@hodinator

Robert, it is very good to hear from you and I think about you often because you have achieved a lot in your amazing recovery which was so much more than the doctors expected. That makes me feel fantastic to know that you've done this and shared your progress with me. Thank you for staying in touch! Ironically, this began with another member who was upset and talking to me because they had been denied an appointment at Mayo in Florida, and it could have ended there, but I was being as helpful as I could, so they continued to engage with me and told me they had heard good things about Dr. Celestri and wanted to try him next. I didn't know that member was a retired radiologist until he later told me this, and I also knew that he was impressed with his consultation and the details of my own spine symptoms and how I related them to my condition and imaging results. This was his first personal experience of a spine condition, and even though he was a retired doctor, he had not experienced this himself. I then watched a long video about Dr. Celestri and he explained his work and methods and I thought he was someone I would have consulted if I was looking. I remembered all of this when we talked about the difficulty of travel for you to seek treatment. So that is kind of a special coincidence that helped you.

The best way to find my responses to you is to click on the bell for notifications at the top of the screen with a blue bubble for the numbers (if you have this set to receive the notifications) and you'll get a list. In that list is a drop down menu at the upper right. If you choose "posts that @ mention you", then you'll get a list of every time someone has typed @hodinator in a post. I always do that. It will get deleted from the list by clicking on it. You also could use the search bar to type "@hodinator" and also get a list.

I don't think the surgeon's team understands thoracic outlet syndrome. TOS specialists are usually thoracic or vascular surgeons. It isn't caused by a spine problem per se, but by compression of nerves outside of the spine and that can be between the heads of the scalene muscles (that connect to the spine) or in the arm pit under the pec minor muscle. Carpal tunnel causes compression of the same nerves in a different place, so that just confuses where the source of the problem is or if it comes from multiple places. There are other possible compression points and sometimes there is an extra cervical rib in the way. Physical therapy is the treatment of choice for TOS since surgery for that can just create more scar tissue that adds to the problem. You do have scar tissue from the spine surgery that can be contributing to this type of issue with fascial tightness. I keep working on mine because it periodically gets tight.

The facet joints of the spine are not where the discs are. They are to the side on each vertebrae and they allow the bones to rotate by sliding these joints. The best way to understand this is to take a turkey neck (when you have cooked a turkey) and boil it until you can easily pick the vertebrae apart and clean them. Put them back together and you will see how the surfaces connect and find the facet joints that are making contact. The discs would be gone likely by boiling and cleaning, so you can just imagine the space where those exist. The turkey vertebrae are different that human, but have similar parts. Facet joints provide stability and lateral support so the spinal discs do not bear all the load on the spine. If you go to your patient portal, you may be able to find the note from the surgeon that states specifically what he did. I can't tell from the x ray what exactly was done. I do see the rods attached and something that connects to both rods. The edges of the vertebrae look close together and rough. Typically there can be extra bone growth at those margins in older people. Bones remodel from pressure, and if there has been extra pressure because of discs that are bulging or collapsing, it can cause changes. Discs loose moisture and become thinner with aging. When discs collapse, it puts extra pressure on the facet joints causing arthritis. I have this too because my C5/C6 had lost half of it's height to herniation, and I do get twinges of pain from facets when I'm turning sometimes.

The longer the fusion with more levels, the more stress that puts on the discs above and below the fusion. Surgeons don't want to cause other levels to have problems sooner rather than later, so they do tend to be a bit conservative on how many levels to fuse, and that is of course their professional opinion on what is best. As a patient, I understand wanting to get everything fixed at once and not wanting to come back for more surgery later, but that isn't always the best choice, and it is something to discuss with the surgeon.

The PA makes a good point of waiting at least a year before looking to a spinal cord stimulator. Peripheral nerves take a very long time to heal, and all the years of nerve compression certainly caused some long standing pain. No one knows right now how much your nerve pain will or won't improve. I don't think you'll know if you want this for a year or more. The peripheral nerves are able to regenerate very slowly. I had some pain with temperature sensitivity in my hand caused by an epidural injection in my neck that lasted for a year an a half before it went away.

I know you're feeling better since the surgery, and are looking for more improvement. At this stage, just be patient with yourself. Healing takes it's time, and you can't speed that up. You can do lots of physical therapy, myofascial release, and make sure your diet supports good health and healing with adequate protein and minerals for bone health. You are doing all the right things in being positive and excited about your recovery. It is something to celebrate. Believing you can achieve something is very powerful, and its a superpower that a lot of patients never realize they have. I am going to imagine you standing defiantly wearing a super hero cape. You can add your Karate black belt to complete the outfit!

(Imagine some dynamic super hero movie music here.)
Jennifer