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Pain in shoulder after cervical surgery

Spine Health | Last Active: Nov 22, 2023 | Replies (61)
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@barnfind

Hi, I had 2 disc removed and fusion to c345 9 weeks ago. I bent my head backwards too far when my dog lunged at my face. C4 went forward over c5 and was pulling spinal cord with it. My surgery pain went away after a couple of weeks but my left shoulder pain started getting worse and the left hand. In the last 3 weeks my rt shoulder started hurting and my rt hand feels stiff with pain in middle finger and thumb. I can't hardly put my shirt on now. The pain is so bad in rt shoulder it feels like muscle tearing when I use it. Pain meds barely touch it. I did internet search today "shoulder pain after cervical fusion where there was no pain before" and found this site. Its a little comforting to know I'm not the only person to have experienced this and upsetting to hear how bad and how long it can feel like this. Thanks

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Replies to "Hi, I had 2 disc removed and fusion to c345 9 weeks ago. I bent my..."
Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Feb 14, 2023

@barnfind Hello and welcome to Connect. Have you discussed these new symptoms with your surgeon? Sometimes post surgical inflammation can cause symptoms, and one of the risks I have heard a patient talk about is C5 Paulsey, but I do not know if that would be associated with a fusion of C5 and above. Physical therapy can help a lot, but you need the surgeon's approval for that, and it could be too soon depending on the procedure. At 6 weeks, the incision has just healed. It could be nerve pain because of nerves trying to heal, and that can go on for a while. Sometimes it can take about a year for nerve pain to stop as it heals. I experienced that with a pain caused by a spine injection that I felt in my hand, and it was just over a year when it stopped being cold sensitive. With the description of your injury, likely there would have been an insult to the nerve roots pulling at the levels that slipped over each other, and now there is inflammation added to that from the surgery itself which should diminish as time goes on.

The other condition that can be more common with spine injury patients is thoracic outlet syndrome, and it causes a compression of the nerves that go to the arms and can happen in several places; between scalene muscles on the side of the neck, between the collar bone and rib cage, and under the pec minor muscle in the armpit area. Your injury could have also caused TOS, but it is likely too soon to be able to tell that and separate it from the spine symptoms. Physical therapy can help TOS, and I have TOS as well. TOS can also disrupt circulation and cause the hand to turn a bluish, purplish and get cold to the touch or have a mottled appearance.

I am a Mayo spine surgery patient, and I had to wait about 4 months before I could do any therapy that would move my neck. I had a fusion without hardware, so it was the neck brace and my good behavior that kept everything in place until it fused which happens about 3 months after surgery or longer for some patients.

Would you contact your surgical team and share what they suggest?

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