Quote:
Originally Posted by luckysharms
hi....i am new on here and was wondering if anyone had insight into what i am going through....i am a 37 year old male who had a 6 month history of pain, numbness, paresthesia, and tremors of my right arm and in my ankles/feet...after a few NS consults (all 3 suggested an anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion at the C4-5/C5-6 level), I was told that I had cervical myelopathy as a result of cervical spondylitis with reversal of normal lordosis .....i went ahead with the procedure two weeks ago....for the first two days after the surgery, i felt great!!...best i have felt in 6 months with almost no symptoms!...unfortunately, they started coming back and now the symptoms are just as bad as they were pre-surgery...i am scheduled to see my NS in 4 weeks for a follow-up but am feeling pretty discouraged as i really had my hopes up that the surgery would eliminate my symptoms...this really sucks  |
I understand your frustration, I'm 2 1/2 weeks post op and I'm still in pain also, but the pain is a different kind of pain. The nerve pain in my hand and traps seems to have been relieved, but I have neck pain at my fusion site (I had C5, C6 & C7 Fused with titanium plate, screws and cadaver bone). What I find is if I do nothing, the pain subsides, lying a lot, not too much walking or car rides or chores and activity. This causes swelling and muscle spasms. But if I do things I pay the price that night. I have been back to the ER because of this, and it's normal post-op pain I was told. Takes months to heal, so stay patient, I realize this is hard.... I DO FEEL YOUR PAIN. I'm in a hard cervical collar for 8 weeeks, I'm almost at week 3 and I'm ready to rip it off and throw it into the street... I hate this collar. It chokes me all the time, and it causes the muscle spasms. But it's like a cast for your neck and it's needed to heal your fusion properly, so wear it and put up with it.
Are you still taking adequate pain meds? I tried to cut back too soon and that causes pain also.... I'm taking Oxycontin, tramaset, and muscle relaxers, throw in the odd percacet when I can't handle it any longer.
i've been told it's just too soon to be feeling great, it's major surgery, so try to hang in there and maybe in a month or two you and I will both feel much better.
Take care, have a good, pain free, night.
Cathie