3 weeks out of 3 level acdf
 

Hi all! as title says I am 3 weeks out. I feel like I should be further along in my recovery than I am. I still am taking my pain meds every 4 hours if I miss one believe me my neck is SCREAMING @ me that I forgot. My pain is almost all centered in back of neck not incision. I hurt ache from neck to tshirt area of shoulders and now both hands us past wrists are numb and tingly. my pain is gone on my left side ot was neck all the way down to my fingers on left side. I thought Id be back to work next week. Now there is NO WAY. Im a waitress/manager of a busy little restaurant. No way!!! Is this normal? Should I be concerned? what the hell?????

one other thing.... I still cant eat without gagging, choking and trying again. still only soft foods. also having a hard time sleeping

Hi mrsalkire
 

I had alot of pain for three weeks too The fourth week, I got better day by day. Ask your doctor for a muscle relaxer such as soma. You may be experienceing spasms that hurt terrible. However the tingle, and numbess should have resloved a bit better. Call your neruo surgeon as see what he says. My shocks and tingles were gone as I healed. I am post two years C3-7 I hope you feel better soon. Can you get an incline pillow?that helped me with sleep. i couldn't even use the lazy boy for ahwile. Give a call just to ease you own mind. I wish you all the best. ginnie

Re: choking
 

That problem with eating should get better when you heal better. They move everything in your throat off to the side, I had the same trouble, choked on everything. The muscles have been abused. It will take a bit to heal. Soma will also help you sleep at night. ginnie

I had a 2-level (C5-7) ACDF last Nov and the biggest problem I had was muscle spasms, which sounds like what you are experiencing. As Ginnie suggested, specifically ask about soma or another muscle relaxant. The other problem I had was trying to do to much too soon. Make sure you are really giving your body time to heal. Rest and make sure you aren't unconciously lifting/moving too much or turning your head too much. I had numbness/tingling in areas other than the incision site for approximately 6 mos post surgery. You have to remember that the muscles and nerves that has been cut/stretched/abused are connected to a large network of nerves and muscles and those also react to what happened during the surgery. You may also want to ask about physical therapy if they haven't already talked to you about it. It's too early for doing a lot of stretches and strengthening exercises, but they can offer heat therapy, massage and electrical stimulation therapy at this point. That helped me a lot with the muscle spasms. Returning to work -- esp your kind -- at 4 weeks was probably not a realistic expectation; most articles on multi-level acdf suggest 6-8 weeks to be the average return, so don't let your current status alarm you.

Don't give up hope. It will get better! Best wishes!

I agree with all that has been said. When speaking with the doctor, don't just describe the pain or whatever is going on but also emphasize how this is impacting your life and level of function. That gets their attention. Ask if there is anything else YOU can be doing to improve matters. They like that too.

I hope I dont sound manipulative. I have been a chronic pain patient for decades and have a pretty good idea what these guys go through. It has to be difficult being on top when you hear about pain and dysfunction all day long and deal with too many people who expect a magic bullet. When you talk about wanting to restore function and ask what you can do, they tend to perk up. I don't think anyone who has serious problems will improve much unless he/she is part of the team.

I am not surprised that you are still on soft foods. It's not unusual. I had the worst time with choking on food for months after a straight forward one level repair. I could have sworn that something shifted or broke. NOT!!!! The problem slowly went away. Best wishes.

3 weeks post surgery - mrsalkire
 

I have been thinking about you. You had your surgery a few days before mine. Mine will be three weeks this coming Thursday and I have had the same exact complaints as yours except for numbness and tingling. Thankfully, as soon as I woke up, that horrid, debilitating pain under my shoulder blade and down my arm was gone! I called the doc about the pain between my shoulder blades. I had already posted on here about it and Ginnie replied about the muscle relaxants. I was already taking two a day due to older back problems, but the doc increased it to three a day which has helped. I only take one or two pain pills a day and that's mainly when I want to lay down and rest some. I too have trouble with swallowing and choking. I feel as if I have a golf ball lodged in my throat. It is getting a little better, I just try to eat things that are easy to swallow for now. At least I can now swallow my meds whole instead of cutting them up. I am just impatient, want to do do much too soon. However, I could never even imagine going back to work doing what you do just four weeks post op. You really should talk to your doc about the numbness and tingling. I have regained almost all of the feeling in my fingers on my left hand. Please let us know how it goes!:hug:

Thank you Thank you Thank you!
 

I am so happy to read these responses! I totally needed to hear all this today! I went back to dr on tuesday I had a horrible weekend. I seem to have one good day, followed by a horrible night. So I think Im probably more careless when I have had a couple decent days. He xrayed it all again. He said 2 of the joints are extremly stretched I could see it also. But that doesnt explain why its such severe pain but maybe its like growing pains when were teens. theres NO WAY I could go back to work yet. Ha I cant even walk long enough to shop @ one store let alone anything else. I walk around the block and Im exhausted. Im still taking my pain meds on schedule if I miss a dose, I know it because my pain level has sky rocketed again.
However, there have been a couple nights where I havent woken up to take them so thats progress. He also started me on a weeks course of steroids to help it. I go back again @ 6 weeks so well see what happens them. When do they usually say no more pain meds? I take 10mg vicoen 4xs sometimes 5 per day!. My dr told me I can take10 a day if necessary . But when do they stop them?

Hello mrsalkire
 

I hope in just one more week you will start to feel better. I do remember quite well. About 4 weeks out I started to improve.
Don't worry yet about the pain medications. Your doctors won't take you off of them until you are really ready. They by the level you currently experience. If not 100 % a pain specialist can be involved to lend a hand. This is the route I had to go for a long time, and it was OK. ginnie

Update: I am now 5.5 weeks out. I am in so much pain! I cant sleep through the night. I have an incline pillow along with a cervical pillow which I alternate with my regular down pillow. I cant even roll over @ night without waking my husband so he can hold my head up to roll because there is that MUCH pain! The cervical pain is centered in the middle of my neck and head in the back and onto my shoulders. Im really beginning to freak out. When is he going to dicontinue the pain meds? Im sure soon. And I cant even cope now how would I cope without them. hands and arms still numb and tingling. What can it be? Im getting really scared.