Thanks for the input guys.

This surgeon told me Not to use a sling.
That's fine by me, I just got out of 4 months of having to wear one all the time.

20YrsTOS- was your after surgery pain mostly like.. surgical pain? Wound pain, soreness, that kinda stuff? Or was it like a demon monster version of your nerve symptoms too?
My wound pain seemed to be decreasing quickly, but there's new weird nerve stuff surfacing. The nerve stuff was less the first few days and it was just PAIN pain.. so it was kind of hard to remind myself to keep at my usual slow pace because.. Pffft just pain is nothing. Just Pain is something I can work with.
Now with the nerves + the surgical pain it feels almost like surgery never happened, and I feel about like I did the week before surgery.
With your 4 surgeries, did this kind of stuff surface for you?
Was it an indication the surgery was ineffective?


I wound up back in ER last night due to sudden onset pain so bad it was making me vomit, and a stabbing head pain, shortness of breath.
I was laying in bed and let my head list to the left, away from the surgical side. the shooting sudden pain was so bad I got the sweats.. and the barfs.. And the crawling sensation in my neck was terrible. I kept having diaphragm spasms that felt like half of a hiccup and Could Not draw in air. I kept getting really lost and confused in my own room trying to get my pants to go to the hospital..
Surgeon's PA wanted me to make sure it wasn't a blood clot or I didn't re-injure my nerves or anything...

ER team had a different idea of the situation, mostly that I am probably just sore from surgery and wasting their time.
One of the resident Dr's that was part of my surgery came in and told me I was just complaining about a previous nerve issue that had nothing to do with the surgery. (Forget that I had the surgery to correct the nerve issue, apparently irrelevant).

When I tried to get more details motions restrictions, or body positions form them it was more of the same "Just General limited motion". One PA got so angry she left the room after saying that 4 times. She also told me that "extreme head movements" may just be something I can't do any more.. Such as Looking Left.

The trouble is my whole life has been "General limited motion" in increasing levels. But holding still also hurts. So does laying down, or sitting up.
So they sent me home and told me not to do anything crazy with my arms, they didn't know why I hurt, didn't know what was up with my nerves, and didn't know who in all of Hopkins I could possibly talk to about it.

It's not like I'm having people drive me to the ER because I get some symptoms after I do too much mountain biking! I just want to be able to be an adult again, to dress myself, to be able to hold up my own head without feeling like I've been hit by a truck.