Is it possible to have neck and lumbar surgery at the same time?
Currently I am in the process of having a fusion at L3-L4 which will be an extension from the fusion at l4-l5 that was done in October of 2022. I was great from my first fusion until about 6 months ago and the pain started again in my thigh but this time it was the left side and my buttocks also radiating down the back of my legs. The pain is absolutely excruciating. While I know that the lumbar fusion is for sure, my pain management doctor ordered an MRI of my cervical spine because I hadn't had an MRI since 2023 on my neck. I told him that occasionally I experience pain go all the way down the back of my body from my neck to my feet if I move my neck a certain way. Mind you I've known that I have stenosis since I was about 20 because I have degenerative disc disease. Around age 27 I wanted to get surgery on my neck done to get rid of the pain that goes down my left arm. Unfortunately, my job and timing didn't work out to get surgery. The next time I attempted to give my neck attention my lower back started hurting and I ended up having the l4-l5 fusion. Needless to say when my pain management doctor went over my MRI results of my cervical spine he commented that it is worse than my lumbar spine. The thing is is that the original referral this time around is just for my lumbar. The concern of the neck came around halfway through this process. Unfortunately the neurosurgeon in town won't even look at my neck images because that isn't what they received the original referral for. I have now reached out to Mayo as they are considered a Centers of Excellence facility through Walmart (I work at Sam's Club). I am hoping that the neurosurgeon will look at my cervical images as well. I would just hate to get lower back surgery and find out it was my neck that causes the pain! So I was curious if anybody has ever had lumbar and cervical surgeries at the same time or one right after another or if this is even a possibility. I wish there was such a thing as a fake spine because I would sign up to have it implanted! Unfortunately due to degenerative disc disease I'm going to be encountering problems every couple years I'm sure. It just sucks the life out of me!
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@nikkilee Welcome to Connect. I don't think a surgeon would operate on both cervical and lumbar at the same time. You need to be able to function during recovery and that would be extremely difficult. You know what symptoms you have when moving your neck. You may want to call your insurance company to see what you need to do to get a referral for your cervical spine. Mayo would want to see all your imaging for review. They should be evaluating your entire spine and developing a plan. Your neck can cause pain anywhere in your body. I had that situation with spinal cord compression in my neck, and I had surgery at Mayo.