I was so worried pre surgery and thought it would help others to see some succes stories. I mostly only read about failed surgerie and horror stories. Things are going good finally got out of my hard brace that I was in for almost 4mths 24 hrs a day. Whew. Won't miss that. I can finally sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. Neck, arm and hand pain is so much better. Balance is back and hand strength and control has returned. . Have to say that my spinal cord is fully decompressed and so the surgery was very sucessful. I Still get numbness in fingers intermittently. No biggy not real painful like before. My neck muscles into my shoulders are still really knotted up inflamed weak and hurt. I guess it will take a long time to heal. Pt for 12 wks. Doc says probably a year for a complete fusion due to the amount of vertebra he had to remove on two levels. Just had an X-ray almost 5 mths post. He said every thing looks good but I dont see any sign of fusion yet. I had mesh cage cadaver bone mixed with my marrow. Does anyone know how long until you start seeing signs of fusion. I am kind of concerned being I used to smoke and quit before surgery. It is very hard not to go back to golfing hiking biking bowling ect when I feel so good, best in years. Doctor said no until I have a solid fusion. So here I sit sharing with you.

I hope others have as much success and share.
Best of luck to all with surgeries in their future
Rhonda

Hi Rhonda,

There's actually a logical reason for that, and it applies to folks on support groups in general. You don't read about successes because they generally don't need support; they're out getting on with their lives. There are always exceptions, but it does skew things a bit.

Wishing you continued success,

Doc