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Anyone who has had Cervical spinal compression surgery
Spine Health | Last Active: Aug 15 9:49pm | Replies (57)Comment receiving replies
@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.
Replies to "@msmith49 I have what you have. It is called cervical spondylotic myelopathy which is spinal cord..."
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Thank you for replying and telling your story. I also have bone spurs clear down my entire spine along with fibromyalgia and neuropathy. I have the numbing down my arms and hands also down my back/buttock/hip/leg/ foot pain, numbness and weakness. My L4-L5 is completely flat and on top of each other with nothing left in-between. I wanted to try injections first on that area. They told me I need surgery on my neck first due to it being the most dangerous. The numbness in my arms and the pain in my neck has been going on for years. I have horrible migraines every single day!! I have just been in shock since I was told what was going on. They found it when they did my MRI of my thoracic spine. They saw the lower three discs on my cervical spine. With having two total knee replacements in the last 3 years with being down in those 3 years and the pain from it when they talked about going in through the front of my neck, removing discs, cages, rods, plates, and screws all I could imagine was going through all of it all over again. I have worked so hard losing 76 lbs in the last year thinking I would get my life back and they told me about all the things wrong I didn't want to have to deal with anything else is why I delayed the surgery. I didn't want it to take away more time from my life. So I have been scared and angry since I was told the news. I have been swimming everyday for a year now so one more thing has been so overwhelming I just didn't want to stop especially over the summer. They told me I had to wear the neck brace 24 hours a day for the full six weeks to make sure what they were doing did not damage what they planned to do. It would be great if I didn't have to do it for that long. I will say a prayer that your surgery on your lower back goes well and your recovery goes well. My mother had the same surgery they want to do for both of us and I will tell you that after the surgery she healed and the issues she was experiencing did go away and she did not have any problems after she healed from the surgery. Please let me know how you are doing after the surgery. Thank you again for taking the time to reply and telling me your experience!