C5-7 ACDR later today
A little backstory, I herniated multiple discs in my neck in a car accident in 2016. I got some epidural injections and the pain mostly resolved so I moved on with life. A few years later I started to have really bad pain in my shoulders, traps, and neck, but I attributed it to having shoulder surgery bilaterally after the car accident. I have Hypermobility EDS, and after the car accident needed to have both shoulder capsules shrunken to stop dislocating my shoulders. Around the same time I also started to have lower arm pain, trouble lifting my wrist on the left side, weakness and numbness in my hand, and some shooting pain. Again, because my shoulder surgery went across the nerve path to my arm, I attributed a lot of it to that, but my doctors were also convinced I had carpel tunnel. After seeing multiple orthopedic surgeons over a span of years to be evaluated for carpel tunnel, it was officially ruled out as the root cause. Fast forward, two years ago my doctor said it was likely my neck and I got my first MRI in a decade on my neck. I still had multiple herniated discs at the same levels as my car accident and the nerve pathways aligned perfectly with the pain I had been experiencing in my arms and hands. Over the last two years my symptoms have gotten a lot worse. Terrible headaches became a 24/7 issue, trouble swallowing, instability walking, basically a bunch of signs of spinal cord compression intermittently. Did some nerve blocks on the two levels and the pain relief was great while the nerves were numbed. Two weeks ago I was standing in my kitchen doing nothing particularly and I suddenly had severe excruciating pain down my paraspinal muscles on both sides of my back, my left arm went numb, shooting pain down my left leg, felt like a vice was squeezing my rib cage and I couldn’t put my chin to my chest without replicating this pain. Went to the ER and they told me it was spinal cord compression, talked to my surgeon and I was scheduled for surgery today. I am having a C5-7 ACDR this afternoon.
I am feeling pretty anxious about surgery. Every surgery I have had has been more painful than normal for the first couple weeks before I catch up with the healing curve. Surgeon says I will be in the hospital overnight and in the C collar for six weeks, start PT after the post op at the six weeks mark, and to expect muscle pain, spasms, trouble swallowing,!and nerve pain for a few weeks during the initial healing.
Anything else that I should expect? Any things handy to have or consider before I leave home for surgery? Hoping today goes well.