C2-T2 posterior cervical spine fusion with posterior spinal instrument

That must be aggravating and painful, that's great you are able to maintain your muscles when they start to act up, I do a lot of home therapy myself but with minimum relief, and I was in therapy a couple time for pectoral release and for my cervical but I kept swelling my day goes by how much I walk and move my arms, and yes I have two cervical ribs but one was large that was the one they removed which that surgery did help a lot.

@nike05 I learned a lot of the Myofascial Release techniques from my physical therapist, so I do this as much as I can to self treat. I've also done this on my ankle to help with scar tissue from a bad fracture and the surgeries that went with that. One side is weaker because of the injury and the stronger side wears out the weak side. It's been like living with a sprain all the time, and I've been working on equalizing the tension on each side of ankle to reduce the pressure on the weaker side and relieve the muscle knots in the calf. That helps a lot.

You might want to look at the discussion on Myofascial Release. There are a lot of links with information in the first pages.

Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release for Treating Compression and Pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

The more I am on the keyboard typing with my arms forward, the more it bothers me. The best thing I can do is walking or riding my horse with good posture which works on core strength that supports the spine. The muscles on the front of the chest get too tight, so I do stretching with a foam roller. I also get one half of the chest that gets too tight with tightness in the side of the rib cage, so I kind of side bend and twist a little and hold it to stretch that. It tends to affect my breathing when my lungs don't expand enough on that side and can lead to repeated chest infections that start from sinus issues. If I keep it moving better, it doesn't start trapping phlegm. I have allergies and asthma.

Sorry I should have been more specific, yes through your insurance like for after you get out of the hospital, they don't stay but they come a couple times a day for about the first month, I had that it was helpful. I genuinely feel for you and I Pray everything works out for you, but if you feel that you need another opinion then you should.

I can imagine how exhausting that must be sometimes, especially when you have to keep doing certain stretches just to feel some sense of normalness and thank you for the link anything more to help is appreciated! Thats awesome you have a horse He/she is beautiful! Must be extremely comforting, I get that tightness too but to my entire upper chest and the sides of my ribs but only when I do too much, I've tried the roller too, I'm just right now working on getting the swelling down. I have issues with typing as well so I adjusted everything different higher and closer it helps a little, I don't know if you like topicals, I found one that's awesome it's called Mend it is super strong and helps with muscle pain, you can only find these in a dispensary but its so strong it to me worth it.

I had posterior fusion from C-3 to C-7 with 2 rods placed in the back of my neck it is an very painful operation as the surgeon is cutting through your neck muscles.The surgeon who did my operation placed the screws at C-3,C-4 into the facet joints and C-3,C-4 didn't fuse causing a lot of neck pain.I was very lucky to find a surgeon who did an anterior fusion at C-3,C-4 with a stand alone cage which stopped the movement in my neck and it fused there.I had no pain from that operation and went home the next day I did have a sore throat for about 2 weeks.If I had found this surgeon before I would have been better off.

@celtic - Your story is so familiar. So many spinal patients require unscheduled, unplanned for, corrective follow-up surgeries. The original surgery is a challenge it self while the corrective surgeries can be even more of a struggle.

Maybe it’s helpful for you to appreciate that you are not alone in your need for a follow-up procedure?

Finding the best medical facility and the best surgeon available can serve to reduce the risks of the initial surgery. I hope you are progressing…

I had posterior cervical neck fusion C3-7 last May. At my one year follow up, there were no hardware failures and the fusion has been good. Yes the surgery healing was very painful but it was well worth it. I do not have much movement limitation with the hardware. The rods are necessary to stabilize the neck and hopefully prevent other deterioration.
The most important thing is to find a good neurosurgeon!
I hope things work out for you.

Thank you so much