Surgery of the cervical spine

@mincer The nerve impulses for every body function that is controlled by the brain travels through the spinal cord in the neck and the cord is a bundle of nerve cells that have long axons like "wires" that float as a big bundle freely in spinal fluid. It just depends on what part gets compressed as to what symptoms you will have. Uncompressing the spinal cord would improve both arm and leg symptoms if the nerves and spinal cord are still functioning and presuming that the symptoms are caused by spinal cord compression. I know that I got used to the weakness and compensated with my efforts. It felt very freeing to have things work better again. It does take a bit to rebuild muscles that were lost because they didn't receive proper nerve signals. The muscle fatigue I was always feeling was gone when I woke up from surgery and my pain then was from the surgery itself. It is possible to have other sites of nerve compression that are not related to the spine in other body parts which spine surgery won't fix. It is the surgeon's job to accurately determine the source of the symptoms before they do surgery.

I knew that my spinal cord compression was getting worse because I saw the amount of bone spurs pressing into my spinal cord double in 9 months time between 2 different MRIs. I was at risk of paralysis if there would be another injury because the bone spurs were like a hard knife in front against my spine and a whiplash would push it farther into the cord. I knew if I did nothing, my future would be in a wheelchair. That also puts a burden on family members and caregivers and I didn't want to give up an active life. Even if you can walk, having a weak uneven gait creates a bigger risk for falling and further injuries which would lead to a wheelchair for safety. Having surgery is scary, and I had to overcome that, and I am so glad I did. It empowered me to choose my future, and I defeated my biggest fears and all of this experience along with a great surgical outcome completely changed my life for the better. A year ago, I broke my ankle badly and had emergency surgery, and I wasn't scared and was completely calm. That is proof of how much I changed and became stronger as a person because I faced my fears and defeated them going through spine surgery.

How inspirational you are in your conversation, I am sitting here after a day at work (child care ) and I am feeling no strength in my legs and I am exhausted 💤 take care xx

I have had an ACDF on three levels. C3, C4, C5. The first level partially fused, the 2nd fused but the lowest level did not fuse and both screws are broken. I am scheduled for a posterior surgery on 4 levels in 2 months. I am having neck pain and hand weakness as expected but also left leg weakness and tingling. I was told that the leg is not related to the neck issues. Was your leg weakness improved after neck surgery?

Hi Jennifer, with the cervical problem did you find that the burning symptoms progressed to other area of your body over time or was it all at once that all the areas were effected? Also did you ever have facial sx's? ty

@mincer I had all kinds of symptoms, some were sharp pains like burning or electric shocks. Those were more serious nerve compression pains. I also had tingling or numbness, and sometimes muscles jumping with spontaneous contractions. Because my C5/C6 disc had collapsed 50%, it made the space between the vertebrae smaller where the nerve roots exit the spine. If I side bent my neck in that condition, I got a strong burning pain because I knew it contacted those nerves which otherwise were not complaining.

I also had burning electrical pain from an epidural steroid injection in my neck, so I never did that again. I lived with that electric shock pain hitting me randomly for a few months before it subsided. My symptoms did progress and get worse over time. I started tracking it on a drawing of a body diagram after the spine injection and I saw how it was progressing all the time. I was under the care of a physical therapist at the time, and she bought me some time before surgery, but clearly it was getting worse.

If you are already at burning pain all the time, that is a lot to live with, and surgeons should be listening to you and figuring out what is causing that pain. I did have some facial pain too and neck spasms were affecting my jaw and throwing that all out of alignment. When my symptoms first began it was minor when I turned my head, I got a pain in my ankle, but over 2 years time, that had progressed a lot to where I could side bend my neck and cause an electric shock. My symptoms also changed location when I changed the position of my neck depending on how my spinal cord was positioned inside the central spinal canal. That kind of information is important to communicate to your physician.

It's critical the way the skull sits on top of the spine and the alignment of the jaw. You may want to look at this link that gives technical information:
https://mskneurology.com/atlas-joint-instability-causes-consequences-solutions/
What are your doctors telling you about your condition?

My husband had ACDF on C456 last November. He has experienced no post opt pain but has severe lower arm weakness and loss of dexterity in both hands.
He had this weakness, but
no pain, before the surgery which is what led us to have the operation done.
His surgeon does not seem concerned at all. He said he will do nothing until it has been at least a year-year and a half post opt. That it could just take that long for the nerves to refire.
My husband is getting quite frustrated with the lack of ANY improvement in his arm weakness and hand dexterity going on 7 months now.
Anyone else experienced this?

@23otters Hello and welcome to Connect. I am a cervical spine surgery patient and my surgery was a C5/C6 fusion.

Another member here @birdman518 has talked about symptoms similar to yours and having some post surgical issuer with C5 Palsy which can be a risk associated with surgery. You may want to look at these 2 discussions, the first where he is talking before his ACDF spine surgery, and the discussion afterward about going through physical therapy that improved his condition. Physical therapy of course needs to be authorized by the surgeon. I know it's frustrating because healing from spine surgery and nerve problems does take a very long time. I went through it too and had to rehab neck weakness because of being in a neck brace for 3 months, and I couldn't start doing physical therapy until I was about where you are right now. Hang in there. Your surgeon is right about nerves taking a long time to heal.

- Spine Health - "ACDF scheduled for Wed: How did you manage sleeping post-op?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/acdf-scheduled-for-wednesday/
- Spine Health - "Updates after C3-C6 ACDF surgery"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/update-2-months-post-c3-c6-acdf-surgery/
I hope you find these conversations helpful, and know that you're not alone. Has your surgeon discussed rehab or physical therapy?

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly and yes, these comments were very helpful.
My husband did not start any PT for 3 weeks after the surgery and then after a month had to change physical therapists after the therapists left and lost a month. At the 6 month mark Medicare refused to pay for anymore therapy as there was no improvement. He now has a nerve stimulator that he uses twice a day but no other pt. It helps some but basically he cannot raise his arms above his waist and has limited dexterity in both hands after 7 months post op.
Has anyone used massage or a chiropractor and found any improvement?is there a way to get Medicare to pay for medical massage?
Thanks in advance!

@23otters ... My surgeon told me "what it's like in one year is going to be what it is". My pain and numbness is a little worse and more bi-lateral, and it has now been almost 16 months. I just had an MRI done, which took a year because of my pacemaker, and it did not show anything that was wrong or could be fixed.
Bottom line: we believe that I had spinal nerve damage from before, and that my problems are due to that, which will not heal.
Sorry and I hope your husband's situation does improve, but that is my story.

Hello Jennifer, my name
Is Lorna and i live in Saskatchewan Canada. I read your story bu searching about cervical problems.. your story is inspiring and giving me hope and possibilities what to look up. Hope you are doing great and back to your normal life. If you read this message , can you please send me message. Thank you!