When your dr. choose to leave out c5/6 from the fusion process, he was already scheduling your next surgery. No doubt about it. There was no way that 5/6 could hold up to the stress placed on it from the levels above and below. I know they don't want to operate on more than necessary, but sometimes common sense needs to kick in with these drs.

I started with a blow out at 5/6. At the time my surgeon said above and below were both already bad, but it was an emergency and he wanted to fix just the immediate problem. 14 months later, I was back in for a revision and extension. Both surgeries were through the front and now I'm plated from C4/7 and quess what? C3 &T1 are now full blown (they were already bad too, just not that bad)! I'm not looking for more surgery, but if I lose the use of my arm for a 3rd time, I don't know what I'll do.

I'm sure your surgeon has his/her reasons for doing what they did. But they should have discussed this with you and gave you the option of doing 5/6 at the time. They most certainly knew that they would blow out sooner or later and you once again would be under the knife, at your expense no doubt.

Good luck, Linda

P.S. I remember discussing this with you before your surgery. I think many of us mentioned this could and would most likely happen. Although, I'm not happy about being right. I'm sorry you're having to go through this again. It's definately no fun.