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Cervical Posterior fusion from C-3 thru C-7. Had this?
Spine Health | Last Active: 9 hours ago | Replies (94)Comment receiving replies
Yeah to be a little more clear my first two surgeries were anterior. Which were C5 through 7 with a cage and bone grafts. Hard to say why they didn't fuse but they haven't. On the first one I could take a little blame I probably didn't take the restrictions quite a serious as I should have. But with the second one I did everything and more that I could. I'm now 45 I got the first one at 40 or 41 years old. I was in pretty good shape for my age before the surgery. Now I can do very little physical activity so I'm struggling quite a bit. Anyway just wanted to give some background information so everyone would know my specific issue. The suggested surgery would be the posterior with rods and it would go t1 to c4. From what it sounds like the recovery is very painful which I'm not looking forward to that but I would get through it if I thought the result would be significantly beneficial. Other than the initial pain it sounds like the other issue is muscle tightness muscle guarding etc. I already have a lot of that. I have a lot of sharp pain in that area and I'm constantly fighting back against muscle tightness. I already have very limited range because of the pain I am very selective about the way I move. So if range and muscle tightness are issues I already have that. However if it got rid of the sharp pain in that area and allowed me to get back to somewhat physical activity. Like lifting heavy things being able to look back and forth quickly in traffic and so on and so on. I would probably trade that for the muscle tightness and loss of range. I know that's kind of rambling but I'm sure people can get the gist of what I'm saying. I'm hoping somebody out there who's had the same issues and has had roughly the same surgery has a success story. I would love to hear it. Thanks to anyone willing to discuss their results. Nate
Replies to "Yeah to be a little more clear my first two surgeries were anterior. Which were C5..."
@natewitte81 I had a C5 C6 fusion without hardware, and I remember a comment my surgeon made to me was that the fusion heals better with a bone disc spacer rather than a hardware cage. The bone spacer also had a milled space to be seeded with the ground off bone spur fragments. That is what I chose because I have had some issues with metals in earrings. I had no hardware at all, and I stayed in a neck brace 3 months until fused. Movement of head turning is mostly done by C1 and C2 with some help from C3 and C4. A fusion from C4 down may affect that somewhat, but your surgeon needs to answer that.
I did have reactions to titanium that I found out after my fusion when I broke my ankle 6 years ago. That caused pain for me and chronic hives. I had that hardware removed and it improved my health.
As for the muscle spasms and guarding, I still deal with some of that, but I have learned something from my physical therapists about releasing the tension with myofascial release therapy. It is similar to yoga stretches and massage, and it restores movement and circulation to the tissues and helps to reduce pain. I can still have some muscle spasms that rotate my vertebrae a bit and I have learned to self-correct that with stretches. I also have some involvement with the alignment of my lower jaw, and my dentist is a specialist in treating that with oral appliances. There is a relationship between proper alignment of the lower jaw and C1 & C2. All surgery creates scar tissue, and I stretch that too because it causes tightness. I have to do this periodically to maintain a pain free existence. I also need to do this on my lower leg to keep my ankle functioning properly. You can learn more about myofascial release or MFR at this discussion.
Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
There is a provider search at https://mfrtherapists.com/
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@natewitte81
Have you tried trigger point injections ? They greatly help with my muscle tension in my neck after 3 cervical spine fusions!