Hi ,this is the first time posting here but i had acdf in 7-2010 c5 thru c7 did well for 18 months now pain in shoulder and neck on right. I recently had mri and shows mild residual indentation of spinal cord at c5-6 not sure what that means or if its the cause of shoulder/neck pain. Surgeon called with results and said no further surgery is required. Nobody will tell me why for several months Im in pain or no solutions.

they did surgery on my shoulder but not my neck.they couldnt see surgery helping get rid of my neck&shoulder pain either.this c4-c7 disc stuff seems to effect the neck and shoulder,but unfortunately surgery to the neck will not relieve it.it seems to always effect that certain part of our body.all they give me is nerve block injections and "400mg of gabapetin".thats it and still have pain now its in my right arm now.so its in both:(....oh well:(:(

Hi Don--thanks for responding. Did your get a recent MRI?? once my right arm and hands were affected mri changed drastically in just one year. I had 3 consults all agree 100% without surgery would have gone paralyzed. I dont regret surgery but new symptoms of shoulder are painful as heck.

C5 - c6
 

I also have herniated disc. But no Doctor told me. I requested my MRI report. Look it up on line. I am really in a lot of pain. I wake up with pain. And go to sleep with pain. I feel that my head is going to explode . Now my Dr. That I have seen want to do injections. Why? The shots will not help. I finally went to ER. The pain has went to my left side of my neck. All the way down to my left arm. Now my lower back is hurting. No one will give out meds. But ER did. Finally some relief . I have a follow up again. With a internal medicine doctor. ER gave meds for 2 days. Whew I am impressed. Injections scare me. Now that their finding out the shots are not so good. I am going for a second opinion for neck surgery. The one surgeon was gun hoe to do the surgery. Not sure what to do.

I Gracemary--I live In Ohio too!! Anyways what I would advise also get 2 or 3 consults before surgery. Most good surgeons would not even consider acdf surgery unless you spinal cord compressed. If you want post your mri results here --people here will help advise. What are your symptoms pain in neck,shoulder,arm going into your hand and fingers??? If you dont have a copy of your MRI you need to request it from the place you had it done with the written copy. I had acdf surgery 2010---from c5 thru c7. . I have a good friend I took to my surgeon who has 2 large herinations at but were not spinal cord compressed and he said no surgery she had the esi (spidural steroid injections) after two shots-- she has been pain free for 18months. Sometimes these injections do the trick. ;) Please let me know if I can help with any ? you may have---im sorry your in so much pain!!

I also have problems W/ my neck.
 

All the Doctors want to do is injections. I order my MRI results and look up on line what it meant. My neck is in serious shape. I will eventually need surgery.

yes I got quite a few of them.they give me nerve block injection and im on "gabapetin".but they don't help much:(.they don't want to do surgery.it can fix the disc's but the function and pain will still be there.there damage.plus I have arthritis there and a "tear".all in my neck and shoulder.it just keep compounding:(:(

Hey Don, your tear is it in the rotatar cuff? It really hard to live in pain everyday ....one breathe i feel lucky from surgery and next I was hoping to have alot less pain or at leat not daily. Keep me update how things work out for you wish you the best !!!

hey..:D thanks.no the tear is in my neck.one of the disc(they didn't say which one though).people though I had a rotator cuff problem but its in my shoulder.so they cut out that bone..said it was arthritc.now I cant lift with it:mad: and my neck(discC5-c7) with arthritis...couldn't have one or 2.But I got the whole package:D:D..the pain is so bad at times(like sunday night).I feel like im going to pass out or I just got out of surgery:(

Cervical nerve ablasion
 

I sure hope I don't have to go through another ACDF. I'm still waiting to get to the point of relief from the RFA's I had done.

I had my 2nd RFA (on my right side) 4 days ago. I'm not feeling so hot right now. It seems that the pain after this 2nd RFA has been more intense. :confused: My neck feels weak and it hurts really bad if I have to reach for anything with my right arm or try to turn my head to the left. There is still a lot of swelling in the area where the injections were done. I can't seem to keep the pain under control enough with the pain meds and icing.

It's a bummer to feel like this again since I actually had a brief period (about 2 days) at the end of week one after the 1st RFA where I was starting to feel better. I got very excited when that happened. :)
But then around the end of week 2 post RFA I began feeling that familiar nerve pain starting up again in my neck and shoulder on the left side. :( My left side was completely flared up as I went in to have the RFA done on the right side. The doctor told me it would be another couple weeks before the benefit of the RFA really kicks in. He told me that what I'm experiencing is normal as the nerves are still healing. He still thinks that I'm going to get a good result down the road from the RFA's. It has been difficult at times to remain positive while going through this just because it's a long time to wait to feel better.

I had planned on going back to work tomorrow but I think I'm going to need more time to recover. I feel very grateful that my employer has been understanding of my situation.