muscle spasms??? - Spinal Cord Disorders Message Board

pgood · 05-26-2004, 05:54 AM

I had acdf (C-6-7) w/titanium plate and screws on 3/02/04. For the most part surgery seems to be successful. I do get occasional pains which I believe to be muscle related. Most are in between the shoulder blade area but some do extend into upper left shoulder region. Sometimes it feels like I have a big 'catch' in my upper back. I would like for others to describe their 'muscle spasms' as I'm not exactly sure this is what I am experiencing when I have these pains.

pattymelt · 05-26-2004, 02:06 PM

I had four level ACDF and PCDF with titanium plating on March 29th and am still having muscle spasms and pain across my shoulders and between my shoulder blades too. My doctor says this is part of the healing process and to take the Flexeril and Percocet to help relieve the pain. I find I am taking the Percocet only once a day and the Flexeril at bedtime to help me sleep and am doing much better, although I am far from back to normal, but I had so much pain before the surgery I can hardly remember what normal is

The more people I talk to who have had this surgery and the more I read on these boards, the more I am convinced that none of us had any idea as to how hard this recuperation would be. It certainly is no picnic and it is easy to get discouraged, but considering the alternative to surgery was the danger of paralysis, I can afford to be patient

WICHRIS · 05-26-2004, 04:35 PM

I am at the start of all this in that I just recently had my MRI that showed
a disk protrusion at C5,6 ..however I am pretty stubborn when it comes to
taking medication but my muscle spasms felt like a huge knot at the bottom
of my neck in the back and I could barely move my neck to the left..and also
across my shoulders in the back it feels extremely tight-sometimes it felt
like someone was sticking a hot knife back there where my neck meets the spine.My PCP rxed Flexeril 10 3 x day but I was only using 1 at bedtime
and the pain has been getting worse so now I swallowed my pride and am
taking it 3 times a day and it has helped ease the pain and my neck itself
isnt as tight. Some other meds useful for the muscle spasms are Skelaxin
( not as sedating ) or Valium,Robaxin,Soma or Zanaflex...hope this helps..

Chris

azureskyz · 05-27-2004, 11:56 AM

My surgery was on 3-29-04. I just yesterday was able to take off that dreaded brace. I am alos in agony. After just 2 hours I had to put the soft collar on to hold my head up. I have a burning in my left shoulder blade and a prickling feeling. I also feel like someone who has been swimming for 10 hours my shoulders and neck are so tight and sore. I too feel very impatient and want to get back to work but can't. Ugh,, I would still do the surgery all over again though as I had almost lost use of my left arm and the headaches were UNBEARABLE! But, I never thought or was told recovery would be so tough.

Azureskyz

garion64 · 05-27-2004, 04:42 PM

I had c4 c5 done on 5-11, I only seem to have spasms when i'm on my feet for 30 min or more. They can get so bad if i do not sit down, it will drive me to the floor the pain feels like a knot on the right side of my neck running down into my trisep area on the back of my arm, its very annoying. When sitting i'm pretty much pain free. The recovery from this is so slow im starting to go nuts im use to lifting weights 3 hours a day and this inacitivity is awful. Most people just dont understand how hard this is. I'd like to snap this collar on a few of my family members and let them feel this for a few days lol. This hard collar makes me feel like i'm in prison. How long was it before you were able to go with out it? and i had to stop the pain meds, they all were making me sick. I tried most of them, i think they all made me feel like i was going to toss my lunch so its been 48 hours now with out any pain meds but i think ill have to eat one soon . ok im done complaining for now bless you all and i pray for you all to have a speedy recovery