@birdman518 Hi Mitch. From your description of receiving steroid shots, it sounds like you had a lot of inflammation going on that your surgeon was concerned about. Did they give you any idea of when that may resolve? I am hopeful that the palsy could improve after the inflammation subsides. Inflammation can put pressure on nerves. I certainly experienced a lot of that after I fractured my ankle and was in a cast that would not expand with my foot swelling inside it. I was miserable for awhile, and had to wait it out until the cast came off. Are you able to use some ice packs on your neck to reduce swelling?

Nerves also can take a long time to heal. I had experienced a bad reaction after a spine epidural injection that caused immediate intense burning stabbing pains in my hand. I was also given steroids, but they didn't do anything for me. If I moved, it increased the frequency of the stabbing pains, so the nurse advised me to just get in bed and support my arm on pillows and try not to move. This was the most pain I had ever been in and to this day that is still true. (Spine surgery pain did not even come close to that epidural pain.) It was bad enough that I was shaking uncontrollably and just about convulsing and was well on my way to passing out. That is when I started doing some of my coping strategies to talk myself out of reacting to it. I did deep breathing and played some music in my head. The stabbing pains went on for about 6 weeks and gradually got farther apart. They were most intense in the first 2 weeks.

After I got better, I still had sensitive nerves. Every time, I washed my hands, my right hand was very sensitive to temperature and cold water was painful. That lasted about a year and a half, and then everything returned to normal. You may be having a similar, but more intense reaction. With my ankle healing after the surgeries for the fracture, I was getting zaps of nerve pain for 4 or 5 months which is something that happens as nerves heal.

Hang in there and just rest and sleep. You could ask your surgeon if the inflammation could be causing the palsy and if physical therapy at this stage of inflammation could just make this worse. Inflammation is also part of healing which is why surgeons tell you not to use anti-inflammatories after spinal fusions to promote good bone healing. After my cervical surgery, I had to wait 3 months to start physical therapy that involved my neck, but my surgeon did let me do some work at around 8 weeks because I was having breathing issues that were somewhat related to having thoracic outlet syndrome. The spine surgery made the TOS worse when everything tightened up and got noticeably worse at 6 weeks because of the fascial tightness and surgical scar tissue in close proximity to the areas in my neck and chest that compress nerves to my arms.

It was about the 2nd day after my spine surgery, that my pain got worse which is normal because of inflammation kicking in, and that is where you are now. If you have questions about your situation, don't hesitate to reach out to your surgical team. It takes a lot of patience to get through all this and I'm glad you are trying to stay positive. That will help keep your pain lower. Stress will just increase pain. Remember to breathe and relax as much as you can and tell yourself this is temporary and you are on a healing journey. It will get better a little bit each day. Also do remember to look at the incision area as best you can for any signs of infection. If it doesn't look right, make sure to contact your surgeon. Infections can also increase the level of pain.

Are you able to get comfortable and get some good sleep?

Jump to this post