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ACDF 4 months post op - new arm pain

Spine Health | Last Active: Jan 5 1:40am | Replies (6)
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@darby413

I can ditto your dilemma with arm pain after Cervical fusion of C3-7 this past May. I didn't have any pain prior in my arms prior to surgery. Whenever I brought this issue up to doctors, it was always post operative pain. I have RA and fibromyalgia and see a rheumatologist regularly. When I mentioned this earlier this month, his reaction was tendinitis. Sorry I can't buy into that!
I did have a recent MRI for all the pain I have been experiencing in my lower back and arm. Waiting to hear back from my Mayo doc... Hope we can both find the issues for the arm pain.

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Replies to "I can ditto your dilemma with arm pain after Cervical fusion of C3-7 this past May...."
alexis7 | @alexis7 | Dec 30, 2023

I'm sorry you are dealing with this pain. I may be facing cervical surgery and have already had L4-5 fusion (3/2020) that failed. I dealt with some postop pain I didn't have prior to surgery and it turned into chronic L5 nerve damage. 2 years later I sought 3 opinions for a remedy, but all said they couldn't help, it was chronic. I will always wonder if I should have sought help sooner.
After any imaging I have I'm given the CD on the spot and then I go back the next day to get the radiologist's report, I can't wait for a doctor appointment.

I hope there is a solution for you.
Best regards,
Alex

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Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Jan 5 1:40am

@darby413 I am a cervical spine surgery patient and also have TOS or thoracic outlet syndrome. There are several compression points possible, and one is where the brachial plexus bundle of nerves passes between scalene muscles on the side of the neck. It’s very close to where an ACDF incision would be and post surgical inflammation can kick that up if you have TOS. It did for me. If your spine issues are connected to an injury, it may have also caused TOS. That is often missed and misunderstood by doctors. Physical therapy does help when you are at a stage of recovery when that is safe to do.

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