Valerie & Kathi,

I'm so glad you're both here to bounce things off of....so to speak. The past two months I've had so many questions that only others who had the same surgery could answer. I kept checking back with the original BT Communities address and it wasn't until I did a search that I found it under the new address.
Valerie, that hernia surgery was a kicker! It wasn't until they got in there to fix the first hernia that they found a second one just below it a few inches. I had a worse time with pain and getting around, I believe because of the drugs (Mepergan Fortis) they gave me bound me up! I stopped those pain killers after 2 weeks, had I known what was making me so constipated, I would have not taken them at all and stuck with the percocet from the ACDF surgery. I honestly thought having the lapriscopic surgery would make it so much easier of a recovery, boy was I wrong! I felt like they took an egg beater and stuck it in each incision and turned it on full speed. I'm happy to hear that things are going well for you. Since you can't take your usual meds for pain and the tylenol is doing nothing, can't your surgeon prescribe a mild pain killer that will allow you to sleep a little better or wake with less pain?
Kathi, you've given me some hope being that you had that "honeymoon" period of no pain before pains returned. I'm so happy to hear that they can disappear again! I think what you are doing with wearing the collar only part-time is a smart idea! I know my muscles locked up while wearing the collar cuz when I first took it off, I could not move my head in any direction without pain. I was stiff as a board. As far as the scar on the neck, the PT told me to rub, press on, and massage it once it's healed over. By doing so, you'll break up the scar tissue that builds up and reduce the scarring. When I first started working on mine, it felt like needles poking me deep in the neck, but now it's much better and the scar is hardly noticable. I still have no feeling on the surface of my neck from the incision, up to the front of my chin, but I know that could take up to a year to return. Kathi, you're a brave soul to do that surgery twice! Right now, I don't ever want to even think of having another surgery...I'm a big old chicken!...lol I'm wondering now what symptoms you had with your C3/4 prior to having it fused?

Do either of you, or anyone else have any ideas on how to sleep?

Anyhow, my OS mentioned an MRI to see if something is in there that got left behind. Can MRI's show if the nerves are being irritated by something even with all that hardware so close to where they need to view?

Best to you both,

Kim