Son's surgery - Spinal Cord Disorders Message Board

Phan · 02-03-2008, 10:42 AM

My 24yr old son had C5-6 anterior cervical discectomy and disk replacement just a few days ago. Since the surgery, he has numb fingers and aching arms. The doctor said it will settle in a few weeks. Does anyone else have experience of this and did the problem settle. He is very worried that it will be permanent. He had some leg problems before surgery and we thought it would all disappear once he had the surgery but he's still getting some problems. Is this normal after the surgery?

Backinthesaddle · 02-05-2008, 10:23 AM

That really could be either or. I had a lot of relief after my decompression of C4/5. I was left with permanent arm, hand and neck pain due to spinal compression but I am much better. I do not have numbness at all. Your son will just have to wait and see. For me I was back to normal the same day. I have C6/7 issues and after the first surgery there I had immediate relief of arm and hand pain and didnt get any until recently when the nerve was collapsed on. I expect relief post acdf of that. Nerves do calm down but it takes about a month per inch of nerve damage. He is young and hopefully will feel better soon.

Phan · 02-05-2008, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Backinthesaddle

That really could be either or. I had a lot of relief after my decompression of C4/5. I was left with permanent arm, hand and neck pain due to spinal compression but I am much better. I do not have numbness at all. Your son will just have to wait and see. For me I was back to normal the same day. I have C6/7 issues and after the first surgery there I had immediate relief of arm and hand pain and didnt get any until recently when the nerve was collapsed on. I expect relief post acdf of that. Nerves do calm down but it takes about a month per inch of nerve damage. He is young and hopefully will feel better soon.

Thank you for your reply. My son saw the surgeon today and he says the problem may be caused by inflammation of the nerves round the operation site. Hopefully it will all settle down in time. He is starting physiotheraph treatment on Thursday which will hopefully help recovery. His legs have been very bad the last couple of days and it's been very worrying. Did you have a replacement disc put in? My son had this without any fusion.

Backinthesaddle · 02-06-2008, 12:19 PM

I wish I had a disc replacement but I am a workers comp patient and they won't do that. I had acdf. I am wondering why your sons legs hurt though that is odd to me. I have had a few issues and a few surgeries but no leg pain with it. He doesn't have any lumbar issues does he?

Phan · 02-08-2008, 02:44 PM

No, his lumbar scans were good. He's got bad leg problems the last couple of days and he just found the original report from his original MRI. It stated he also has a disc bulge at another level from the one he's just had replaced, so worrying that his leg problems are coming from this other disc bulge. It is all very worrying. Waiting to hear from the surgeon next week.