it's like a knott in middle of my throat. so now im having to have a revised incision surgery with another scar. never been in so much pain before in my life...........

I too had to have a cervical discectomy and fusion and have a titanium plate at C4-5. I had terrible pain in my right shoulder after surgery and had surgery on my shoulder after that! This was the result of a car accident in 05/16/2005. Although in serious pain, the doctors didn't realize that my injury was as bad as it was until I was incontinent! They finally ordered an MRI in 03/2006, it was discovered that my injury was extremely threatening! The neurosurgeons wanted to do surgery that day! I ended up having it in 05/16/2006, extactly one year from the date of my accident. Ironically, my shoulder surgery took place exactly one year later 05/16/2007. Although in pain frequently, I could manage with the pain as it was constant but dull and eventually I became immune to it. I had episodes of choking and difficulty swallowing at times. I still continue to have those problems, however, it is less frequent. On 02/04/2011, I was in another car accident! I could barely walk, move, sleep, sit or anything! This massive pain lasted for about 6-8 weeks. Although, the doctors couldn't find anything substantial to account for the extreme pain! I had a small herniation in my lumbar spine. At a very slow pace, I was able to continue on with my life. I am a nurse and was furthering my education at this time. On 08/25/2011, I was assaulted by 3 people and was grabbed by my neck and face=planted into the ground! I immediately lost continence. Peed all over myself! But there was so much going on because three of my four children were also being assaulted. I put their needs before my own, as any good mother wood. I didn't realize the extent of my injuries. It turns out that I now have herniations in C2-3 & C3-4. The pain has been unbearable. The doctors are afraid to go back in at this point and want to hold off doing surgery for as long as possible! The same bottle of pain medication that once lasted me 6 months is now what I require to get through 1 month! My liver enzymes are now elevated and my physician just ordered an ultrasound to check the well-being of my liver and other organs! Haven't gotten my results yet. But the other thing that keeps happening is my hands keep going numb. My lower back pain is intense! It is constant! My right leg pain is so intense I can't walk, stand, sit or lay for too long! It sometimes goes into my foot. It is undoubtedly sciatic nerve pain. It is very painful but also has a burning sensation to it! Lately, I have been having my neck get a little tight and a loud pop happens when I move...It is a little uncomfortable too! I frequently get moments where I feel totally paralyzed from the neck down. Actually so that I can't even speak. I can only try to clear my throat in an attempt to get a family member's attention. My incontinence has increased to where I must wear poise pads and I have had a few very undesirable and embarrassing times of fecal incontinence! This is ridiculous! I am entirely too young for this to be happening! I have now been declared disabled. While I sit here and impatiently fight for my social security benefits to kick in...its been nearly two years...I grow more and more depressed! We are hurting so badly financially, as I was the bread winner in the family! We have down sized housing 3 times and I literally live in a place that is as big as my great room once was! There are days where I do absolutely nothing! One because I am in so much pain and medicine just don't cut it, but also because I am so depressed I have no energy to do anything! I am sorry each and every one of you have gone through this too. It feels good to talk to others that are dealing with it and just to know that someone actually feels my pain and understands where I am coming from. Although my family is supportive, I don't think they realize the pain involved everyday. I swear people must commit suicide from this pain! I would never but it is unbelievable! Oh one more thought...I went to a pain doctor and had spinal injections with my first injury. This seemed to help quite a bit, unfortunately, it is doing nothing for me this time :( one more thing to add to the bs!

Hard to believe that so many of you are not doing well after the surgery?   I'm not sure if you knew this, but many surgeons are doing this surgery based on your MRI , not your symptoms and expected outcome. Why? Because they can make a lot of money from the insurance companies, especially if you were involved in an accident.

shop around a find a good surgeon that will actually do an exam on you and explain why you need the surgery instead of milking the insurance companies at your expense for the rest of your life!    

Did you go to physical therapy afterwards? Another Dr suggested I request a prescription for physical therapy from my surgeon. I went for twelve weeks. It made a major difference! I am finally able to go to work and not miss time. Although I did miss twice a week 2 1/2 hours going to physical therapy. If it hadn't been for physical therapy I couldn't have continued driving 43 miles one way to work. Work at a computer all day. It was hell at first and I looked like death warmed over. The other thing - I bought my 3rd bed in 8 years. I think I finally got it right. My neck, shoulders and ribs don't hurt all the time. Yes they still bother me some but not near as bad. I got a Sleep Number Bed. I don't toss and turn half the night. I still swap out different pillows during the night. There is a night a day difference than before physical therapy and more since I got the bed. If I had been married I would have quit my job and recovered easier. Going back to work after 5 1/5 weeks, driving 43 miles one way plus the stress of getting the work done. Oh and your brain doesn't work as good, maybe pain med, or maybe the stress of having to come back to work too soon. Six weeks is the allowed time to take off for recovery. Also you can't take any pain pills. I wasn't used to taking any pain pills, I didn't realize I was high all the time. Everything was a big shock to my system when I went back to work.. I would still take 1/2 of a pain pill some days. I tried talk to my boss about getting permission to take 1/2 a pain pill when needed and she didn't want to have anything to do with it.

DR. JOHN WEST has several physical therapy locations in the Houston Area. Dr. West and his staff are very good at what they do and they are very nice. The surgeons should send patients to physical therapy. Someone else let me know I could ask for it. They give you 2 or 3 exercises to do and add more later. I loved the heat treatment, neck massage. If you can't raise your arms, can't lay down flat to sleep because you propped yourself up for 2 months trying to sleep the titanium plate in the neck. Propping up doesn't work good because you slide down in the night no matter how many pillows you have underneath, on the side and under your legs, you still slide down during the night. I bought a bed that the head of the bed and feet raise up. It worked ok but it was still hard to sleep. Ended up sending it back because the mattress was breaking down after a month. There are probably more expensive ones that are nice. The problem with sleeping propped up for 2 months is now you can't lay down flat. Everything is sore including your throat. Anyway John West employee's know how to make you fill better with massage, neck stretches, working on your muscles in your shoulders, collar bones. They know how to make your throat stop hurting. Before physical therapy I was wondering about things I had never thought about before. Life was extremely rough!! I wondered if I was going to survive this and wondering about death. That is a horrible place to be. Laws need to be changed for recovery time. Right now 6 weeks is all that is allowed. When my Surgeon asked for 8 weeks that became a problem. I have heard of a few cases where the person recovered the 1st week. I talked to one person and it took a year or longer and she had a really hard time. When you are paying for disability insurance there should be more time allowed at least 3 months, maybe more to recover properly before going back to work. Number One you can't keep up with your job when you go back to early. It should be mandatory that you see a physical therapist. Granted it isn't cheap! I was supposed to go 3 times a week but decided after the 1st week that I couldn't afford $90 per week. Also I had to make my time up at work or use my already shrinking vacation time. So I went twice a week and paid $60.00 per week.

I don't know what a cervical ESI is. Before surgery I had 2 steroid shots and then they burned the nerve endings. The burned nerve endings worked for 6 weeks and the everything was worse. Then I had a nerve block it lasted a couple of weeks. Did a 2nd one because I couldn't get off work fast enough to have the surgery.

You might try a new bed. My pains have gone way down. Physical therapy is the way to go. I got lucky, my chiropractor suggested a really good physical therapist. I had my surgery on June 21, 2013. Finally in the last half of December I started feeling a lot better and had my last therapy session.

CAN YOU CUT THE PAIN PILL IN HALF? YOU CAN GET A PAIN PILL CUTTER AT ANY PHARMACY OR WALLMART. IF NOT GET ONE OF THOSE THINGS WERE YOU CAN CRUSH THE PAIN PILL INTO POWER. MIX WITH WATER AND DRINK IT. I DON'T KNOW WHY THE SURGEONS DON'T SEND ALL PATIENTS TO PHYSICAL THERAPY. YOU NEED TO GET A SECOND A OPINION FAST!! THERE ARE PHYSICAL THERAPIST THAT HANDLE THIS TYPE OF PROBLEM. YOU NEED TO ASK YOUR SURGEON OR DID YOU GO TO A CHIRPRACTOR 1ST. FIND SOMEONE TO RECOMMEND A THERAPIST TO YOU. YOU WILL HAVE TO GET THE PRESCRIPTION TO SEE THE THEAPIST FROM YOUR SURGEON. WHEN YOU GET THE 2ND OPINION YOU MIGHT CAN GET THE PRESCRIPTION FROM HIM.
The physical therapist can probably help most of your pains. It is a deep tissue massage (called something else) that works great. If you can't raise your arm, your shoulders hurt, collar bones hurt, chest area is sore and your throat is sore. He can help all of this. I don't know about the shooting pain down your chest.

I don't mean to be rude. You said you had been to therapy so many time over the years. Did you go for therapy for the C5-C6 fusion for therapy for something else? I went to therapy for the C5-C6-C7 with titanium plate. My therapist was a life saver to me. My therapist helped with sore neck, moving my neck, sore shoulders, sore collar bones, sore chest and sore throat. Getting another MRI is a very good idea.

That id**t Dr. You should have applied for disability immediately if you had insurance for it. If not get a lawyer and I think you can get disability with Social Security. You really need to find a good physical therapist that see patients after this type of surgery. The surgeons should send you to physical therapy after a few weeks. I didn't go until 4 months later. Life was hell, working was hell, stress level was high. I swear they can help you. You see 3 people. First assistant put you on a table with heat wraps around shoulder and neck. Then main physical therapist comes in to see you, talk about your problems and give you a massage. Next you see a special physical therapist that helps with most all of your problems. This hurts some but it helps a lot!!! He gives something similar to a deep tissue massage on your neck, shoulders, collar bones, around the chest area (I think that is what helps with the throat), arms. Whatever is hurting is what he works on. They also give 2 to 3 exercises to do. Add more exercises later. I have very good motion with my neck. I still have small pains here and there. Buying a new bed help a lot also. I bought a sleep number bed and I don't hurt as much. I still switch out my pillows at night until I get the right one. I go for my 6 month check on Monday. I am hoping that in another six months I am pain free.

I guess I have been lucky, I had a C6-C7 fusion done 2 years ago, at the time my weight dropped to 64kg and I had the right side of my body melting as well as severe cramping and loss of feeling the in the thumb and right index finger.

I guess I have been really lucky, it took about 6 months to get back in the swing but I have been back at the Gym for a year and half. Back up to 92kg and ready to enter my first bodybuilding comp. I still have los of feeling in the my right tricep and thumbs and fingers.

I have found excercise, a good diet and just not giving up to be the best way to recover.