symptoms of different disc after surgery - Spinal Cord Disorders Message Board

aspen2cody · 11-22-2004, 05:05 PM

Have any of you expierenced symptoms of another disc herniation after surgery. I had c5c6 acdf 10 weeks ago. I have burning in the tricep,outside of chest musle where it attaches to the armpit, armpit, elbow, lat muscle and back of shoulder muscle where it attaches to the armpit.I dont get any of those burning feelings all at once. I usually get a burning sensation in one of those areas 3 to 5 times a day. They only last 10 seconds at the most. The Nuerologist that did a EMG after my surgery said I had chronic irratation of the c7 nerve root. She didnt believe it was caused by pinched nerve because of my symptoms, but I dont know what would cause irratation if it wasnt a pinched nerve. Does anyone have any idea?

IzzyFuzzy · 11-25-2004, 04:25 PM

Sorry to hear about your other troubles. I have to think that post-surgery swelling and shifting around in there may take a while to settle down. Even though my fusion seems to have reduced or eliminated the constant chronic part of my pain, I am still having the same muscle twitches I was having before, plus some!

My fused levels were C5-C6-C7, but my NS seems to think that the numerous bone spurs he found may have been a greater problem than the bulging disks. Who knows? Can bone spurs be removed posteriorly (or anteriorly) without fusion?

I seem to remember that you were an active person before this, so maybe you have lost some muscle tone and along with the changes inside your neck, some nerves are getting irritated. If so, I have to think that it will subside as time goes on. I do know that even with x-rays and two MRI's, my NS was surprised to find all the spurs.

Does anyone know if a CT scan might show bone spurs better?

Hang in there

Duckdog · 11-26-2004, 07:28 AM

I'm about 8 months out of a C6-7 fusion and I still get oddball pains and burning now and again like you are describing. The further out you get, the less frequent they should be, but I know from my experience, they still occur. 10 wks is still very early in the game, so you no doubt have a lot of swelling and imflamation yet that is probably causing you some trouble.

If I overdo it, I will get not only tightness in my shoulers, but I'll feel carpal tunnel burning and numbness in my hand(s) that is not there when I am not having the muscle spasms in my neck and shoulders. What I did was to keep a diary and also marked how I was feeling on a calander each morning and evening to kind of keep track of the patterns of pain and if there were breaks in it. I found that there were indeed spells where I had no pain and where it was much better, but without keeping track of it, I would have never thought that there was when I was hurting from a flare up. I also wrote what tended to flare things up, and I have learned to alter those activities and possibly avoid tem until i healed further. Good Luck.

aspen2cody · 11-26-2004, 10:42 AM

duckdog , izzy

I also keep a journal on my pains that I have, it used to be my exercise diary. I wished I would have found these boards before surgery because I was no where close to the pain or discomfort each of you have wrote about. I was trying as fast as I could to get back to working out again. Since my shoulder was weak. I didnt have any muscle weakness or numbness in my arm. It was just in my shoulder which is now getting better. Since surgery I now have symptoms alot people on the boards have such as burning in the chest,lats and triceps. It just scares me that by having this surgery I opened up a can of worms. My NS which my chiro recommended along with my PT was supposed to be conservitive. He said I needed surgery right now since it was laying in my spinal cord but I had no symptoms of that. My 1st opinion said I needed surgery also. I just hope this burning goes away it only last for few seconds but it comes and goes about 3 or 4 times a day.