herniated cervical discs

Hi Lila & welcome to the forum. You have found the right place as several of our members have had this surgery recently & have been posting their progress which I think you will find very helpful. Not only will you learn a lot about this surgery, hopefully it will help calm some of your fears. This type of surgery is one of the most common spine surgeries done & has come a very long way over the years. I am sure if you have a top notch neurosurgeon you will be fine. Neurosurgeons are the very best for this surgery because they have the best hands. Since they do delicate brain surgery this speaks volumes.

You can use our search feature at the top & type in acdf & you will be able to pull up the posts & read about it. We do ask that you not post on those threads. You will get much a much better response by asking your questions right here. Abilene & Taller Now are two recent ladies that have had this done.

I would say the car accident is probably what started the neck situation. That is what happened with my neck. Any time an area has an injury or trauma it weakens that area & can predispose the person to further injury. It sounds like you have a very physical job which over the years more than likely played a role with the neck problems too. My son is an electrician & young & was shocked at what was found on an MRI of his neck. It all went back to his work.

The only time I ever had breathing trouble outside of my COPD, was from an impinged right shoulder. The spasms came around to the front of my chest & collarbone area. It was muscle spasms causing the breathing situation. I am not saying this is what is going on with you because none of us are drs here, lol. But, its a possibility.

I do understand the not wanting to be on medications. If you ask the people at this forum they will tell you the same thing, none of us want to be on them. But when it comes down to quality life you will make a choice. I also do not believe in suffering when there is some things that can improve the situation. I do hope when you have the surgery that you will understand that taking medication is what will assist you in healing from your surgery. Trying to be tough & not give in will prolong your healing because you are not letting your body have any rest, its in constant battle which will take a toll. You will not get addicted to pain meds if taken as directed by your drs either. People that get addicted abuse their meds & then have a mess on their hands. You will find those meds after surgery to be your saving grace. Your drs will have you off those meds in no time.

There is a chance that you may not be able to go back to your job but that is between you & the dr. Give it time.

Hang in there & do look for those posts & ask any question you have & you will get answered by either or both Taller Now & Abilene about the surgery.

Hello, and thank you for your reply.... :)
You may be onto something with the breathing issue. The muscles in my back and neck are always really tight due to the nerves firing all the time. I get graston therapy to break up adhesions in the muscles, but they always come back. Maybe the sensation of not being able to take a deep breath is related to the muscle..... Something to think about anyway. I'm no doctor, and that's why they get paid the big bucks....lol, but I know there's a link to this and my injury. The only time I experience it is when I'm having a bad symptom day.....

I look forward to reading about others experiences....
I know this surgery is common and I'm sure my neurosurgeon could perform it in his sleep...lol. nevertheless, it's scary.....

I never would have opted for surgery, but all the Dr s are saying there is really no choice, if I want to have a shot at a good quality of life. The symptoms are scarier than the thought of surgery. I'm still young (kind of....haha) and have 3 young children. I don't want to risk permanent damage of the nerves

I am worried about nerve function. Everything I've read is that the longer your nerves are impaired, the less likely the chances of full recovery are. It's been one year since the last accident and all conservative methods have failed. I hope I wake up from surgery with some of the symptoms diminished. Completely gone would be better, but I am realistic. I know it may take awhile to function normally again.

The issue with my job, is that per my contract, I must return to my job position within 2 years of the date of injury (they are considering the injury date to be 6-5-13) or I lose my seniority. That only gives me 8 months to have the surgery and recover enough to get my restrictions lifted. Maybe I am being UNrealistic in regards to my job..... Lol. One can only hope....

I know the drugs can help with my recovery. All the ones I've tried have given me that weird loopy feeling, and I hate it. The lyrica is definitely helping though, and I would rather deal with the loopy feeling at this point, than the constant, frustrating pain. I try to live an organic lifestyle, but my organic pain relief ;) doesn't touch the pain.... So lyrica it is. I don't worry too much about the drugs, because I don't want to be on them in the first place, but I do worry about becoming dependent on them for pain control.

It's nice to see others going through the same thing. Not feeling so alone anymore.....

Many of us on here are experiencing that same thing you are.

Most of us also have had Fusion Neck Surgery. I had C5 in 2009 and need C4 & C6 done eventually.

Because the disc's are hitting nerves and other things you'll have spasm's, pain, swelling, tingling in the arms / fingers, etc. This is just normal as disc's aren't suppose to touch anything.

I can get breathing issues if I lift something I probably shouldn't have.

It hasn't happened enough for me to ask, that's my fault I should discuss it with my Dr. It could also be medication related for me too.

Weird things happen with disc's touching stuff. I can be fine one moment, turn my head weird and I'm junk the entire day. The other day I got out of the shower wrong. The worst was putting my phone on my shoulder and moving my neck to hear it. Wow, that almost dropped me to the ground in tears.

Lila, you will find because of the nerve issues, the Lyrica is one of the nerve meds rx'd. Gabapentin, Cymbalta & Amitriptiline are some other nerve meds. These are not narcotics, nor is the Lyrica so you have no worries there. I can assure you unless you have addiction issues previously, you will not have problems with taking pain meds. Your drs will not leave you on the pain meds long either. We see more complain of the surgeon taking meds away too quick, so that is one less thing for you to worry about. Surgery of any kind is scary.

Straightening of the spine can be caused by spasms & a good muscle relaxer can help with that. It is sounding like your breathing issues are related to spasms from what you are describing especially when you can point it to happening when you are feeling the roughest.

Once you have this surgery the ladies will tell you take things moment by moment when in the healing process. Follow all post op instructions to the letter even when you think you can do something you shouldn't. Setbacks after surgery are the hardest to overcome. What the patient does after surgery determines the success of the surgery.

Take care.

Thanks Susie.... Good advice!! I've never had addiction problems so at least there's that :)

I am definitely worried about what to expect after surgery. Like how long should I have help? My kids are 2,4 and 12.... So that is going to be a challenge. My toddler still wants me to "rock him like a baby" at night.... Lol. It breaks my heart when I have to tell him I can't and the Dr said absolutely no lifting for at least 6 weeks postop. Makes me so sad!!!

Thankfully my father just retired and my mother has a flexible schedule, so they will be here to help when my husband is working. I can't imagine going through this without help.... Especially for those of us with little ones.

I just received a call from the surgery department. She wanted to let me know, they have the surgery marked as urgent and was waiting to hear back from workers comp. Thankfully my employer is self insured, so I am not dealing with a 3rd party carrier. I deal directly with my employer and they have yet to deny me anything. They are pretty good at handling this, but the case is so complex they put a case worker on it, to have a better understanding of what's going on.... I am incredibly lucky as far as that is concerned. I have heard horror stories from others when dealing with workers comp.

So anyway.... I'm sitting (actually lying here lol) at the moment, trying to stay thankful for what I got, hopeful for the future and depressed about the present..... lol. Thanks for letting me vent :)

Hi Lila:

Sorry to read about your neck problems and breathing problems.

I do hope your surgery goes well and recovery too.

I have Osteoarthritis in my neck and other joints. I also have Fibromyalgia. I am in Canada. Surgery has not been offered to me as a solution. I, too, was rear ended about 10 years prior to the arthritis symptoms. I have written on many posts as I have multiple health issues.

Just wanted to let you know that I was on Lyrica for a couple years and got up to the full dose allowed. It didn't take all the pain away for me but I sure noticed when I was taken off of it that I could not function well. I truly never felt any really bad side effects. Weight gain, however, was a problem and still is. I have nerve damage. I find when the weather is quite windy I get in more pain. I used to feel the affect of the meds on my nerves. It would be like a dull buzz. If you come off, you will be taken off slowly as you may have withdrawal symptoms. I did, but it did not take long to stop. Off Lyrica, I began to get nerve spasms at bedtime. The Lyrica might have masked them. I am now on Nortriptyline and the one good thing it has done is stop the nerve spasms.

My Husband and I were in a car accident a month ago. I have not been in great shape. Injured from the seat belt. No idea what more damage my neck has. I can still walk but for the past 12 years, I walk with pain. With the Osteoarthritis I have to keep moving some.

I hope you can figure out your breathing issues. After a flu a few years ago I had problems breathing. I was prescribed two meds - Flovent and Advair diskus. They both helped immensely. I had all kinds of tests with a Respirologist. A chest x-ray found, what was decided was a scar on my right lung. I had more trouble with breathing a year and a half ago. I started to feel like I could not breath at home. I finally noticed that our electronic air cleaner stopped working. My ducts were needing cleaning and we now use a regular filter that fits into the case where the electronic air cleaner was. I was given a sample of Advair diskus to get relief. It took several months to get the house in better shape. I think I do have a bad dust allergy.

I had to stop working. On LTIP, you must always be attempting to get better. I, unfortunately, keep deteriorating but I still try.

Take care.

Loring

Osteoarthritis in Multiple Joints, Fibromyalgia, Neuralgia, Chronic Daily Headaches, I.B., Hard of Hearing...

Post Edited (Loring) : 9/16/2014 11:44:46 AM (GMT-6)

Hi lila W I have read your post and cringed the whole time! It reminded allot of what I went through back in 1985 and back then I was only in my thirties too! Yes your breathing problem could definitely be related to your herniated disc! You mentioned that the disc was pressing into your spinal cord! I am just curious why on earth did they not do surgery on you as soon as they found that out, especially with your symptoms. If you read back on some of my post, you will find that I had a similar experience, doctors giving me the run around for months, until they did a myelogram and MRI after they did those test and found out what they were dealing with, I all of a sudden became an (emergency) and required surgery right away! ( Funny how that works!)

Anyway I will not go into the details here, as I have written plenty about it in my previous post over the years. I will tell you I am glad they are going to do the surgery, it will be tough on you, this surgery is no picnic, but considering what could happen if you didn't have.......well that is just to scary to think about! Keep us informed of your progress, and just know that when your here on this forum you are family and we all care about each other! We might not be able to cure you, but we can lend you our ears and listen to you, and give you compassionate and caring support, and of course prayers!

You have a rough road ahead but we are here to help you through it! I have had three fusions in my neck so I can definitely empathize with you! Keep the faith and you will make it through this fine!

Good Luck to YOU!

White Beard

Thank you all for your support and encouragement and also your words of wisdom!!! I really appreciate you all taking the time to lend support.
I laughed at the "bumpy road" question... (Yes.... I cringe at some of the roads around here... I'm in the NE part of the country and the roads are terrible lol) and I cried (happy tears) at the idea of having the baby climb into my lap to be rocked.... I hadn't thought of that. Such a good idea!!! I have a rocking chair in his room, so that should work just fine. I'll try not to rock....haha :)

I just received a call from the surgeons office. They wanted me to know they have the surgery listed as urgent. I spoke to my comp carrier yesterday and they are hopefully going to push this through quickly. I saw the surgeon for the first time, only 2 weeks ago.

You see, this is all pretty new.... I saw a neurologist for 8 months that thought I had a stretched braxial plexus nerve and diagnosed me with BFS (benign fasciculations syndrom)....

It wasn't until I decided to go see a massage therapist and chiropractor, that I was told the neck injury was serious.He explained what he saw on my MRI and EMG..... He sent me to see a spine specialist who then immediately referred me to the surgeon.

The injury wasn't handled correctly by the first neurologist I saw. Which really irks me.... How can someone in that field not see the correlation between my symptoms and the MRI images??? He told me the muscle fasciculations were benign. Even though I KNEW that they were somehow linked to the other symptoms. They are at their worst on my bad days. The last time I saw that Neuro, at that point my foot was showing the effects as well as my arms and hands.

Now that I'm slightly educated about what's going on, when I read the symptoms of cervical myelopathy.... it's as if you could put a picture of me, next to the description.... lol. The only thing I don't have yet, is diapers....... ;) ;) It's a textbook case, and I'm edit at that neurologist. For 6 months, he sent me for testing for all types of disease.... Als, MS etc..... What a waste of precious time. Especially considering that the longer you are presenting myelopathic symptoms, the worse your chances of recovery are.....

The other Dr I went to, took one look at it and said I need surgery and that no time should be wasted. And I was told prior to seeing him, that he is very conservative and doesn't suggest surgery quickly. But he did. Obviously he saw what the other Dr missed...... So I went to see the surgeon 2 weeks ago when he ordered new MRI to be done. On the latest MRI, the spinal cord on the right is deformed by about 50%, which is why he considers the surgery urgent.
It's been an absolute roller coaster.

For awhile I was told to just rest, then for awhile I was told I may have some degenerative neurologic disease..... I am at this point, thanking my lucky stars that this is a mechanical failure..... not something that may kill me..... Lol
I think that's why I am feeling overwhelmed with all of this.

I read the same thing about the shoulder surgery and the comparison to neck surgery..... Which is relieving!! The shoulder recovery was very difficult and it took me 7 months to get me arm working the right way again. I was also breastfeeding the baby at the time, so if I can get through that, I will get through this. I think my biggest challenge will be not overdoing it.....

The lyrica I just started, is sure making me loopy. Hopefully I adjust to it. It's definitely helping my pain, so I am willing to deal with the effects. I remember after having my shoulder done, needing to stay ahead of the pain.... So I will keep that in mind. I hate the loopy feeling!!!

My biggest concern at this point, is if these symptoms are permanent. I know that the surgery won't reverse the nerve damage, so my hope is that I wake up without weakness..... However, I am being realistic. I know it may take time. I just hope it's not more than 8 months or I will lose my job title and seniority. Maybe I am being UN realistic about my return to my job....haha. If football players can return to playing, doesn't that mean I could return to my job? Sure it's physically demanding, but is it not a good idea to do that type of manual labor for 20 more years?? Some of my Dr s have said I shouldn't continue in that field, or I will most definitely require more surgery and have a poor quality of life. The surgeon basically gave it a wait and see approach when I asked about the future of my job..... The uncertainty is the worst of this for me.

Thank you all again for spending time to reply. It does help to have others to relate to and I do feel like this is a little family.... Funny that technology can bring us together this way!!!

Thank you all so much......
Xoxoxo
Lila

Lila, I had to edit a word out in your post, the forum has rules about language. Since we never know the ages of who is reading our posts we have to keep it clean. Non members can view & read our posts too. Thanks

Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 9/17/2014 8:23:39 AM (GMT-6)

Lol.... THINK FUSION.... Got it!!!

Oh...and sorry about the language.... Didn't realize I had used a swear word..... I'm blaming it on the Lyrica!! ;) ;) lol

I will stay focused on my recovery and stop worrying about the job. It is what it is. I won't do anything that may be detrimental to my future. I want to hold my grandchildren.....

Thanks all

Thanks Abilene!! Good idea!! We have a recliner, and it's really soft and big, but it doesn't swivel. It's probably good for sleeping (maybe) but not for daytime use. I think my parents have one that swivels that I can borrow :)
I was on the phone all day yesterday.... The surgeons assistant, the case manager, the surgeons nurse, the scheduling department and my employer, all called me.....
Ugh!!!! Hahaha :) I was wiped out by the end of the day!

I think I am getting used to the lyrica. I didn't feel so dizzy this morning. The nurse suggested I take it a couple hours before bed, instead of right before I lay down and it must have made a difference. I don't feel as weird today :) I am supposed to start another dose 2x a day instead of just bedtime, but I am home alone with my kids today, and I'm nervous to take another dose. I was thinking I could wait one more day, and do that on a day my husband is home. That way I am not doped up, alone with my children. Not sure if I will fall asleep from it. It shouldn't hurt to wait one more day to up the dose does it?? I would call the Dr, but honestly.... I don't have the energy today, to be on the phone one more minute with them...lol..... Yesterday was enough. I should have remembered to ask them....

Apparently the surgeon has coded the surgery as "urgent" to my employer. They said when someone is myelopic, they want the carrier to know it's necessary and to not drag their heels. I guess a spinal cord deformity is urgent right??

I spoke to my HR rep and she told me they are escalating to process of getting everything approved. This surgery is expensive so I hope attorneys don't need to get involved. They are sending the surgeons reports to an IME for review. Hopefully it's done by next week..... It's kind of scary being at the mercy of a Dr approval. Now that I know what's wrong and recognize the symptoms and serious nature of the myelopathy, I don't want to waste anymore time getting it fixed!! My employer has never denied anything before, so I hope they don't start now....lol. They even paid for the testing when the neurologist was looking for MS and ALS etc... I'm sure they could have denied that if they wanted to. Those things would have had nothing to do with a work injury. Even though they have been incredibly fair, I am still worried they could deny the surgery. Can they do that??? Trying not to worry.....lol

The first neurologist really gummed things up and confused everyone, so I'm sure they are wondering what is happening too. I went from being diagnosed for an entire year with a stretched braxial plexus nerve and benign fasciculation syndrome - to having disc herniations and myelopathy and a major spine surgery in a matter of 2 months. With spine Drs wondering why I am just coming to see them....lol. My case manager looked through the neurologists office notes, and she said he hardly mentioned a cervical herniation.
I really don't blame my employer one bit for questioning what is happening and wanting a second opinion. Thankfully I have a second and third opinion as well.... :)

As usual.... Thanks for the advice!! Hope everyone here, is having a pain and symptom free (or at least slightly free) day..... :)

Haha.... Now I understand your screen name.... Taller now.... Lol. Good one ;)

Hearing your story gives me much hope!!!! I am so concerned about the myelopathy not going away, but sounds to me like you are doing exceptionally well, so I hope I have the same results. :) My neurosurgeon has proposed 3 levels as well. He said that could change when he gets in and has an actual visual of what's going on in there. I have a large mass of herniation deforming the right spinal cord, and the nerve roots on that side. Moderate stenosis of the canal in those sections due to the deterioration, so that's why I am presenting more on the right than the left but on both sides.....

Hopefully once the pressure is gone my symptoms are relieved.
It was a long few months thinking of neurological diseases wasn't it???? I was really worried for awhile because of the muscle fasciculations. They are so strange and unrelenting. Really maddening in a way. Seeing my muscles twitching and spasming everywhere was, let's just say....unnerving....

The first neurologist was so sure they couldn't be from a cervical issue..... He hardly even discussed my neck. Ever. And with my age, I figured now would be about the time for MS to show up....
Even though the Dr's I have now, have reassured me they are almost definitely due to the spinal cord injury- the thought still lingers......

I actually did get multiple opinions. I spoke to my orthopedic surgeon as well. When I tried to get a third opinion from another neurosurgeon, they asked who gave the first 2. When I told them I had Kevin Gibbons , they told me I was wasting time. Most surgeons know of one another and apparently they all respect the guy. Apparently he won't do surgery unless necessary. I spoke to my primary and asked who he would recommend and his first choice was the surgeon I've decided to go with. (That was without knowing I had seen him haha)...so..... I think I've made the right decision and he is at the top of his game. He teaches for UB and is the chief of neurosurgery at the best hospital in my area. His bedside manner is typical of most surgeons.... Haha (no offense to the surgeons here).... But he is top of the league and I would rather have that- than a surgeon that is warm and fuzzy, but lacks talent..... Does that make sense?

And has anyone noticed the same thing?....why are surgeons not the best at bedside manner?? Almost every surgeon I've ever met was like that. A friend of mine is a nurse and she thinks it's a "God complex".... Lol. Maybe when you are that smart, you are also a bit weird....lol.

aren't we all though??

Again.... No offense to anyone.... :)

So glad to hear you are doing much better Taller Now!! I hope you continue to progress and have peace..... Thanks for the encouragement. I need it.... :)

Lila