Current C4/C7 fusion, doc wants to remove hardware and fuse from C3/T2

I had a single level fusion c5 c6 that I knew something was wrong at the 4 month mark. Kept getting the all looks fine story and finally almost 5 yrs later went to a neurosurgeon and he did a special ct and found that I didn't fuse and the cage subsided into c5 vertebrae. They want to go in from the back now and put rods and screws but leave the old hardware on the front. Oh ct says I have halos around all 4 screws as well. Hope you get relief fast!!! Best of luck. These neck issues are crazy

My current surgeon wants to go in the front, remove current 25 year old titanium plate, refuse C3/T2 then flip me over and fuse from back also.

Of course none of this guarantees symptoms and pain go away!

Sorry to hear about your situation!

Good luck.

I had that happen but for a different reason. The surgery was unbelievably amazing from the front. I had full mobility like I hadn’t had in 60 years and total pain relief like I haven’t had in 50 years. Unfortunately, what happened to me where my bones were too soft and the hardware didn’t hold so the following week I had to go back in for an emergency surgery from the back where they fused c2 or 3 down to T1 or 2. Unfortunately, that is the type of surgery that where you lose some mobility from looking up and down. Also a little bit from left to right. However, what I lost from left to right was already what I had lost before both surgeries. So that didn’t make a difference. My severe round shoulders made a problem when it came to healing. My biggest challenge was getting my lifelong round shoulders to adopt adapt to the straight rod. I have to say that all of this DID need to happen and it is unfortunate that this is what life dealt me. But there’s so much pain that was relieved by having the neck surgery that even though I am challenged in my recovery and it’s been three years I do not regret what I had to do. So my best advice is to consult with a couple good orthopedic surgeons and come to terms with what you have to do. I can tell you that my orthopedic surgeon who I adore was not so convinced about my cervical surgery, but he allowed me to take the lead. And what he found when he went in there shocked us both bones that were soft and falling apart, and no one had any advanced way of knowing this. So it ended up I made the right decision and now I just go on with my life. I have to go back for another lumbar fusion around the edges of the first one and that’s just life, but I love my orthopedic surgeon and it’s just what I have to contend with with degenerative disc disease. I have so many other blessings that sometimes things are awesome and sometimes not so awesome but that’s life. Have a great orthopedic surgeon that you trust and will live the rest of your life relying on.