rgsmoose

I had what you are apparently going to be getting. It's called either a vertebrectomy or corpectomy, which is all part of an anterior (from the front) cervical (neck) decompression surgery. You are having this because your spinal cord is being compressed (myelopathy) by osteophytes (bone spurs) growing on one or more of your cervical vertebrae. An ACDF (anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion) is part of the entire surgery. What you'll be having is actually called ACDCF - anterior cervical diskectomy, corpectomy and fusion. The surgery starts with the removal of 2 disks (for a one level corpectomy), followed by the removal of the main body of the vertebra. The empty space is filled with a bone (called a strut graft), either taken from your hip or from a bone bank. This is then usually covered with a metal plate to hold everything in place.

From the recovery standpoint, this surgery is very similar to an ACDF. You'll probably be in a hard collar for 12 weeks (at least that's how long my surgeon had me in one). I also wore a bone fusion stimulator for a total of 24 weeks. This is a small electronic device that stimulates the bones in your neck to fuse through small electrodes taped to either side of your neck.

All this sounds scary, I know. This is apparently needed because of compression of your spinal cord. In my case I may have waited too long, as part of my spinal cord is dead (called myelomalacia) and those nerves will not regenerate. So, if you need the surgery, get it done before the problem gets worse. I lived through it as have many others. Just concentrate on getting your problem fixed before it gets too bad. Good luck with everything and let us know how it goes.