Hi, last week I had a Anterior Cervical Microforaminotomy with spinal cord decompression on c5 - c6. I am in a lot of pain and recovering is slow. I still need to have c3 - c4 done which has aggravated my migraine headaches for many years and have ongoing DDD in my neck and thorasic spine so I am not certain when or if I'll be pain free any time soon.
Dr. JHo and his team were excellent -- they run a first rate operation (no pun intended), almost seperate from Allegheny General Hospital. Minimally invasive does not mean minimal pain, but it is incredible. I think a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic compared it to building a ship in a bottle. I have an incision on my anterior neck about 2" long; my posterior neck and right arm have been throbbing and pounding less I medicate myself. In 6 weeks i will have a foloow up MRI to check the status of my surgery. I am hopeful that time will decrease the swelling and pain.

Welcome!

I wish you a speedy recovery and good management for your pain during that time.

It's good to have you here.

KD

Hi, Tish! Welcome to NeuroTalk!

Geez, I hope things will calm down for you now.

There are a few discussions underway concerning those procedures in the spinal disorders forum found here: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum22.html


Feel free to join in anywhere and let us know if we can help you navigate the forums.

Tish,

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. You will find a great number of caring, supporting members here willing to help each other as they can. I see AMN has given you a link to see into.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene

Hi Tish and a great big Welcome to NT>

Hi Tish, Please let me know how you are doing. I have an appointment April 2nd with Dr. Jho and still have a lot of thinking to do as Dr. Kang at UPMC want to do a traditional fusion on me. He says I am not a good candidate for MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery), but the Laser SPine Institute at my consultation said I was. My insurance is just not good outside of Pa. except for emergencies. I have c4,5,6 fused and my relief was immediate except for the recovery, but I did well in 2005. Often other levels or problems will come out later as did mine.

I am glad to hear positive things about Dr. Jho as he is criticized by a lot of doctors, but then again his surgery doesn't cost as much as a traditional on the they would make less money. I do trust Dr. Kang totally and he is a great surgeon of the highest skill and character, but I hope I qualify for Dr. Jho's procedure. I figure I can try his way and if it doesn't work out for me I can always have the standard procedure done by Dr. Kang.

I will be watching the thread here. Take care, david

Hi Tish,
I'm so sorry to hear of your pain. I too have fusions in my cervical spine. It looks as if I may be looking at another one, so I'm very interested in reading this thread. Hope your pain settles down soon.

Billye