In January 2002 I had a cervical fusion of C5-C7 because of two herniated and one bulging disc. Cadaver bone and a plate was used. No follow up was ever performed by NS after surgery. A year later a was involved in a minor traffic incident, and after being taken to hospital for xrays, found out my bones had never fused and my plate was actually coming out of my neck. I didn't realize that was why I was having problems swallowing! In any case, the numbness, tingling, pain was making its way back and my old NS wanted nothing to do with me. New NS took one look at xrays and mris and said surgery had to be completly redone, this plate could come out at any time. This time however, he will be using bone from my hip. I am hearing that this is actually worse than the neck surgery. I have 3 small children and am wondering, what is actual downtime time for this. I am being told I have to stay flat on back for 3 weeks after surgery. Is this true? How long can I expect to be down after this realistically? My surgery is in less than 2 weeks and I need to start making plans for my kids, but I want to be realistic here.

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Laurie

Laurielou,

Let me be the 1st to welcome you here. I can't speak for the cervical aspect of your operation but I can speak to the grafting. I am now 3 weeks (today) post-op from a 2 level 360 degree fusion with hardware, donor and my own hip bone grafting. The discomfort I feel does come from the grafting site however, here I am at 3 weeks after a week in the hospital working from home, walking and doing many things other than bending.

Most drs will say that the majority of pain (non incisional) is from the grafting site. I can't speak for all but for me, on a pain scale of 1-10 it's a 0 and on a "dis-comfort" scale it's a 2.

I hope this helps,

SHG

I am new here so i just want to say hey first. my name is cyndi and i also had neck fusion surgery. On the 10th of sept. My upper back muscles hurt quite a lot. In between my shoulder blades. It is really hard to do anything like cleaning, sleeping, groceries , sleeping, cooking , sleeping etc etc. I had bone taken from my hip. The doc said that would hurt worse but guess what? It hurts yeah but not like my upper back. YEEEOWCH. I would much rather have another baby lolol. oooooo it hurts to laugh too!!!!

Well, thank you both for your replies and input. I remember my last neck fusion hurt as well, but I was so relieved to have the arm pain and numbness gone, I really didn't notice the neck stuff so much. I should probably put this in perspective. Nothing can be worse than childbirth, and I have done that 4 times, one being c-section, so I guess I will handle this fine! I just wish I didn't have to take care of three kids as well (youngest 4 & 6)! I have just heard so many horror stories about the hip, it really concerned me. Thanks again!
Laurie

Laurielou,

Good morning to you. All I can say is this...be positive and keep telling yourself that you'll be fine.

Good luck,

SHG