@martinaston Thanks for asking. Yes, I had an ACDF (anterior cervical discectomy and fusion) of the C5/C6 disc. I asked to not have hardware placed on my spine, and my Mayo neurosurgeon did that for me because I agreed to stay in a neck brace for 3 months while it fused and he trusted me. It was worth it. Everything fused beautifully and I never have to worry about possible hardware complications or failures. He said he could do this because it was a single level fusion. All I had was a donor bone spacer. If I had chosen a bone graft from my own hip, It could have caused pain the rest of my life, and I didn't want something like that to influence my balance when I am elderly. Although this is a big surgery, it was not as bad as I had imagined. I had worked a lot at overcoming my fears. This surgery was life changing for me and a very good thing for me to regain normal functioning.

Another interesting fact was that, it was only at Mayo were my weird symptoms were understood to be spine related. I had pains all over my body and in my legs too, and an uneven gait when walking that all were caused by cervical spinal cord compression. I had found medical literature with a case similar to mine right before I came to Mayo and I came in asking questions about that as a possibility. I sent that literature in with my records when I requested an appointment. I was right about it, but it is something that there is no test to confirm, and the confirmation is that the surgery resolves the symptoms. My imaging demonstrated cord compression. There was no guessing about that.

It is all very interesting the way the body works. Are you a spine patient and contemplating potential surgery, or just have an interest in spine surgeries?

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