I have ACDF scheduled and am aware swallowing can be initially challenging. Would you be willing to share your experiences?
Did you start with water?
Did you have to use “ liquid food”? ( protein shakes, puréed soup?)
How long until it wasn’t an issue?
Did you have tricks to make it easier?
I have an acquaintance who is struggling years later, so of course I imagine the worst!
Thanks!
I was referred here from another subreddit and figured I would post here as well.
I’m a 32-year-old male and was injured in a car accident earlier this year. Before the accident I had zero neck pain, headaches, numbness, or arm issues.
Since then I’ve done months of physical therapy, medications, and multiple cervical injections without any real relief. My orthopedic spine surgeon has now recommended a hybrid surgery consisting of a C4-5 total disc replacement and a C5-6/C6-7 ACDF. I’m also seeing a neurosurgeon today for a second opinion before making any final decisions.
I’m not really looking for medical advice. I’m looking to hear from people who have actually gone through this surgery.
A few questions I have:
This is a huge decision for me, and hearing real experiences from people who have actually lived through it would mean a lot.
Thank you!
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.
Osteophytes involved,too..
this is where I am headed to stop the neck pain..
How brutal of an operation is this?
How long is the recovery..?
Can bad thing happen making things worse?
Please advise.
Thanks
I had C5–7 ADR with Simplify discs a year ago, and it has been the worst decision of my life. My post-op tests (CT, MRI, X-rays, and EMG) do not show any obvious issues with the artificial discs, but I am in debilitating pain.
My neurosurgeon is very renowned , and I trusted him completely. In addition to the physical pain, I am extremely depressed and losing hope. I am blaming myself every day for getting this surgery. I feel like my body was violated and that I was left with life-altering pain after putting my trust in the medical system. It has been incredibly difficult to process, especially because I sought treatment hoping to improve my quality of life.
I am in my mid-30s and struggling to see a future for myself. I have heard that Simplify discs can be difficult to revise, and I am terrified of going through another surgery.
I’m posting here to see if anyone has been in a similar situation or has any advice.
A little off label here, but I know you guys know what I’m going through. Herniated C5/C6 8yrs ago, pretty severely. Horrible radiculopathy for about a year then annoying pain for another year. Healed without surgery (although wouldn’t do it again). Fast forward, it’s re-herniated and I’m in the awful acute phase. The issue I’m having is, my 1st time, I could sit still on the couch and lay flat at night to sleep without agony (still had awful burning arm pain but the actual neck pain would quiet this way). I’m on day 3 today and each day the electric shock pain gets worse and worse. I cannot sit, stand, move or even breathe without the shocking pain; it makes me audibly gasp/yell out in pain. I cannot move my head or neck in any direction, chin tucks are a huge no, and cannot do any stretches without severe pain. My question is: has anyone experienced this type of acute phase? I have no numbness, and so far the pain is staying in my neck/traps but it’s a 9/10 every second of the day. This morning has been the worst so far. I tried sleeping in “zero gravity” with our adjustable base, tried sleeping on both sides, flat on back with towel under neck and flat on back without… all of these hurt terribly bad. Just non stop shooting pain with every movement. I know soft collars are a no-go long term but considering one for a few days until this initial phase subsides.
TLDR: electric shock neck pain, how long does this acute phase last (I know it varies wildly), and any tips (especially for sleep). I’m desperate.
Hi, so I am almost 2 weeks out of my surgery. My pain started about 2 to 3 months ago on my right trap. Thought I had pulled a muscle at work so I just kept working no big deal. I’ve had it before then about four weeks ago my trap was really burning so I went to a pain med Doctor Who said they believe I had a torn trap muscle which would not require surgery, but I needed to get an MRI to be sure that’s when the pain really started happening because it was burning a lot, and I started feeling pain behind my shoulder and my deltoid. I could not sleep at night. The pain was excruciating. I had to try and hold my arm up to get it to go away and that’s when I start realizing I couldn’t extend my arm up in front of me or to the side. I had no deltoid or shoulder strength anymore. So the first doctor recommended abrasion surgery, which I guess is when they burn your nerves but then I said let me go to an orthopedic surgeon. The first guy I saw said absolutely not. It wouldn’t do anything that my disc had popped and it was pushing down on all my nerves at go down my arm, especially to my deltoid area and I have lost two out of five functions of my arm already at first he recommended fusion but then he said after looking at it with his other doctors, I’m young and healthy and the replacement will be my best option, especially since I’ve only had the loss of function for a little over a week so the sooner they would take that pressure off the nerve the better chances in my full recovery. I then saw another Doctor Who also recommended it ,as well as another Doctor Who was supposed to get an epidural from he said there’s no point of the epidural losing your function is serious and he highly recommends that surgery as well. He thinks it would be really good for me, especially again since this is a new problem in my arm.
So fast-forward to two weeks ago, I went and got the surgery and honestly, the pain was gone directly after surgery and has not returned. I must say my experience has been great. The only pain I had was in my throat because they go through the front so the first two days it was very hard to swallow anything talking really wasn’t that bad but the swallowing was horrible. The third day it improved them by the fourth day, I was fine to do anything. I’m in a soft neck brace for two weeks until I see the doctor. I was sleeping pretty good every day until now two weeks later I woke up this morning my right shoulder hurting me not the original pain but very sore. I’ve read that when your muscles haven’t been working or use this could be part of recovery and I probably need PT so I’m not gonna stress about that until I see the doctor. Unfortunately my strength and movement of my right arm using my deltoid or shoulder has only approved about 20%. I can do most things with the arm just can’t go straight up with it and I need that for work unfortunately. I think PT will help that I hope. I never had any numbness or tingling even though I lost two out of five functions so I think I’m blessed hoping to hear other people stories if they’ve done the same disc and what to expect but I’m hoping for a smoother recovery and good luck to everybody.