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severe multi level cervical issues and severe S1 changes
Spine Health | Last Active: May 24 1:26pm | Replies (20)Comment receiving replies
Very good information , thank you for taking to share your thoughts. I'm going to see my primary on Thursda and ask her for a refferal. I never heard of Healthgrades so I'm quite interested in that. And you shared your recovery with me that gave me a better idea as to how I hope to be feeling. I'm going to call the pain management dr tomorrow, he was really understanding about my situation. And you're right about Neuros that do alot of brain surgery and not so much spine. Excellent points. This is a very intense surgery and I want someone that has specializes in spine issues. Interesting too that you wouldn't necessarily use the same surgeon that repairs the neck, repair the the lower spine.
Playing piano, If I can just look down a little bit I can keep my fingers correctly on the keys. If I lift my hands to play new chords etc, that's when I'll need ti look down to make the correct placement. If I can just look a little bit, I'll be ok.
Thank you for such great information. I really appreciate your advice.
I'll check out Orthopedic Spine docs too. I want to connect with the surgeon as well as I did with my Pain doc. He was incredibly supportive and understood my frustration. In other words, he told it like it is. Very up front.
Very happy to hear you are feeling pain free from the surgery in 2020. It must have felt strange when you woke up after surgery not knowing exactly how you were going to move. You gave me some hope that through recovery and PT, I'll be ok. That means a lot to me because I'm feeling so anxious. Great information .. thank you so much.
Jan
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You are certainly welcome Jan. I am happy to share what I have learned.
As far as not necessarily using the same doctor..I think that it will be much easier to find qualified surgeons near you who have done many, many lumbar fusions than it will be to find just a few who have done more than a few cervical fusions of 4+ levels(Simply because they are relatively rare). I would also limit my surgeon search to those who do both fusions and minimally invasive procedure and not just one or the other (so as not to get a skewed perspective). It's possible you may need fusion in some segments of your neck (or back for that matter) and others can be treated with something less invasive.
Regarding you playing piano, if you only need to bend your neck slightly, 50% or more of the bending in the neck comes from C1 and C2 segments so you should be good there. I do a lot of work at the tool bench in the garage and I do definitely feel a lot of stess and strain(both above and below my fusion) when I have to look up or down at a sharp angles. It's not a as much problem if I can keep my work further away from me.
Initial recovery- 4 level (C3-C7) in 1998. I have to say that one was pretty rough, but it was necessary so as not to become a quadraplegic. I don't remember being in a lot of pain afterwards (maybe because I had so much before) but the significant swallowing and voice issues I had, and losing that much mobility at once(previously being young,healthy and very physically active) was a big surprise and quite challenging. As I mentioned, that surgery was done poorly(doctor shop!!!) and the C4-C5 joint never fused. The revision surgery I had in 2020 redid that joint and extended the fusion to T1. That recovery was much easier.
My neck surgeries have all been from the front(anterior cervical fusion discectomy-ACDFs) but some neck fusions are done from the back. (And some both front and back) From what my surgeon said the front/back combination has the best chance of a getting all joints solidly fused. I wish he would done that on my 4 years ago but he didn't think it was necessary. A drawback is that the posterior approach makes for a condsiderably longer and more painful recovery. On the plus side, with the rear approach there should be no issues with the swallowing and/or voice problems associated with the frontal approach. Your specific problems and anatomy will indicate which approach is best for you. Let us how things go and if you have any questions please ask.