New to boards just had surgery - Spinal Cord Disorders Message Board

verniebird · 09-13-2003, 09:30 PM

Hello everyone. I just had fusion at c5-6 on Monday Sept 9. Was having intolerable pain on left side of neck, back and arm. Since surgery, left side is terrific but now the right side of my neck and head have horrible pain that was not there before surgery. Throat is getting somewhat better, swallowing still restricted a bit. Trying to limit pain meds. Does anyone have any info about why suddenly now my right side has pain? Going to see surgeon Monday morning and would appreciate any experiences you may have had. Thanks. Mary Ellen

canvaswriter · 09-14-2003, 11:09 AM

Hello!

I am one week ahead of you, I had surgery on the 2nd, and came here to ask basically the same questions. I developed a severe headache and ear ache on the right side the 2nd day after surgery. First the doctor said it might be migraine and told me to double the percoset to 2 instead of one, which seemed to help a little after a few days but left the ear ache, which finally drove me to my general doctor because I thought it might be an ear infection, but he said there was no evidence of ear infection and that it was probably "trauma" to the eustation tube (sorry about misspellings), and gave me a steriod nasal spray for swelling, an antihistime nasal spray for drainage, and a round of antibiotics to err on the side of caution.

After 3 days more, the headaches are down to about 50% of what they were, and the earaches are a little less as well, but they both come and go...

someone posted here that the muscles they cut during the surgery reach up to the ear area and that they too had earache, so I'm going on the theory now that both headaches and earaches are experienced by some but not others, might be an ear infection or not, could be a muscular thing or not, and more than likely is just one of many post op things that some are experiencing, like the swallowing/breathing thing, that will go away with enough time.

Every day seems to feel just a tiny bit better, but not in leaps and bounds as in previous surgeries, this time it appears that slow is the norm, and is going to stay the norm...

I hope you begin feeling better soon, I hope we all do...

Susan

verniebird · 09-14-2003, 11:43 AM

Thanks for the reply Susan. Going to see surgeon for 1 wk post-op visit tomorrow and I will let you know what he says. Problem is, I did not have this pain until I woke up Sat morning. Fri nite I thought I was almost home free and then Sat morning whammo! I seem to be having trouble after a nights sleep. I have tried sleeping with and without a collar, no pillow, 1 pillow, cervical pillow. Nothing seems to help. Have you had problems with extreme soreness as soon as you wake up?

Icaaa · 09-14-2003, 02:14 PM

Hi
When I was coming out of the anesthetic I guess I kept saying "My left arm feels free, but oh no now my right side is in trouble." My incision was more to the right of the middle of my throat, too. Even the right side looked more swollen. I was surprised. I felt like if I had not been on pain meds I would have had a major sinus headache. I don't know why they go round the coppler's nest to get where they need to be. But, as I healed this lessened.

As many of us say, time and rest. Thsoe 2 do great.

Carla

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Ruptured retrieved 14 pieces ACDF with plating and donor bone C6-7. (7/18/03)

canvaswriter · 09-14-2003, 03:05 PM

Sleeping and waking...

Along with everything else this seems to vary widely as well.

Sometimes I actually wake up BECAUSE of the pain. Pain in my ear, pain in my shoulders, pain between my shoulder blades... And other times sleep is the only thing that seems to help the pain go away and I wake up feeling absolutely wonderful.

This is the strangest post op I've ever had, in all of the surgeries I have had on my leg and arms, it was pretty much cut and dried, every day it was a little better, when one thing was done, it was done for good. But this time it's just about as whacky at it could be.

I am getting a handle on how far I can go however and today realized that when I am at my most tired, my shoulders, between my shoulder blades, ear and head all chime in at once, and if I just stop trying to do anything at all and lay down and sleep and make sure I'm doing the pain meds every 4 hours faithfully, I wake up and feel much better.

I'm trying to become at one with the song of my body again and give it what it wants. The first week I was so out of tune I couldn't tell what was what, but each day I feel I'm getting a little more in tune and can tell when I'm overdoing it and when it's time to just give it up and go to sleep and let it heal.

So to answer your question, yep, sometimes I wake up very stiff and very much in pain, and don't know why yet, and sometimes I don't.

Not much clarity there, but it's the best I can do at the moment...

susan

And p.s. the pillow thing is the same with me, sometimes I am more comfortable with the ortho pillow, sometimes a regular pillow, sometimes on my back, sometimes on my side, it isn't a sure thing that what i did the previous time is going to work again, so I start out one way and just keep adjusting the sleeping position until I guess I'm either exhausted or find the one way that time that will work.

I have noticed however that if I fall asleep on my right side with the right side of my head on the pillow that the earache/headache thing seems to worsen, so I've been trying to avoid purposefully laying in that position..