Hi Kim and Valerie,

Yes, it helps tremendously to bounce things off of each other. As far as the constipation thing goes. I have had that for a long, long time along with GERD. Nexium, which I take for GERD, can cause constipation and then when you add the pain killers it just makes things much, much worse. I asked my gastro guy for a prescription for Miralax. It has worked wonders! However, you are not supposed to use for more than two weeks. BUT I have read of people taking it every day. I take very little...not the usual 17 grams they have you take. I try to get by with half. And it works...that and PLENTY of water. When I can, I will go back to my usual Benefiber and still MORE water LOL!

Kim, I was a big ole chicken too! You don't know how afraid I was to face this second fusion! The anxiety levels were sky high! I was NOT afraid of the surgery per se. I was more afraid of the spasms and pain afterwards. Which we are speaking of now. I hate it! Did your doctor, by any chance, prescribe Valium for the spasms? I don't like advocating the use of "benzo's" but they work better than muscle relaxers in my opinion. The Klonopin I take pretty much takes them down to a bearable level. Anyway, I had my choice...to come off of the Klonopin and go to Valium after surgery. Or, just to stick with the Klonopin and "up" it to two pills a day instead of one. My NS suggested that I just stick with the Klonopin and so did my Neurologist. It would have caused more problems (withdrawals) if I had had to taper so quickly. Anyway, I am only taking one Klonopin a day and it seems to work so far. At least if you had some kind of anti-spasmodic med maybe you could get to a therapist without too much pain and start working on those issues. And, to be honest with you, I had much better relief with a massage therapist than regular PT. It seems the PT made me much worse. I don't know why but perhaps they had me stretching way too soon without getting those darn knots out first. Finally the PT had to use that tool I spoke of. And that hurt! BUT...she eventually got those things out! I guess we all do what we can to eliminate those types of pains. So, my opinion is is to try anything within reason to help with the pain. Now, what I want to know is what is up with Norco???!! I didn't get Vicodin this time and Norco is supposed to be more mild but supposedly the same as Vicodin. I don't think so! The Norco seems to keep me awake, although a little loony, and then I sweat a lot with it. With Vicodin I only needed very little...like 2 pills a day, slept like a baby and was extremely happy all the time LOL! I know, it was the opiate part of it LOL! Oh, well, when I go back to the NS, I will ask him about all of this. As far as sleeping, I had a rough time last night. See, it is the darn Norco keeping me awake! I had a few spasms, so I put on my soft collar and grabbed the cervical pillow and adjusted myself until I finally went to sleep. But, like you, I always start out in my recliner. I don't like that either but it does help to get sleepy and then I crawl into bed. Anyway, I also wanted to ask you what meds you are currently taking. My PM once mentioned Lunesta to me to help me sleep but I never did take it. Let me know! Kathi

Kathi,

The only meds I am taking currently is Tramadl/APAP (Ultracet) and it doesn't help much, to be honest. I went from sleeping 3 hours a night to 4 hours a night after I started taking the Tramadl. My OS took me off the Percocet since I had been on it so long and expressed my wishes to go off all drugs so that I could pass a drug test in order to become employable again. Little did I know that I would be experiencing these same pains as I had before the surgery.

I'm scheduled to get an ESI in the facet joints on thurs and I am dreading it after that last injection I had back in March! I'm so tired of being poked, prodded, cut, and stuck with needles...but on the same note, when the pain increases to the level its at right now while typing this, then I become brave and am willing to try it almost anything. Pain is a great motivator...lol

You never did say what pains/symptoms you were having with your C3/4 that made you decide to get them fused. Care to share???....lol

Kathi, I'm clueless about Norco...never heard of it, let alone taken it.

Best wishes,

Kim

Hi Kim,

I just now saw you are back on Brain Talk 1. We need to go over there I think. But for now I will tell you about the C3/C4. I'm sorry, I know you asked about that and I spaced it! Okay, I had cervicogenic headaches with variant migraines and/or occipital neuralgia. The SEVERE pain was always up around my head in the typical "ram's horn pattern"...so they call it. This was all due to bone spurs/osteophytes pressing on nerve roots. The docs tried to treat it conservatively at first. And I went through 3 years of awful pain before I found a spine group that fixed it! Just know that the pain I had at that level was UP the back of my head and never downwards. BUT, also know that the C5/C6 was bad at the same time. The NS just didn't want to fuse both at once. So, any pain I had in my shoulders which was minimal at the beginning, I attribute to the C5/C6. I suppose the C3/C4 could refer pain elsewhere but in my case it was the base of my skull and head. Okay, now for Tramadol or Ultram. I tried that once and I can't really remember what happened. Either it made me sick or I got nauseated from it. But in any case my Pain Management doctor did tell me that HE is finding that it is not helping his patients much although he was once a believer in it. I suppose he may still use it for some people I am just re-iterating what he told me. I have extreme difficulty with most meds. And, he did want me to try Lyrica. I am telling you what...you might as well put me totally out of comission if you hand me Neurontin or Lyrica. I just cannot tolerate them. Okay, so after all of this pain BS, pardon me, he finally decided to let me stay on Vicodin since I was taking only 1/2 pill a day along with Klonopin. I know it can be addicting but I am extremely careful about how much I take of anything. And I will say 1/2 of a Vicodin and 1/2 to 1 tablet of .5 Klonopin gave me some functionality back! At least I was able to drive and get out and about. Okay, now Norco is a "baby" Vicodin. That is how I view it anyway. Vicodin is usually 5/500. Norco, or at least the one the NS prescribed is 7.5/325. I also have some that are 3.5/325. Norco has less Tylenol in it which is supposed to be easier on your liver...more so than Vicodin. Currently, I am taking 1 to 2 a day of the 7.5/325. Hopefully, I can taper down as time goes on. Also, for some reason, the Norco does NOT make me sleepy like the Vicodin did. Anyway, I hope this helps. Kathi

"Okay, now Norco is a "baby" Vicodin" quote, hmmm, what do you mean Norco is a "Baby Vicodin", maybe you mean a newer Vicodin which it is, but the 7.5mg dose is the codine in the pill, while a 5/500 in Vicodin is 5 mg of codine...when you said baby I though you meant it was a smaller dose pill? What did you mean, "Oh sorry for jumping in here but it kinda threw me", I'm new here.

Hello all,

This is my first post but I have been reading along for the last 9 months.
I had ACDF on C4-5-6 in Jan. of this year. Apparantly it wasn't a cure-all because I am still having problems with pain in my right arm and thumb, just below C6 on both sides and a large area in the middle of my back between my shoulder blades. It started out with just a small numb area in the middle of my back but since surgery the area is about the size of a postcard and is numb, the pain starts out as a severe itch there and on the outside of my right arm at the elbow and forearm then progresses to burning then severe pain! Sometimes I can just turn my neck a certain way and those areas will just throb with pain!
I am now in the process of getting injections AGAIN to help with the arthritis in the facet joints which they say may be causing the pain? I'm not so sure about that! The plate they put in is at an angle to my spine but they say it doesn't matter if it's crooked, I'm not sure about that either? You would think that if it was crooked it would exert pressure in the direction it is off and press on the nerves but of course they say no. On top of the neck problem they hit a nerve in my lower back when they did the mylogram prior to surgery because of an extremely narrow epidural space then when the opening in my spine didn't close they had to do a blood patch which further irritated the nerve so now I have pain in my left leg that feels like a really bad ache you get after you have hit your funny bone! AHHHHHHHHHH! But it sure isn't funny!! They did and MRI and found narrowing canal along with bulging discs and one ruptured disc on L4, at this point I have lost feeling in my big toes on both my feet. Kind of strange it is on both sides???? So now I am waiting to see what they will do there??
But the good thing is I have finally overcome my depression due to all this and I am taking it one day at a time, keeping the faith that eventually I will be able to join the world of the working class again!

As for GERD and constipation, I use to have ulcerative coilitis, GERD and IBS but I was able to "cure" these problems throwing away my nexium and adding 2tblsp of "Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar" in a full glass of water twice a day. I also stopped eating pork but that was just my preference. It took about 1 day for the GERD to stop and a couple of weeks for the rest.

I "cured" my constipation from taking the pain meds by drinking 4 ounces of Aloe Vera juice mixed in the juice of choice "i use orange juice" but any thing you like will work. It doesn't have much taste so you can add as much or as little juice as you need. I haven't been constipated since I started this and I lost 20lbs.

My mom has diverticulitis and after she started doing the same she hasn't had any more attacks so what do you have to loose?

I wish all of you well and pray that you all find relief from your pain.

Cindy