I know this post is old, but I just wanted to chime in. I'm female, 42 years old and had a posterior laminectomy without fusion on C4-5 and C5-6 at the very end of December 2016. I was diagnosed with cervical stenosis, degenerative disc disease and early stages of cervical myelopathy. I had disc protrusions (that docs said they weren't worried about because disc protrusions can go away on their own), but it was the bone spurs compressing and mildly deforming my cervical spinal cord that was their concern. My symptoms in the years leading up to surgery were chronic neck, arm stiffness and pain when I did any physical activity. The reason doc did surgery was not because of my pain, but because of the steadily progressing tingling and numbness in my hands and feet. I used to do kick boxing, karate, HIIT, strength training and strenuous hiking - worked out strenuously 5+ times per week. By the time I had surgery I couldn't vacuum without my fingers and hand tingling and going numb. I had the surgery on November 30th, was back to work (office work) in 2.5 weeks and was not prescribed physical therapy. 7.5 months later now in July 2017 - I'm having some issues. While the tingling and numbness has resolved, every time I workout I get pain within a day or two that lasts a week. I got my first deep tissue massage just last month for my birthday and the lady messed me up and I have left arm pain now that while isn't bad enough to keep me from work, is wearing me down. Another issue is the war on opiates. While I had no problem discontinuing opiates within the 3 months post surgery, I get periodic flare ups when I do any of the activities I love to do - ie hiking, zumba, light jogging, using hand weights and have to go to the doc because I'm not able to take Advil / Aleve or anti-inflammatories. And now they have a policy that any type of chronic non cancer pain won't be treated by opiates. So I am going to have to check out pain management for an injection possibly or need to talk to my surgeon again (who is in Seattle and I'm 2 hours away) to tell me if this is normal and to see if they think PT would help. I'm happy the numbness and tingling went away as that could've led to permanent damage or full blown cervical myelopathy, but I'm not happy about not shaking the pain after activity. I want so badly to get back to being the active person I once was.
I just had posterior cervical laminectomy for compression on the spinal cord.... that m into my second week of healing and unfortunately have terrible nerve pain in my arms ,hands and shoulders, I’m worried that I will be left in this condition, I’ve was put on Lyrica in the hospital as soon as we realized that I couldn’t even be touched on my arms etc
If anyone has experienced this PLEASE let’s talk !
If anyone has experienced this PLEASE let’s talk !
Has anyone opted for posterior laminectomy only, without fusion? I'd love to hear about your recovery experience.