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Anyone who has had Cervical spinal compression surgery
Spine Health | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (58)Comment receiving replies
Thank you for your help on what to ask! I need to know the things you mentioned and I appreciate you reminding me it is ok to ask and get the answers I need. Did it take you 6 months to a year to recover fully? How long after the surgery before the pain of the actual surgery lessens? They said I would have some loss of range of motion but that it shouldn't be enough to make a huge impact. I've had pain in my neck for over 20 years but just happened to find out about my neck when I went to the orthopedic for my back. They were worried with the loss of feeling in my arms and legs that it could be related to my upper back. When they did the MRI of my thoracic spine they seen the last 3 discs of my cervical spine and they were so compressed onto my spinal cord you could barely see them. I was then sent to my cervical MRI and I found out the news on how extremely bad they were. Thank you for your help it has helped with the anxiety of it all.
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@msmith49
I have what you have. It is called cervical spondylotic myelopathy which is spinal cord compression injury. I also have lumbar spinal stenosis/DDD and getting surgery soon on L4-L5 (spinal injections no longer work for me).
I am a 54 soon to be 55 year old female, single parent, and had ACDF surgery on C5-C6 where they removed my disc and bone spurs, created a fusion “cement” using some of my own bone from spurs (helps your body accept the material better) and have a titanium cage around it for support. The pain was manageable and I only took pain medication for about 4-5 days and was working on my laptop in bed 2 days after surgery (I worked remotely all through COVID). My surgery was in January 2022. I wore a soft collar for a few days but they don’t want you to wear them too long since it can drastically weaken your neck muscles which you don’t want to happen.
Your doctors are right that you can get permanently paralyzed if you fall and your vertebrae further injured your spinal cord. I went for 3 years with no doctors diagnosing why I had neck/head/shoulder pain and weakness/numbness in my arms/hands/fingers affecting ability to hold things and not drop them, write, etc. I was also losing control of my bladder and difficulty walking (felt like I had cement boots on). As soon as my new orthopedic spine specialist looked at my MRI and listened to all of my worsening symptoms, he diagnosed me with cervical spondylotic myelopathy and I asked him if he would do surgery the next week! We planned surgery in 2 weeks because spinal cord compression/flattening can cause permanent injury and he wanted to stop the progression. You may want to reconsider doing surgery sooner. I am better but have some permanent neurological injury due to delayed diagnosis and ACDF surgery treatment.
I may have my lumbar surgery next month and I have heard that surgery is much more painful that cervical spine. Not looking forward to it but I have back/buttock/hip/leg/foot pain, numbness and weakness significantly affecting my quality of life.