The good thing is that there are alot of people out there that have done really well with spinal surgery. The best thing I can tell you is to do all of the research you possibly can. Try to find others who have had the same surgery and ask how they got along.
I know there are alot of blogs that will scare the c**p out of everyone facing spinal surgery of any type...but remember most blog because they are still in pain and have had problems with the surgery.
You did not mention how old your son is. If he is young will he have to face this surgery over as his body grows?
I don't wish this pain on anyone...but there are people out there that have had exellent results even with the type of surgery I had. Unfortunately I'm just one of those that it didn't help.
Best of luck.
I know there are alot of blogs that will scare the c**p out of everyone facing spinal surgery of any type...but remember most blog because they are still in pain and have had problems with the surgery.
You did not mention how old your son is. If he is young will he have to face this surgery over as his body grows?
I don't wish this pain on anyone...but there are people out there that have had exellent results even with the type of surgery I had. Unfortunately I'm just one of those that it didn't help.
Best of luck.
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I had surgery 7 weeks ago today. I had three herniated disks which pushed into the spinal cord in three places. They rebuilt the bone by snapping the "ears" off my vertebrae, crushing them and mixing them with my own blood. I had a 3 level fusion, 3-4, 4-5, and 5-6, four titanium plates, screws and two titanium rods. I went back to work after 5 weeks. I am a middle school teacher. I was in the hospital for 5 days and never wore a brace. Recovery has been slow. I still have pain if I sit for over 30 minutes. Every afternoon I have major pain in my upper arms and upper back/neck area. Dr says it takes time and will eventually improve. My motor skills are better as I had almost lost control of my right hand. I'm just thankful that I can walk, talk, and use both arms and hands. Left untreated, I would have become a paraplegic, so I guess the pain is a much better alternative. They say a positive attitude is the best medicine. I am 51 and am trying to keep that positive outlook, and my students help every day.
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Do any of you know what this surgery actually does?? It removes part of your vertebrae, removes part or all of your discs, and fuses the segment together using grafts and screws. This prevents movement in those segments, obviously... but this means that the OTHER segments, above and below, must compensate for the lost movement. They will develop abnormal bone growths to support the extra load put upon them; in future years you will experience more pain. Loss of motion due to fusion in NEVER a good thing, even if they tell you your spine is "unstable"-- what the hell does that mean? Your spine is supported by numerous muscles and ligaments, so your head won't fall off of your body, you won't experience spontaneous paralysis, or anything so traumatic. Disc hernations, reversed curves, and instability are mroe common than you think and not nearly as scary as the general public is led to believe. These problems are easily fixed without surgery. GO to a chiropractor! That is precisely what they are trained to fix. And those are the EASY fixes. Even if you don't "believe" in chiropractors, don't think you know it all, or that all chiropractors are the same; at LEAST talk to one, and save yourself the fifty grand and years of repeat surgeries and resulting pain, osteoporosis, and numerous other problems that will undoubtedly arise afterward. Don't trust your doctor/surgeon just becasue he has MD after his name. He only has one point of view, and a great big house.
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I agree with you 100%! Try a chiroprator first. I did. I also underwent physical therapy, cervicle injection and everything else you can imagine before I gave in and had the surgery.
I have had many pains before (ie: severe back pain and neck pain), went to a chiropractor and my pain was relieved. Unfortunately for this nothing helped. The sad part is surgery did not help either. It only made things worse for me.
Thanks for recommending people to try a chiropractor first....sometimes they do really help!
I have had many pains before (ie: severe back pain and neck pain), went to a chiropractor and my pain was relieved. Unfortunately for this nothing helped. The sad part is surgery did not help either. It only made things worse for me.
Thanks for recommending people to try a chiropractor first....sometimes they do really help!
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I had surgery March 10th (c6-c7). 3 weeks after the surgery I felt great. The surgeon told me to remove the collar. I waited until the 4 week mark. At 5 weeks all of the problems I was having before came back. Both of my feet turn colors, are real cold, and ache all of the time. My lower legs tingle like they are asleep and are real weak. My right arm gets cold and I have lost some funtion of my hand. I am unable to drive because after sitting for 30 minutes I lose feeling in my feet. My right side of my face is tingly and I had to get glasses because my right eye is now 5 times weaker than my left. They have checked me for every other disorder possible and they have no answers. I am 34 years old and I have been told that this may never get any better! I am not going to give up though. I am still doing as much as I can. If this is going to get worse, I want to make sure I spend as much of my free time as I can with my kids. For right now, I will ddeal with the pain, but I hope things turn around soon. I would say I am at least twice as bad as I was before the surgery, but I didn't have a choice. My spinal cord was compressed. I really think I would have been better off if I would have left the collar on for a few more weeks. Good luck to all!
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hi all im 44 female,well its 5 weeks since i had my ACDF surgery,i had 2disc removed and 2 put in,titanium plate and 6 screws,im going good,all the deep pain in my left is gone,im still having trouble swalling cant lay flat or straight on my sides makes me feel like im choking,still drinking with a straw cant tilt my head back,cant look over my shoulders yet,still server pain in back of my neck up to base of skull,bad headaches, but i also had injury in my shoulder blades so i cant lift or carry heavy things yet cause it pulls to much on my shoulders,had MRI showed that the op went well,,now is time to start physio an get some strength back, 8-|
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hi all wish i could remember ,anyway i had c5 c6 to c6 c7,im still taking mersondole forte,2every 4hours so i can get things done at home with less server pain an 200mg tremoll,if i don't take my pills,an i do a little washing or try to vacuum,anything involving my upper body,i end up in so much pain,then have to rest ,im still very weak no energy,but yet cant sleep,frustrated,i don't have neck brace,was in hospital 4days,cant drive yet,um when i think of more ill write again,night, :-(
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i haven't had the surgery yet but they are going to replace the cartilage and cut off the spurs so i was wondering what to expect instead of the folks who had fusions done. :)
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hi its Deb,how are you all doing,i have started physio today 16/07/08,went well just collar heat packs,10mins then hydro pool 15mins, going 3 times a week, really sore and painful after,but im hoping things will improve over time,my physio sore my ct scan of my neck,and the plate an screws in there he said it looks good,i actually smiled when he said that , anyway goin to lay down very tired now ,talk to you all soon, 8-|
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I had acdf in Sept 05. I went back to work in Nov. 05. I was just like you. I hurt all of the time and was absolutely exhausted. I struggled through until July 06 (when I went back on medical leave) thinking that it was just going to take me awhile to recover from the surgery. Unfortunately for me I still have all of the same pain and fatigue that I did then...It has never went away.
I sleep about 3-4 hr sessions on a nighly basis. I can only be in bed so long and I wake up cramped and hurting. I can only do minimal housework. Sometimes when I'm having a good day I over do it and then end up paying for it the next day. I cannot stand, sit, lay, bend or move my neck for any legnth of time. The one thing I can do is walk. It's the only thing that doesn't bother me too bad.
I have been to many doctors since surgery. I have been diagnosed with RSD, Myofascial Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. Nothing shows up on any test I have had so the doctors are just guessing. I feel like a guinea pig. I'm 48yrs old and I finally had to apply for disability! If someone would have told me this was going to be "my life" 5yrs ago I would have told them they were nuts! I've always been active and have worked full time since I was 17yrs old!
Hopefully your age will play a factor in your healing and you will eventually recover from this. I sincerely hope so because life for me has been hell. Just take it slow, continue walking and consume a healthy diet.
I sleep about 3-4 hr sessions on a nighly basis. I can only be in bed so long and I wake up cramped and hurting. I can only do minimal housework. Sometimes when I'm having a good day I over do it and then end up paying for it the next day. I cannot stand, sit, lay, bend or move my neck for any legnth of time. The one thing I can do is walk. It's the only thing that doesn't bother me too bad.
I have been to many doctors since surgery. I have been diagnosed with RSD, Myofascial Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. Nothing shows up on any test I have had so the doctors are just guessing. I feel like a guinea pig. I'm 48yrs old and I finally had to apply for disability! If someone would have told me this was going to be "my life" 5yrs ago I would have told them they were nuts! I've always been active and have worked full time since I was 17yrs old!
Hopefully your age will play a factor in your healing and you will eventually recover from this. I sincerely hope so because life for me has been hell. Just take it slow, continue walking and consume a healthy diet.
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hi all its deb,sorry haven't been on my internet is down and im at my sis house today,well so far im going to physio its very slow and painful not doing much exercise just in a hydro pool making little movements with my arms to get shoulders to move,im still getting headaches up back of my neck to my skull,shoulders ,and shoulder blades don't respond to much of anything but pain is always there,im not at work ,i don't think ill be going back there my doctor has told me not a good idea,as my work load is to heavy and my injury that i sustained will not cope,still taking tremadole 2 times everyday + merzendole forte every 5 hours,generally my health is good ,still very tired no energy but yet don't sleep lots either ,accidentally bent my head back the other day ,and feel over now im getting giddy spells when i lay down,and move to quick ,well i hope this has helped a little ,im of to doctors for my monthly review ,take care my friends deb
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Sorry about the copy of what the user, Guest, wrote but this is the first time that I have every used one of these sites. What the "Guest" wrote did inspire me. I am a 40 year old male. My first symptoms that I experienced was tingling in the left arm and left side of my head. This was making me very panickey, espically when my doctor said that he could not see anything wrong with me and said I might need to see a psychologist for anxiety. I knew that I did not have anxiety problems and pushed the issue that something was wrong. My primary care physician then set me up with an MRI. The MRI showed that I have Chaiari malformation with the tonsillar extension of 10-11mm, Cervical(C) 5-6 disc bludge resulting in bilateral lateral recess stenosis with flattening of the anterior thecal sac and cord without focal cord lesion or syrinx and Posterolateral osteophytes and disc buldge at C3-4 and C4-5 resulting in bilateral lateral recess stenosis and borderling pinal stenosis. I do work out with weights 5 days a week and some cardio before my MRI results. I am waiting to see a neurosergeon Sept 4 and I am very nervous about what is to come. My primary doctor has given me xanax and it does help, but I hate taking it. In the mean time I have been experienceing pain in the left side of my neck and across my pectorial muscels with on and off tingling in my left arm and the left side of my head. The one good thing is the Neurosergeon that I am going to is well recommended by many doctors in the area. AS I said I am very nervous and my prayers are with all of you.
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sctt hi oh god yes i try to describe what my shoulders and blades feel like but its hard sometimes, but big yes that is the same awful pain i am getting everyday and it does not stop.everything you do and try it just hurts it feels like someone is slowly slicing your blades off your shoulders and more,debbie 8-|
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Feels good to know that what I'm feeling is normal especially the pain. I take the neck brace out now though and I had my surgery on Aug. 29. I also drive short distances too. Good luck to you all.
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So I had c5 and c6 done. And they used a cadavar (spelling?) bone instead of taking my own bone from my hip, not my choice really, just what they said they would do so that I could get back to work faster. This was in 2006, well long story short. I never recovered from the pain, in fact it got so much worse I ended up having to go to 4 more doctors who couldn't figure out what my problem was, they just thought I was a junkie looking for pain meds. Well, come to find out, after finding a spine specialist, for my final try at some hope for help. This genius did what no one else thought to do, gave me a discogram, (again, spelling?), and found that the fusion never took, and that my body rejected the bone from the dead person, and that i had nothing but mush back there at the moment. Plus, the nerologist had place a plate in there with one screw on top, and one on the bottom, so the doc said that it was swivelling back and forth causing all kinds of pain. He said I was lucky to be up and walking around. So also, the disk above it has been ruined because of the damage to the other disk, and now he wants to go in and take out the mush, the other doc's hardware, and take out the other disc, and replace them both with a cage and my own bone marrow to eventually encompass the cage. So now I am looking at yet another surgeon telling me to trust him and that everything will be alright? What do you do, it's like car salesmen. Always hard to know when to trust someone especially after being burned so badly. It took 2 years to figure out my problem, and it was miserable, and humiliating to feel like a drug addict.
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