post anterior cervical disectomy recovery concerns

No, the PA didn't suggest specific exercises, hopefully, you are seeing a physical therapist who can work with your specific case. The PA did suggest some specific tests that the rehab doc could perform for further diagnostic purposes. Exercises should be recommended specific to each case, so my recommendation is to pursue advice from a PT...they not only offer exercise advice, but can perform electro stimulation/ultrasound therapy, heat/cold therapy and the doc can recommend massage; All of which have helped me immensely. Massage has been most helpful...

Best of luck to you!!! Don't give up!!!

Goosey

Great advice, I will ask my Dr to refer me to a phys therapy, and go from there.

Take care.

Good Luck and let me know how things go for you...I'm seeing a rehab doc/pain speciliast on Friday for a full eval of my situation, he says that there is medication too for the electrical shock type sensations that I'm having up and down both arms, so if you don't get relief from the PT, you can always try that route too...

I am about 2 and 1/2 weeks post c-5 c-6 fusion. The majority of my arm problems have resolved themselves but I am having some of the neck, shoulder and back problems described here. I would love to be able to read about the progress people are having with the physical therapy. At this point, I really can't tell if I have a new problem with my neck or if I am just pushing myself to do too much post-surgery. I am a 36 yr old college student and since the surgery I cannot find a way to study that doesn't become distractingly painful.

Since August 2005, I had severe shoulder pain on my left side, but I tried to ignore it. I then hurt my lower back in October, 2005 and started to see a chiropractor. I will have to say that I was skeptical of going to chiro, but didn't feel I had that much to lose. My lower back pain got better, but my shoulder pain persisted and got worse. My pcp prescribed a 6-day Medrol pack. No change. I continued going to the chiro three times a week until the end of January, 2006, and then she sent me to get an MRI and referred me to a neurosurgeon. The MRI apparently didn't show much except some narrowing of the spinal canal and a few bone spurs, which appeared to be more pronounced around the C5/6. The surgeon told me that there were several ways I could approach this, one was by continuing with chiro and taking some anti-inflamatories, the 2nd was I could have trigger point injections, 3rd was I could have the spinal injection series (which is usually 3 cortizone injections done outpatient with sedation) or I could have ACDF. He felt that my bone spurs could be a problem if I were to get a hard jolt like being in a minor car accident and there was an increased possibility of paralysis. Scared the c**p out of me! I opted for the trigger point injections at the time, which did not help AT ALL!!! I continued to see the chiro, but went to see an ortho for a 2nd opinion. He ordered an EMG (which hurts like HELL!!) and confirmed that I did have a compressed nerve root at the C5/6 level. He prescribed Vicodin, Flexaril and a 6-day Medrol pack, which did not really make the pain go away, but made it a little more tolerable. I continued this way for another week or so until one day the pain was just too bad and I had to leave work. The ortho then referred me to a PM dr and a different neurosurgeon. I went to see both. The PM doctor explained the spinal injections as an option, but after reveiwing the MRI and the EMG test results said that he didn't think it would help, and that it looked like I needed surgery. He also expressed his concern about the increased risk of paralysis. The neuro didn't seem to be that concerned. In fact, he told me that he didn't think I was in any danger of being paralyzed any more than the next healthy person and recommended that I try the injections. He did say that if I was interested in the possiblity of surgery that I should have a myelogram, which I did. The myelogram according to the neuro was not sufficient enough to warrant surgery at the time, so he recommended that I try the injections, which I did. I had three injections done in March and it gave me just a little bit of relief. After the 3rd injection, the PM dr told me that there was little more that he could do for me and recommended that I see the neuro and discuss surgery further. By this time, the pain had spread to my right side as well as my left. I finally had an ACDF of the C5/6 on July 10th, but had little improvement. In fact I had now starting getting tingling sensations down my triceps, through the sides of my forearms and into my hands, not to mention that I was still having pain in my shoulders. I am only 41 y/o and have a 12 y/o and 9 y/o at home. I am too young to be in this much pain. The neuro then put me on Neurontin and prescribed a 6-day Medrol pack. Although I did have some relief from the neck pain, it was not enough to say the surgery was sucessful. By this time, my out-of-pocket had already been met and I did not want to spend any more $$ on this. The neuro said that my symptoms seem to indicate that my pain was coming from the C6/7 and that a 2nd surgery may be warranted. I had my 2nd surgery on Sept 18th and I am 6 days post-op. I can definately say that I do feel better, but am still experiencing some tingling in my forearms and pain in my shoulders near the neck, more on the left side. However, I do think most of the pain is just normal post-op pain and from reading some of the posts, feel that time will be my best medicine. I am taking Flexaril and Ambien at night to sleep, and take a 7.5/500 mg Vicodin as needed, which is about 2 times a day. I am so glad that I am not the only one out there that did not have "instant" results. One of my friends had the surgery done last year and she said her symptoms were immediately relieved and had it not been for the bone graft, she would have been back to normal within a week or two. This really depressed me, but another friend reminded me that "no two people are the same, which means that our recoveries will not necessarily be the same".

However, I am encouraged that a considerable amount of neck/shoulder pain is gone, and what I am feeling is more muscle soreness instead of nerve pain. In fact I was feeling so good that I edged the lawn, which was probably not a good thing to do, because now I am hurting again. I am definately not going to be doing that again for a while. I am definately going to rest and hope to be back at work in a week or so.

Has anyone used a TENS unit for their cervical pain? I was given a unit and it does help with the pain. My question is Can you use the unit after anterior cervical fusion for the muscle spasms, etc.? I am having surgery on 11/30/06. I have a choice between cadaver bone or plastic insert. I am still comtemplating what would be best. Any input would be appreciated.

Melindafm wrote:

Has anyone used a TENS unit for their cervical pain? I was given a unit and it does help with the pain. My question is Can you use the unit after anterior cervical fusion for the muscle spasms, etc.? I am having surgery on 11/30/06. I have a choice between cadaver bone or plastic insert. I am still comtemplating what would be best. Any input would be appreciated. Have you talked to an ortho yet and asked if you were a candidate for a disc replacement surgery? I would be very hesitant to ever have a fusion done again without 1st seeking an opinion on if a replacement could be a better choice at this juncture! Shop around and make sure you have every detail on the table and this is right for you and not for anyone but yourself as such.

I am getting ready for an Anterior Cervical Fusion on C-5. I haven't heard of anyone locally that has had this procedure. I have read a lot of entries on this site and I think I am starting to get worried about post-op long term pain!!! Has anyone had this procedure that is well into the recovery stage and feeling much better?

I read all the posts here I am so thankful that I am not in pain. I feel lucky to be able to report that my headaches and neck pain and weakness in my arms and hands are gone. I do have to tell you I am experiencing achey feelings in my arms and hands.

My worst post op pain was my throat or esophegus pain when swollowing. It is 2 weeks and 3 days since my surgery and swollowing is still not comfortable. It is so much better now. The pain in my throat is probably a 1 or 1.5 now.

What I had done was, Anterior Cervical Disectectomy with doner bone fusion and metal plate and screws, 10-18-06. I had a prominent bone spur removed from my 5th vertebre and the 5th and 6th vertebre fused. I also had an issue of misalignment at T1 and T2. The surgeon did something there. I will find out all he did in 2 more weeks at my post op checkup.

I am wondering if others were taking muscle relaxers after they got home. I took them for a few days(5 days). Usually just a night before I went to bed.

I am not bragging but I know my pain tollerance is high. but I would have been really scared before surgery if I had read all these posts from others. I am so sorry that so many are having so much pain and I hope everyone gets the relief we all want.

God Bless
Becky

I read these experiences and felt better. Not that you are in pain,
not that I am in pain, but that we are not nuts. I have a healthcare background. Most of us read this because we typed in something like
:Post care surgical fusion, what to expect: I noticed many commonalities
between experiences, and hae gone through a lot of the same things.
I had a flareup from Yesterday's PT. Going back shortly today. Its been 15 months since my surgery. I will share some of my experiences later or
if anyone is interested, I have found 1 or 2 medications that may help
with neuropathic pain. Talked to a couple of physiatrists. One tells me I
am disabled. The other one tells me it take two years to see where you stand with this type of operation. 2 level fusion with plating. I have
tried to keep the surgeon off the defensive. I just want this the best it can
be. "If this is normal, let me know" was my observation to him. I traded
some incredibly acute pain which only the surgery alleviated to chronic
SX's that vary with position and activity level. Fast word of advice.
From what I do know of the spine, the fusion and plate changes the
dynamics of the area. If other discs in the area of the fusion were
"beat up" in your accident injury, stressing them may not be a good idea.
Get MRI's to see what is going on. My adjacent discs show a progessive
slippage. I do know the basic anatomy from school years ago, have read
my reports and have stared at the MRI's. So many things we have in
common. I am not am M.D., but background is pharmaceutical/biomedical.
I am definitely not alone. The experience and pains and sensation that
the majoritity us have, should be the textbook for what could happen I
have a friend who is a cardiac surgeon. Before I had my injury, we would
talk about work. He said : "I enjoy doing the surgery, its the complications." When you think of the post surgical SX's, they make sense. I want some hope without unrealsitic expectations. I said I would
keep this short, but I want to write the story down later and as it progesses. If we can share emotional and physical experiences and
keep each other informed as to what is working. I don't want to talk anyone out of surgery. Even the experts in the field are not in agreement.
Observation: If someone is told us what to expect, then we wouldn't go through as much turmoil. I would like to tell the surgeon that its all better. I don't want to be the therapeutic failure because "I should be fine by
now." I would rather know how normal this is and how much I can
improve it. Relearnign body motions, i.e. retraining the muscle does seem
to help. After a year of waiting to see if it gets better and better with time,
I decided to look for reasons. Unforunately Titanium plating causes
artifacts in the MRI. Cat scanning with dye is my surgeons last word.
The dye is dangerous, particularly for a diabetic, and since I have had
CT scans and fluroscopy (and other radiation in the past), I kind
of hesitate yo go there. I think I see impingment. Radiologist is hesitant
to comment on the graft area. I would probably get the resorbable plate
so we could do MRI's. I thought that was what we were going to use,
but the day of the surgery, the surgeon told me that he was set up for
titanium, and since I already had my Versed. I am seeing a physical therapist again. He was in an accident when he was college age, and seems pretty focused. Better head mechanics and better poster are
my current hopes. If that doesn't work, its the CT with dye. And my question to the neurosurgeon seemed to be reasonable. "Is all of this
normal, if it is, what else can we do." If we find something by doing
the dye study which has a risk, is there something that we can do surgically. I guess none of us knew what to expect. I did find several
communication errors and what I consider poor choices in the process.
I had my surgery ay Hershey Medical Center. A Dr at the U of P that
my D.O. usually refers cases to, wouldn't see me because it involved an auto accident. "Hey, what your pain level with 10 being the worst pain
anyone could imagine and 1 being "no pain." Or the line from a nurse
'remember, this Dr has a pain level that is backward" 0 is a lot of
pain and 10 is no pain. I refused to give a number after explaining
to the Dr that I needed to know which of the several sensations in
the neck and shoulder, that vary "GREATLY" with time and position,
to which he was referring. This started out as 3 sentences and has grown to this. The Dr just kept repeating that didn't the nurse explain to me that his pain scale was backward and that I would be asked that when he entered the room (this was not the surgeon at Hershey). I can't type anymore, anyway. And by the way, he wasn't going to stop asking until I gave him a number. :-D :-) %-) :$ :'( >;)
The Best to All of You.
RDK

Hi all
It seems that surgery isnt as promising as the doctors say it is,, I had total disk replacement in june 2006 and Im in worse shape now than before the surgery..
Before surgery, I only had a 25-35 percent spinal cord compression and now, I have a 90 percent spinal cord compression..
Theres more about this posted on this thread:

Numbness, post op C-5/c-6 cervical spine surgery. ,,,,,,,,

Its too much to retype.. so please go visit that thread if you are experiencing post op problems.. You may find some that the info their helpful.
I do have to stress this,, If you are having alot of pain, numbness, spasms, swelling ,, demand that your doctor orders another MRI, or more testing period..

Its not normal to still be experiencing extreme pain after 6 months post op.. SO MY SURGEON SAYS,
Peace to all and good luck
Donna

Hi RDK,
Please do share you experiences..
I also come from a medical back ground of 21 years and it seems that with this surgery, I have problems treating myself.. lol. You know how that is, I can help others alot more than I can help myself, that seems to be most health care providers scenario. Anyway by sharing your experiences, you can help others, I know I thought I was going nuts or that the problems I am experiencing was phantom pain, from a total disk replacement that was done in june, but after I saw the MRI that was done friday,, I knew I wasnt going crazy.
I posted more about that on the thead that I listed in my last post.. Anyway, we are all here to help each other and I hope every one feels free to post their experiences or problems.
peace to all
Donna

I will be having my ACDF surgery on the 24th of this month. Hurray! :-D I'll be having c5-6 and c6-7 fusions using cadaver bone and then the metal plate. I can hardly wait. I'm hoping the pain from the surgery will be a relief to the pain I'm experiencing now. :'(

What I would like to know from those of you who have had this surgery already is how I can prepare for my recovery at home? For instance, what do you wish you would have done, or could have had to make recovering from this surgery easier? I think it's always easier after the fact to know what you would have liked or done. So I'm hoping that I can benefit from everyone's post surgical experiences. Plus is there anything you'd recommend while I'm in the hospital yet? The doctor said I would be there for 3 days. Thanks for any helpful suggestions!

Hi,
I am a 45 year old male that underwent ACD on 1/5/07. The pain in my neck under my shoulder blades, chest when moving while sleeping are as bad, and sometimes worse than before surgery. My neck mobility is so limited, I am nervous I am not going to regain complete mobility in my neck. I feel like I'm constantly hunching my neck and shoulders, and even the water from the shower hurts the area in the back of my neck that feels like there is a lump there. And both upper arms seem to ache periodically. Sleep is virtually impossible unless pain meds kick in and I get a couple of hours. I have a post-op appointment 6 weeks from surgery date. I am a machinist with a physical job and am nervous about reinjuring it if i go back too early. Any input on post-op pain, recovery info and how long before anyone has been able to return to a physical job would be greatly appreciated. Also I have not slept in a bed in about 6 months an am just barely able to start sleeping on the couch. I feel as if I'm about 6 months away from recovering enough to return to work with no worries, does that seem reasonable or am I just reacting to this current horrific pain? Also, how long do you usually have physical therapy? On the plus side, the tingling and numbness in my left hand and fingers seems to have subsided, but I seem to have a significant loss of hand strength and grip, will the strength in my left hand come back with therapy? Very depressed with this post-op pain and about the actual time it takes the fusion to take and heal properly. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I am 35yrs old , and I fell down a flight of concrete stairs which led to my surgeries.You will start feeling better, very very slowly. I had anterior cervical fusion in 2004 of the C5/C6/C7 and was inthe hospital for one day.I first had a really high fever & vomiting for two days during the first two weeks when I thought was going to die, but it passed.Red or raised or fluid filled areas very bad if you have them, so consult your doc asap.My shoulders hurt very badly, shoulder blade area, mid back,and upper arms die to the surgery trauma and the muscles spasms. Tingling/numbness in my arm and hand was gone in about 6 months. Sleep was very , very difficult, and still presents issues from the pain, angle of my neck, and the unending muscle spasms. I actually went back to work after 2 weeks at home post-op.No collar given by surgeon, no pain meds. I later bought myself a soft collar for sleeping, sitting in front of the tv. Went back to work on a shortened schedule and I remain on that schedule today since my work revolves around a computer/sitting. I have small raised area where the fusion site is that is sensitive-no yanking,pulling,etc and the inside of my throat seems dimensionally smaller(not sure why-metal,pins,scar tissue)which makes it hard to swallow some pills now.I thought that the pain was never going to get better, but it does and things start clearing up in a year. You start feeling partially "normal"in about two years. If it rains or the weather gets bad the fusion site swells up,and I have a really bad day, but I take a short day and pop some Advil/rest.I was popping Advil/Ibuprofen/Tylenol PM for a year straight before my primary doc finally gave me some pain meds. In 2006, I had further surgery on my low back-Microdisectomy L5/S1.I feel much better today after both procedures.My surgeon,despite not giving me any pain meds, was wonderful. I have several issues sleeping,sitting,walking for long periods,headaches which I think will never go away-but I have hope!. I have found the following things to be very helpful, but please consult your doc. Hot baths, heating pad, Aspercreme/Bengay,Advil Liquid Gel Caps,Alleve,Vicadin 750m,Inversion Table, Exercise is Paramount-Walking/Recumbant Bike/Elliptical,Tylenol PM, Soft Cervical Collar, Sleep Number Bed/Select Comfort, Back Exercises Each Day, Stretching,Touching the Skin and Surgical Area to Promote Positive Sensation,Acupuncture,Sleep as much is humanly possible.I plan getting a recliner real soon as a treat to watch the aeful programs on my tv. I have felt like c**p since 2001 when I fell, missing things from trauma/ pain delusion/meds/doctor-hospital treatment dance-birthdays,trips home, daily activities,life. It does get better!!! Take care.