I had acdf atc5-6/c6-7 6 weeks ago, my arm, shoulder and hand pain and numbness is gone, but I'm having extreme ongoing upper spinal and neck pain. Nothing seems to help...pain pills, massage, heat or ice. Is this normal? Should I tell my dr at my next appointment? Does anyone have any advice? Also when should I expect to go back to work? My injury was due to a on the job accident so I am on work comp. Any advice would be great. Thanks
If your neck pain is worse now than after surgery, you should call the doc's office and at the least, report it. Pain can come back badly as the nerve endings heal but my rule of thumb is that if it's worse than after surgery, call it in....you don't know what may be going wrong(if anything) and the surgeon needs to know a problem may be developing. We had one person here who had a screw hit a nerve....talk about pain!
But any time we get pain that bad, it should report it to the surgeon's office. Not worth taking chances.
Jenny(10 weeks post-op)
The Following User Says Thank You to jennybyc For This Useful Post: slushie79 (06-05-2012)
Thanks Jenny
I have had bad experiences with doctors so I am real hesitant to tell them how I'm really feeling. My husband or mom go with me now because I always say everything is fine, so they go and tell on me lol.
before the surgery the pain was really just my shoulder and arm that for 7 months everyone thought it was a pulled muscle. I did pt 3x a week for 7 months and finally my therapist ordered a mri. 2 herniated discs pressing on my spinal cord later I was scheduled for surgery. I'm scared that something is wrong but this pain is unreal. Electric zings up and down my spine, constant nagging pain in my neck makes me sad
Thanks for your advice
I know how scary it can be.......my post-op sheet said to call if my temp went up to 101*....and I was 101.+* for 4 days once I got home....and I didn't call either. I know I got fevers that high after the first 2 surgeries but if I told my doc, I'd be in for another trip to Boston and I didn't want to get back in the darn car! 2 1/2 hours in the car the day after surgery was enough for me. I just kept telling myself if I went OVER 101* then I'd call and I stopped at 101.8.
It may be nothing but you're paying for his services so call and report it....the surgeon needs to know. All they may do is have you get an MRI or CT to make sure all is okay. An increase in pain may just be healing nerves trying to get working again and they ZAP and ZING when they start working again so it could just be a sign of healing. I always tell folks that for the most part, they will have days of really bad pain as they heal and not to freak out...healing nerves tell you they are healing by yelling HI....I'm BACK! but your pain sounds a little different and so you need to call it in and see what the doc says...maybe just normal to him.
Relax and call and tell me what they tell you....I'd be interested to know if it's normal healing pain or a problem...helps me learn so I can help others here.
Hugs...............Jenny
The Following User Says Thank You to jennybyc For This Useful Post: kenzibenzi (06-05-2012)
