This thread is those for a year or more after surgery and how are you doing Now ?

[zoey1]

I had a double level fusion in June of 2004
To me it was one of the most difficult things in recovery i had to go through.
Recovery for me was slow and during the year several other things in auto immune catagory popped up for first time and also had to be treated for that.

I do think the nerves at least in my case were totaly tramatised so that anything that was a remote possiblity reared it's ugly head.
My life style is completely different now, still bad pain moments and still on pain meds.
I was asked recently if i knew what i knew then would i make the same decision.. I truely cannot answer that, i still remember being told if i did not have the surgery i would end up in wheel chair soon. I also had 3 different consults before i made the surgey decision.
For those still making the decision for surgery every outcome is different. Some folks have massive sucess others do not. I fall in the do not catagory.
I will say this however, i am getting pain managment and that is a good outcome because most of my pain is still managed by the use of medication.

For me other complications that arrose, is agressive ankolosing spondilitus, rhumatoid arthitus, thrioditus and diabetes 2 , i do think that massive nerve pain helped bring to surface any other complications.
Good moments for me are times when i can get around a bit take care of things i need to do and when pain levels are not 9 - 10.
So how is it for yall now and any ole posters from 2003 4 still around?

[dennisgb]

I'm really sorry your surgery hasn't worked for you.

I had two level ACDF in June of 2004.

I had a long recovery, but was back to about 80% in 6 months.

I am now totally pain free and do not take any medication. I am doing pretty much anything that I want to.

I followed all doctor instructions, and am still doing strength excercises every other day. This is really important to keep neck strong. It also loosens nerves and muscles.

Dennis

[hugo eve]

Yo zoey1

Had double fusion 12/03. Pain wasn't a factor after the first few weeks. Swallowing was affected for probably about 6 months. Hip from graft site took a few months to settle down. Had no other complications, except shortly after op had third protusion which caused all old symptoms to surface including chronic vertigo. I knew that the third disc was crook but at initial consultation it was hanging in there. Trouble being that I incorrectly assumed that symptoms was caused by damaged cord and not from new protusion so took me a lot longer to identify and get fixed. I was overjoyed to find that it was something fixable.

Second op was 6 weeks ago to the day. Single fusion 6/7. No pain. No vertigo. Can look up with no drama. Weekness in hands and legs improving. Walking 4 miles a day. Hip slightly sore but improving rapidly. No limp. No probs swallowing at all!

Incidently I had high blood pressure come on after first neck trauma and was put on medication. After second surgery my BP went to dangerously low levels whilst I was in ICU and has now settled back to normal 130/80 with no medication so that is a great bonus! Cord compression must have affected it tho norminally it causes low BP not high so that's a bit strange.

I'm still taking it easy but I didn't think I would be feeling this good so quickly in my wildest dreams! (touch wood)

Hugz

[dootag]

Hi Zoey,

Interesting thread. I had a single ACDF in 1989 at C6-7. In 1991 I had a second ADCF at C6-5 w/ plate. The disc at 6/5 had been damaged in the same accident but they thought it would heal. It didn't. Not uncommon.

An osteophyte in the righ nerve vent at C6/7 had pithed my Ulnar nerve. There was a lost of damage and I ended up with two nerver release surgeries including a full transposition of the Ulnar nerve. After that everything went well. I have Psoriasis Spondylitis in the spine and that is always there but all in all I have felt it was a good move. My hip where they removed the bone for the second graft has caused me some problems over the years.

In 2003 the donor bone fusion at C6-7 broke. It allows the spine above the break to rotate a number of millimeters either direction and causes much mischief. It cannot be repaired at this writing because of the scar tissue on my vocal cords. Mulitiple Neurosurgeons predict 95 to 97 percent chance of rendering me mute if they go in again. That's no real option. The University of San Francisco is working on a solution to solve the somewhat common problem of not being able to go in posteriorly to repair a broken fusion.

All in all I would do it again. I don't think you are ever 100 percent after any surgery but I feel that even with the broken fusion I'm better off than if I hadn't had it. I had virtually no pain prior to the break, excluding the arthritis. My Range of Motion horizontally was 80% backward it was rather restricted tilting rearward. However I learned to adapt. I feel the plate encroaching on my esophageous once in a while but I know what it is and ignore it. I've lived with it for a long time and it is just part of me now.

dootag

[CTmom]

I'm a year-and-a-half out from ACDF of C5-C6. I had a long recovery and it was about nine months before I was pain-free. I still have a few bad days of "flare-ups" every couple months, but it's nothing compared to the pain before my surgery.

Would I do it again? Absolutely in a minute. I was basically totally disabled by pain before - had to lie flat with my arm over my head to keep pain under control. Standing for more than 2-3 minutes would cause such pain I was in tears and often vomited. So, for me having the surgery was an obvious decision (although of course I did debate with myself about it at the time!)

I am amazed at the differences is responses to this surgery. My mom had the same surgery 25 years ago and was back to work as a nurse within two weeks. Never took a pain pill after surgery and was doing housework the day after. My recovery was probably more the norm, but overall I am very pleased with the result. I have only slightly reduced mobility and most of the time no pain and have gotten my life back.