I had ACDF surgery on 12-13-07. My symptoms before surgery were severe headaches, pain radiating from my neck down my right arm extending to my index finger and thumb, and muscle spasms in my right and left shoulders. Now after surgery I have muscle spasms and neck pain from the titainium plates and screws. Its no where as bad as what I had before, I will never as of yet regret the surgery. My question to anyone who has had this surgery is how long were you prescribed pain meds afterwards. As of today its 3 weeks after the surgery and I called for a refill of my vicodin, my doctor personally called me back and wanted to know why it still hurts!!!! After reading all your replies it looks to me that its normal to have this pain, part of healing. He is calling me in some ultracet and skelaxin, hes not thrilled at all over the pain med STILL as he stated. Is 3 weeks the going rate for expected pain relief from these guys? Just curious what your experience with this situation may be.

I didnt have the traditional collar either. I had a soft foam looking thing, like you would see someone where for whiplash. He said I didnt need the other collar. A friend had the same surgery as you and me, same branch diff doc, and she was given the hard like collar.

I had a collar when i came out of surgery and for my night in the hospital, but took it off when I got home. I only wore it for one short car ride and one pre-Christmas trip into the grocery store.

Beachbum, I had surgery same day as you. My pain wasn't as bad pre-op as yours was - numb fingers, pains down the arms-- but not to the extent of yours. At the three week mark, I'm not having trouble with pain much, just muscle spasms in my left shoulder (all my trouble was on the right). I take Flexeril for that, no problems for the most part. I do still have the throat lump sometimes and that bugs me.

I don't regret this surgery either, at this point ... I'd do it again. Things so far at the three-week mark are going well and I am thankful for that!!

Good luck,
Kelly

Hi there... I am 33 and I just had my fusion done on 12/17/07 at C5-6. Before this surgery I suffered from blinding headaches, facial pain, shoulder pain (mostly on the right), breathing problems (I would wake up barely breathing), muscle spasms in my face usually under my eyes, temporary loss of sight in one eye, loss of balance, passing out due to the loss of balance loss of bladder control (and this happened at work and my son's very first football game) and numbness in my arms and legs. I went through years of Dr. visits and had been given several different diagnoses and all different medications. Sept. 3rd of 07 I was fed up after loosing the bladder and eyesight within a 2 day span. I dragged my parts to the ER where this neurologist that I no longer see suggested that I get tested for MS and that I follow up with him. He sent me for an MRI of my brain looking for lesions. I see him again, he says, no lesion!, call me if there are any more problems. I left feeling cheated, something was wrong. 2 weeks later I have these spasms in my neck that are jerking my head to the right so violently. I call his office, he calls in Soma. I call back again, I want to know what is wrong. I see him, he says: "why is your neck doing this?" I say, "I don't know, you are the Dr., that is why I'm here!!!!!" He feels all around and says, "yes, you do have a spasm". So, then sends me for an MRI of my cervical spine. I'm already fed up at this point, but I went for the MRI since I had never had one there. I made an appt. with a neuro that had come recomended. She got ahold of the report and the films and made the discovery that my disc was herniated. She immediately got me into a neurosurgeon and they scheduled me for surgery as soon as possible. When the Dr. spoke to me afterwards, he said that he didn't even know how I was able to walk in there, that the disc had ruptured and he described as tree sap down my spinal cord.
Anyway, my percocet is long gone. I've been taking robaxin. I'm trying to ride out the pain, tylenol does not touch it. I feel like I'm being a baby if I call to get more pain stuff. I'm around 3-1/2 weeks out now, but when I sit, I feel like my head is going to fall off, if I stand, pain shoots down my back. To lay down, I feel like I'm choking. I usually stay up all night until I finally pass out from exhaustion because I can find no comfort. Also, does anyone have anything that feels like electric shock shooting across their shoulder blades or arms? I don't know if this is to be expected or if I'm crazy or what? This is sure not the picnic I thought it would be and I feel worse now than I did the day after surgery.
Thanks so much
-Jenn

Hi Kim,

I noticed your message was dated a while back and was wondering if your arm, shoulder and upper back pain has subsided? Your post could have ben written by me!

Leslie

I'm not sure if you meant me or not - I didn't see a Kim on the post. But yes, all of my pain has subsided. In all honesty, I've never felt better. I get a few muscle spasms at the base of my neck now and then, but not very often. I'm off the meds and back at the gym (although I can't lift weights more than 5 lbs). My fusion is about halfway done. I can lift other stuff up to 20 lbs. No problems whatsoever. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to.
Kelly

Leslie,

Unfortunately, no. How about you, any better for you? Right now I've been in a 10 day "flare-up" with the shooting pains down my left arm without being provoked. Pain behind the left ear, under the left jawline, back of the neck and shoulder....ughhh.

Sorry it took me so long to respond, I'm usually on BrainTalk Communities so after typing a few sentences there, my arms & hands tell me to shut down the computer and stop typing

Kim

Had the procedure 10/3/08. No relief from pain prior to surgery and have extra pain now! Saw NS yesterday; he said "Well, there was a risk the surgery wouldn't help". Taking Ultram ER. Start physical therapy in two weeks. Hope to get some help from that...

The excutiating pain from neck to arm to hand was gone immediatley after operation. Never came back. However, sill have numbness in two fingers that ofen becomes very painful burning anf stinging. Made them do an MRI to see if graft was Ok and they said it was.

The DOcs have ben of little use. I have been trying alternative medicines approaches.

I had a fusion at C6/C7 in Oct. of 2004. I had sharp electrical shooting pain from underneath my right shoulder blade down my arm through my first 2 fingers and thumb of my right hand. Very, very painful! I had 4 steroid epadurals before the insurance company decided they would pay for surgery. I was taking 10-12 Vicodins 800/10mg per day (for 8 months) just so I could work (a tax accountant) and drive to my office. My NS removed 3 fragments from the spinal cord as well as a bunch of the disk fragments, which had blown apart blocking 25-30% of the space around the spinal cord. After my surgery I took 4 Vicodins a day for 2 days stopping myself the third day as I didn't need them anymore and only took them after the surgery for pain from the surgery. I wore the hard plastic collar for 6 weeks, then the soft collar for 2 weeks. My NS didn't believe I should have any PT so I didn't and its never seemed to bother me. My flexibility is normal and so far my plate doesn't seem to have come unscrewed! Only bothers me if I sleep on it wrong or my 6 y.o. son climbs over my head and twists it! All the previous pain was gone the instant I woke in the recovery room.

Since then, I have been DX with gastroparesis (my GI believes caused by damage to the Vagus nerve), full body SFN, and unexplained atrophy of the brain for my age (the neuro doc stated the oversized ventricals appear as those of an 85 year old man would). I also have unexplained balance issues and short-term memory problems (which are only heightened with the SFN drugs), dystonia and migraines (which are less frequent with the SFN drugs).

Jay