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Cannot sleep/sit - Burning pain down neck and upper back (had surgery)
Spine Health | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (8)Comment receiving replies
My surgeon says the disc replacements are in perfect position and to work with pain management.
EMG prior to the surgery was good so there was no permanent nerve damage.
They did through go front of my neck and I have ADR without hardware as my bone structure was good on the preop CT scan. The surgeon notes said they did a foraminotomy to decompress the nerves and the discs are secured through spikes at the top of the discs (Prodisc Vivo). The disc height was restored in the process as well so it’s possible the nerve roots are being irritated at the level above.
With my ADR a collar was not required post surgery and we’ve taken multiple X-rays to confirm the implant has not shifted at all.
Not sure what can be done at this point to help get me some quality of life back, especially with sleeping or sitting.
I am actually planning on getting another MRI today and will let you know the results.
Thanks for your reply!
Replies to "@dlydailyhope My surgeon says the disc replacements are in perfect position and to work with pain..."
@iamnp83 I had the same surgery and am typing this in tears due to the severity of the burning pain in my neck amd upper back. They've also referred me to pain management which is essentially going backward. I had the surgery to be out of pain. This is worse than before! Ive never experienced this until the surgery. They are no help, just tossing me to pain management, essentially saying Well, we did our job, must be you! I cant cook a meal now without extreme pain.
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@iamnp83
Hope you can learn more following your MRI. I have a lumbar MRI later this month with and without contrast to check nerve health/inflammation and any new compression. My hope is to get an updated MRI of my cervical spine after I try PT for 4-8 weeks to see if it helps any with neck pain on the left.
One thing to keep in mind is that EMG/nerve conduction studies of limbs really only measure neuromuscular health of communications within the limb. They do not fully measure spinal cord/nerve root/spine signaling health. That is what I have been told by my orthopedic spine surgeon and one neuromuscular specialist. For example, I was told my lower limb EMG/nerve conduction studies showed “normal” results when I had severe spinal stenosis/degenerative disc disease and neurogenic claudication (low back/buttocks/hips/legs and down to feet pain/weakness/numbness). The one person said that they wouldn’t recommend lumbar surgery because it won’t do anything but in actuality, the surgery stopped some of the pain/numbness. I still have some residual pain/weakness due to long term compression and permanent injury to nerves due to delayed diagnosis/treatment.