Hi. I am a new member to this forum. I had acdf surgery to C5-C6 and they took my graft from my neck. I am just looking for people to chat with who had similiar surgeries. I had my surgery just this past Saturday after dealing with tremendous pain, numbness, tingling to my right side. It had gotten so bad I was hospitalized for a week. They thought I had a stroke because I had speech problems too. I was sent home and then saw my primary and still had too much pain AND had bowel and bladder problems. They cathed me and sent me back to the hospital where I was taken to surgery for a herniated disc at C5-C6. From what my NS said, the nerve was bad. SO I am not even a week post op. I was only overnight after the surgery. I came home, dealing with the post op pain but no weakness or numbness. I have some shoulder blade pain. They gave me a soft collar. I can only take it off when eating or doing personal care. I have my follow-up next week. I am a nurse who now has no job because I hadn't been employed long enough for FMLA. I can get disability though. But everyone tells me not to worry about things like this. I need to heal first.
I hope I made the right decision and that this surgery works for me.