Quote:
Originally Posted by dricher
My questions are: (1) What was the age that many of you had the surgery?; (2) Did physical therapy help after the surgery?; (3) Are there any concerns, questions to ask, recommendations, or issues to be aware of that you did not anticipate before your surgery?
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Hi
David,
1.) Given your general good health and parental aspirations, unless there's some
other factor that makes surgery a greater than average risk for you, I don't think age should be of concern.
Quote:
Cervical degenerative disc disease of the spine is a prevalent condition in the population. Studies have shown that after age 40, almost 60% of the population has radiographic evidence of cervical spine degeneration and by age 65, 95% of men and 70% of women will have some sort of degenerative change on x-ray.
http://www.spine-health.com/treatmen...search-article
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2.) Except in rare cases, rehabilitation (physical therapy, exercise) can help patients recover from spine surgery as quickly and completely as possible.
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It can be thought of as alignment and balance for your body. If you buy new tires for your car, they won’t last as long if they are not aligned and balanced and the new tires will be a waste of money. Your spine surgery is like new tires, and a physical therapist’s role is to do the alignment, balance, and engine tuning to make sure that the effects of the surgery are as positive as possible.
http://www.spine-health.com/wellness...-spine-surgery
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I can't think of a reason why anyone wouldn't at least
try postoperative physical therapy.
3.) Those issues constitute a significant portion of the discussions on this forum. One good way is to make use of the
Search functions, which can be found on and just beneath the blue bars across the forum screens. Also,
Google:
questions to ask before surgery
Google: questions to ask before spine surgery
Google: questions to ask before neck surgery
Google: failed neck surgery syndrome
Google: arachnoiditis
Surgery can fix physical/mechanical damage; it cannot fix already damaged nerves, and it may not alleviate
pain.
Get multiple opinions.
Best Wishes,
Doc