longterm pain after anterior cervical fusion

Please update me on your condition. I too have a problem at c6 c5 but truly the whole cervical . Thanks i also have not had surgery but i was told i need to completely quit smoking or NO fusion i am quitting i smoke less than 7 a day but i am 54 as well. Please update

I have had a c3-4 fusion, then c4-5 fusion and just recently a synthetic disk replacement in the c-5-6. The c6-7 is also bone on bone, but at this time, he isn't able to do anything there.

I have also had a laminectomy of the l-6. Then a pain stimulator in my lower back.

I see a pain management clinic on a regular basis. While, yes, I NOW take Percocet 7.5/325, (I have taken it at the same dosage, for about 7 years), I take it to help, not take away, the pain. The clinic is great and listens to me.

Low back surgery was first. Helped but not a lot. Then I did a trial with the stimulator. I get GREAT results. Not 100% relief, but 40%-60% relief, which makes it manageable now.

Then, the c3-4 fusion. Helped son, but not all. Then the c4-5 fusion. Helped more, but not all. Did a trial for a stimulator in my neck but didn't get relief like low back so didn't do it.

Things got worse and Dr did ganglionectomy on right side of c2 and helped with the headaches. (Note: He did it with radio frequency similar to rhizomes, but removed the whole nerve. Doesn't grow back. Less invasive.)

This were tolerable for about 5 years, that's when he did the synthetic disk. Hoping this lasts for a while.

What most don't understand is when they fix one problem, the next one down/up develops a problem. But, if the surgeon is good, (and mine is GREAT!), then much of management of the pain is up to you, him and a competent pain mgt clinic.

Will I ever be out of pain? No. Can it be managed so I can live some simulance of a life? Yes. The big problem is everyone thinks that each procedure is going to be a cure all, and it won't.

Find a good Neuro-Surgion. (Mine just happened to be one of the top rated in the country. He was called in initially when Christopher Reeves had his accident.) Then find a good pain mgt clinic. Not one that just hands out pills. After that, YOU have to realize you might be 35 but you will never be 25 again, no matter what commercials on TV try to make you believe.

I hope this provides some encouragement to someone. No, you will never be "pain free". But, as I said, you can't ever be 25 again either. The doctors can only do so much. You have to do the rest. Stay strong!

Sorry, should have said l5 not l6. There isn't an l6. Lol.

I had this surgery in March 2006 and I have been in what seems like a downward spiral ever since. I have tried pain management several times, however the pain shots in my neck were so horrible, they only made me hurt worse. It has been 12 years and I still have so much pain. My movements are stiff and uncoordinated. I have Fibromyalgia which is horrible. I get migraines that feel like my head is gonna split open from the back of my skull to the front. I don't have much strength in either hand and sleeping is next to impossible. The worst part of this is that I have been taken off of all pain meds except Cymbalta. It seems that every doctor is so afraid of theopiod crisis they don't want to prescribe them or it is assumed that I am just wanting drugs. This is so not true and it's Disheartening. How, exactly, am I supposed to function with this pain. I try exercising to keep my body from getting stiff and sore but it's a challenge. I remember after my surgery going back to my neurologist and telling her that I was still in so much pain. She got really upset and told me I shouldn't be in pain. She actually refused to see me anymore because she didn't believe me. Well, here I am 12 years later still experiencing pain and numbness in my neck, back, arms, fingers and my hips are constantly out of line. My question now is how much worse can it get from here...

I had ACDF surgery in September 2018. Now I hurt across my shoulder, down the center of my back, thru my buttocks and around to top of my thighs. In constant pain, a dull ache. Had epidural shots, now going to take PT for the second time. Will this pin ever stop. It is a different pain from the pain I had before surgery in the neck. Also have a bulging disc in lower lumber area L4-5-. I am so tired of being in pain. Also, I cannot walk a long distance without my legs hurting and I have to stop and rest. I would like to wake up one morning and not feel any pain.

I was searching the internet hoping to find some new miracle procedure and read some of these posts. I am 8 years post op on c3-c4. It took my then insurance carrier (cigna) 3 months to agree to my surgery, and that was only after a neurosurgeon said I was on the verge of being paralyzed. Pain has always been constant accompanied by leg spasims, back pain from waists down and anything else you can imagine. Had to move out of the north because my gait was so bad I couldn't walk in the snow.if I fell, I don't have the strength to get up, even to this day. In the last 6 months I am losing more body strength and now spend at least 15 hours a day lying down. As you all have said, tell a doctor you r problems and all they do is send you for more tests. Results come back and they say everything looks fine.even had one Dr that insisted my problems were originating from l section. He operated to the tune of $77k and guess what, no help at all. To make matters worse I live in Florida and the doctors here WILl NOT write a script for any kind of pain MEds. So day after day I sit and suffer and believe the pain is soon going to kill me. This is my reality, no doctor wants or will touch someone else's work and its at my expense