@donellison Thanks for joining the conversation. As spine surgery goes, I had it pretty easy with just one level fused at C5/C6. My ability to turn my head and bend my neck is almost the same as it was before surgery. What I can't do now is touch my chin to my chest, but it is very close about one finger of space away. Like your surgeon says, fusing C3 to T1 will decrease neck movement significantly. For head turning, C1 & C2 do most of the work, and you will still have that. C3 & C4 add more range to head turning which you will lose. You might ask your surgeon to tell you how much you will loose so you understand what your expected range will be post surgery.

When you think about tying your shoes, that would normally be bending your neck down to look at your feet, so that will change. You probably won't want to go places in the car for awhile, and recovery is long. That is different for everyone. My husband did all the grocery shopping and I didn't drive for 7 months after my surgery. I had restrictions and could not lift the groceries anyway. I could have driven sooner, but I just didn't want to risk it. It takes 6 weeks for the incision to heal, and then it tends to tighten up a bit and can be more painful. I was in a neck brace for 3 months, and then had to do some physical therapy to regain neck strength and loosen the scar tissue.

When the issues caused by stenosis are serious enough, it makes sense to consider surgery. It is a compromise because your mobility changes. I understand your concerns about the extra effort for your spouse, and I bet she will want to do all of it to take care of you. I think my husband loved being needed to take care of me. I stayed in bed a lot and just slept, and he set up a DVD player and TV for me. I was tired a lot because after surgery, your body has to use all it's energy to heal.

Has your surgeon explained what would happen to your condition without surgery? That really helps to ground your decision. Personally, my decision to have spine surgery was the best decision I could have made. I was already having difficulty walking with an uneven gait and was loosing coordination of my arms, and I had pain all over my body. I had been taking care of my disabled parents and I didn't want to be disabled if I had a different choice that I could make.

Have you discussed with your surgeon how diffrent it will be to drive after this surgery? It will be different for sure. I think you may get a good perspective on that from @upstatephil. He has had recent surgery with multiple cervical levels fused and he can probably tell you his experience of what is different now after spine surgery.

Jennifer

To @donelison. Jennifer is correct in everything she posted. She mentioned my recent surgeries and I thought I'd just jump in.

Just over 12 months ago I had a four-level ACDF from C4-7. The first few weeks post were pretty rough and I leaned heavily (no choice, really) on my ever-patient spouse for everything step-and-fetch-it. I did resume driving once my neck brace was removed (there are many factors influencing your use of a neck brace so my experience may be different than Jennifer's than yours might be).

Very quickly all upper body and cervical-related pains were gone. Totally. There was some residual nerve pain simply because long-stressed nerves are slow to heal themselves. But at this writing - I'm thrilled I had that surgery and for me, it was the right decision.

My four-level is the reason for some loss of rotational motion. But I had already lost about that same amount of flexibility even before surgery ... as impacted by the stenosis. I cannot touch my chest with my chin. For me that's a small price to pay. Shoe tying is a pain (pun intended) but I'm learning new ways to get that done plus I have more slip-on type shoes now.

Deciding on surgery is a risk/return analysis. What's worse? Current pains and restrictions that could become worse and might also become uncorrectable if left to degrade over long enough periods? Or the unknowns of surgical outcome that include a potentially long up-hill recovery? Only you can evaluate that trade-off.

My thoughts: (1) Go to the best medical facility with the best equipment for your diagnosis.
(2) Consult with the best docs you can find. (3) Get at least two opinions and seek a third if #1 and #2 differ greatly. With #1-#3 you can reduce the "risk" side of the equation with your increased knowledge.

Wishing you the best!