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Anyone had an Anterior Cervical Corpectomy and Discectomy with Fusion?
Spine Health | Last Active: Mar 5, 2024 | Replies (52)Comment receiving replies
Thank-You SOooo MUCH for your reply. It helped me greatly to understand what all is involved....And how very different every patient can be. (And btw, It’s never ‘too long’ for me. I found it very very interesting and I learned something from all of it....So again, thank you!)
And no, I’m didn’t have this done at Mayo… Although the Mayo clinic is fairly close to us. I had it at a hospital in Madison Wisconsin ....and actually the same Neurosurgeon that operated on my aneurysm did my Corpectomy. I do have a lot of faith in him. As I said, I am 11 weeks out and I go back to my doctor next week. I know I’m just terrible at being patient and waiting for something to change here. I did ask my doctor if this could’ve been from my aneurysm that my legs were acting the way they are) and he said no. But from what I’m reading, sometimes the basic tests that are done don’t always give an accurate answer. (If you would like to connect on email or Facebook, private message me for my information.) You sound like you’re quite an athlete and work out a lot. I haven’t gone to any physical therapy yet but I think they have that planned for me. Before this all happened I was working out quite a bit and I have been biking a lot last summer it was an unusual for me to go 20-30 miles a day. When this started happening where I couldn’t move my legs very well and I was getting very numb feet, my workouts pretty much all stopped. When my low back MRI showed bulging discs I backed off exercising hoping they would heal by themselves but they didn’t. I would love it if I could get back to doing some sort of exercise routine every day!!
Thank you for all your words of wisdom. I’m sure I will re-read your letter quite a few times.....And I will be on here fairly regularly to see what more I can pick up!!! (You are right when you say ‘DO YOUR RESEARCH’. I have done a lot of research but I had never looked at any forums before a friend of mine suggested trying to find a ‘Corpectomy forum’.
Ok........Hope to talk to You again soon!, Take good care of yourself!
~ Connie
Replies to "Thank-You SOooo MUCH for your reply. It helped me greatly to understand what all is involved....And..."
Hello @constancebabe and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You have had quite the healthcare journey. I am glad you have found this community and joined this conversation. It looks like you have successfully connected with several members already who are very supportive, which is great!
You will notice that I have removed your Facebook name and replaced it with a note to have people private message you for your contact information. We do this to protect your privacy from spammers and in general. You are allowed to privately share that information as you see fit.
All that said, it sounds like you have a lot of information you plan to use in seeking answers for what is next. Will you come back and provide updates so other members can learn from your experience as well?
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@constancebabe never be afraid to get a second opinion if you have even a hint of doubt in your treatment. With the disc bulges, often times people think they need to stop being active. That is the opposite of what you want to do. You just need to avoid certain movements and add those that will help the weak areas. Obviously, something caused the discs to bulge. A weak link is there, which is probably muscular in nature (i.e. a weak core). I think physical therapy would help a great deal. One piece of advice I will give you with that is go to the website of the place you will be doing therapy at. See if the therapists and their credentials are listed. If so, pick the one with the most experience and that has a specialty in the area of concern (if it's listed). Don't just let the scheduler assign you someone. I have had great physical therapists and awful ones. If you have complicated issues the last thing you need is someone straight out of school. For my current physical therapy I did exactly what I just mentioned. I picked the lead PT, as he also has additional training in manipulation that I felt would be beneficial. The physical therapy place connected to the neuroscience center where my cervical spine surgeon is at was awful. I thought the therapist would be exceptional since he sees a lot of the surgeon's patients. Nope. After two sessions I quit and went elsewhere (that was around February 2020). Be your own advocate and take control! 🙂