4 level ACDF

Welcome back, I see it has been quite a long time since you were here. Four level ACDF......what levels, what kind of dr, what symptoms have you had? There are several cervical fusion threads here, just use the Search box to find them. The rather long title of my own is in my signature-it was posterior. What have you been told about recovery? I almost want to say forget whatever you have been told. I didn't actually ask my doctor but was told after getting to this site to expect it to take a year and it did! I hope you do not have to rush back to work in a few weeks, please don't do that. You will pay for it later. Let yourself heal slowly and let the fusion happen. I certainly needed help the first month, so living alone would have been very difficult for me. Doctors vary on the wearing of neck braces. Some don't wear them at all, I did for 2 1/2 weeks, Taller Now was in one for months but has additional issues with osteoporosis.

Read our stories and ask any specific questions you have right here. We will be watching and eager to help you along this journey. Our motto is THINK FUSION! There is another thread listing useful items to help during recovery. I'll find that and bump it to the top for you. Feel free to add to the list as you learn of something that helps. I'll just tell you my biggest help was a recliner that also swivels! Loved it! The recliner was used for sleeping a lot, the swivel part was an extra bonus I never thought about before surgery. It was my husband's chair but now it's mine!

I am also having a hard time figuring out how the forum works. Is there a specific forum for neck pain/ surgery?

Welcome back Aned. Sorry to read that you have a pending surgery. You have come to the right place, as Abilene is one that as you can see has had surgery. Abilene & Taller Now, Poplar Grove, WhiteBeard & several others all cervical fusions. Abilene & Taller Now has documented their surgery & recovery here at the forum & the information these ladies have posted is accurate & very helpful to others getting ready to go down that road.

To answer your question about a separate forum for neck pain & surgery, no we do not have one. Usually they post here in this forum. To find what others have said about this type of surgery we do have a search feature that you can pull up older posts to read. We do ask that you not post on those older threads as you will get better coverage asking your questions here.

You are correct, you will not be healed within 6 weeks of your surgery. It takes anywhere from 12 to 18 months to completely recover from these surgeries. Unfortunately, the drs give the patients the usual textbook talk that does not have one thing to do with real life.

Be sure that you & the dr are on the same page about pain control once you are at home. You will need pain medication & a good muscle relaxer for sure. Do not be afraid of taking the pain medication, you will not become hooked on it. Its easier to be on top of your pain rather than underneath it. People that become hooked on pain medication are the ones that abuse it & self medicate. You will not be on this medication long enough to have to worry about anything.

Be sure that you have plenty of food on hand that can be heated in the microwave, bottled water, books or magazines to read & that sort of thing. Look back at some of the older threads & you can find lots of useful info.

Keep us posted on how you are doing.

Hi Aned, I have the unenviable position of having gone through three separate spinal fusion surgeries. I had anterior fusion on C5-C6 in 2004, anterior fusion C6-7 in 2005 and my latest, posterior fusions and laminectomies done in August of 2014.

The precipitating factor for all of this was a nasty car accident in October 2003 that has really changed life as I knew it. Making lemonade out of lemons now!!

My anterior fusions were much less painful than the posterior surgery. They took bone from my hip and the pain from that incision was worse than the pain in my neck. Both times.

I never got substantial pain relief from the first two surgeries. I found out, by pressing the original practice that did my first two surgeries that the fusion had failed.

That's really not very common so don't even go there! You are right about the 6 week thing. You need to take care of yourself.... I rushed my recovery from my latest surgery and I'm paying for it. Take very good care of yourself and accept help. You only have one spine and you're gonna need it to be healthy!

I wish you the best of luck and I'll be pulling/praying for you!

Questions for doctor: Collar? Fusion material? Follow up, how often, how long? I think that reading the other threads will help you to think of things you want to know about. Have you read them yet-the two that I bumped? You've already got way more info than I had when I went in. Wish I had come here first like you.

Several of our members had neurosurgeons do their surgery. Think about it, a neurosurgeon has the best set of hands & needs them when doing brain surgery & spine surgeries, They are far more experienced with dealing with the nerves than an orthopedic. The orthos specialty really just involves the bony structure.

I have to have a new pain pump implanted & my PM dr will only use a neurosurgeon because one part of the surgery involves the spine.

We see much better outcomes when a board certified neurosurgeon is involved. Take care.

Hi aned Let me also Welcome you to Healing Well ChronicPain forum. I will tell you if it were me and they gave me a choice of doing them all at once or doing two now and then knowing I would have to go back and have the other two done later. I personally think I would just go ahead and get them all done at one time and have it over with! It's not an easy or pleasant experience having bad problems with your cervical spine nor going through the surgery to fix the problems! I think I would just rather get everything fixed at one time!

I had a c6/7 acdf done first then many years later I had c5/6 acdf done then the following year they did a posterior fusion of the articular joints at c3/4. That leaves all the stress on c4/5 which they said I would eventually have to have fused too! I wanted them to go a head and do it then but they wouldn't. It is not something I like having to look forward too! just my opinion.

I do wish you all the best and just know that when your here on this forum your not alone! We are all here for you! Please keep us posted on your progress we all support each other here on this forum. Good luck to you!

White Beard

Aned, of course you are nervous & scared thats normal. You should do fine, the biggest problem we see here at the forum is the post op care by the patient. Usually its from over doing things & then paying a heavy price for those actions. A lot of folks are scared to take their pain medication because of all the hype these days. This is why we suggest to anyone facing this surgery to take their meds on a schedule rather than letting the pain escalate out of control. Its very difficult getting the pain down to a decent level when that happens. You will need to be patient & allow your body to heal.

Getting it done all at once is better than having to go back a short time later. Apparently from what your drs are seeing they feel this way too. Usually if the other levels are not too bad the drs say to leave them alone for the time being.

I am so glad that some of our members have documented their surgery & post op care because it gives others a real look at what the recovery is rather than what the drs tell us.

Keep us posted.

I do have kids at home, but they are old enough to take care of themselves. Hubby is taking a 1 week vacation to care for me. Hopefully, by then I will be able to somewhat care for myself. When I asked about ROM, the only answer was "it won't be as significant as you would think." Uhmm, that's not an answer! Yes, I have lost some range of motion, but I really don't know what to expect from that post-op. Pain control in the hospital will be a PCA pump with Diluadid. My surgeon is aware of my concerns about post op pain control. He said "I promise we will keep you comfortable." I plan to hold him to that. I have had a few surgeries in the past so not completely new to this. However, I had one horrible experience (and this was before I had ever taken pain medicine) when I woke up from surgery in completely out of control pain. I was sent to the floor still in writhing agony and it took hours to get it under control...so that adds to my anxiety. I will come home with oxycodone and prayerfully that will be sufficient. Great idea about cooking ahead of time, but I am running out of time as there is just too much to get done between now and surgery day. How long were you in the hospital? I have been told 1-2 nights.

aned your length of time in the hospital will depend on a whole host of different things. Your pain and how well they can control it, one of my surgeries they kept me a day longer just because they had a j-vac drain in my surgical site and it was draining allot, so the surgeon wanted to keep it in a day longer, before taking it out and discharging me. There are so many variables that determine when you can be discharged, and bottom line it is all up to your doctor anyway. So the amount of time you will be in the hospital is any ones guess. All I can tell you, is don't be in to much of a hurry to go home if the doctor wants you to stay a bit longer. He will be the best judge on when your ready to go home!

One thing I can't stress enough, most people feel quite a bit better after this type of surgery, allot of time the pain is immediately relieved after the nerve impingement is gone. Thus allot of people, since they are feeling better will over do it, and then cause themselves even more problems later on. So please be patient, and give your body plenty of time to heal and recuperate! Be gentle with yourself, and follow your doctors orders to the Tee! And above all. no matter how well your feeling, don't over do it and strain yourself! Let you husband and family take care of you, this is a serious operation and your having allot done, and it will take allot of time to heal and the grafts to take. If you get frustrated and need to vent, come here, we will all listen and give you support. We all know what it is like and have been through it, we can empathize with you aned!

I will keep you in my prayers!!

White Beard i

Aned your not running out of time!! This is your surgery and you do it at your convenience and not when they want you to. If you are not ready if the date is going to interfere with anything then reschedule. I keep coming back to the fact that your having a 4 level extensive procedure done by Orthopaedic surgeon correct? This bothers me immensely! You have cord involvement if I'm understanding your diagnosis and orthopedic Drs are awesome in their job capacity,bone,muscle and joint systems but not cord injuries and involvement. I'm not trying to discourage or confuse you at this late date but you have been swiftly shoved down the surgical lane and I am not a fan of this occurrence.

I spent 25+ years working Ortho/Neuro and I can say I had the pleasure of working with and seeing first hand only a very select few Orthopaedic surgeon's I would have let anywhere close to my spinal issues. I have one of the top 100 in the country onboard to do my knee replacement and arthroscopic procedures but he does nnot handle anything related to my spinal issues due to the cord involvement I have.

In the scheme of Neurological disorders Neurologic Drs are the go-to in my experience and opinion. Yes there's some better than others but from what I saw over the years they are a breed of their own and certainly a pedigree among their PhD peers. Also those who are qualified for recognition of the Board of Certified Neurosurgeons are top of the page elite and proven by experience to be best of the best.

With the extent and nature of what your having done by nature you have one shot of them getting it right the first time and having the best chance of a good surgical outcome where fusing is paramount to your getting and maintaining relief from the symptoms therefore having as many pluses in the world of best chances is detrimental to your future situation I'm guessing since no one wants to suffer all this only to end up with a failed fusion and worse than when they started right?

Don't be pushed,don't be influenced and rushed into something like this when its your party and a few weeks isn't going to change the outcome to worse but could have a lasting better one. You have a right to ask for a neurology consult,you owe it to your recovery to be able to say you did your homework and made the best choices in all things that you could have. Research,read,ask questions,be given options and have your opinions matter and I don't see that happening here. I see you being cornered and coerced into something very quickly,did you pick the dates,the second opinion Dr,the post op med protocol,? Anything?

Think about all I have given you,talk to your husband and slow this down if it's not feeling just right for you. If you are not as close to being perfectly relaxed and assured you have done everything right and had your say then postpone until you do.

Hi aned, one thing you might want to consider, is the possibility of having both a neurosurgeon, and orthopedic surgeon on board with your surgery. It is not that uncommon to have both these type of surgeons, doing spinal surgery together. That might be another avenue to check into, whether it is necessary will be up to them. As to who is more competent to do this surgery, I think allot depends on how proficient the surgeon is in doing it. The more surgeries of this type a surgeon does the better! I think I would be asking how often your surgeon performs this type of surgery? Daily? Weekly? Monthly, or Yearly? The more often your surgeon does this type of surgery the more familiar he is with it, and the more competent he becomes. I would definitely want a surgeon that does this type of surgery regularly ( I mean really often!), whether it be an orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon. Some orthopedic surgeons specialize in knees, or hips or spines, just like some neurosurgeons specialize in brain surgery, and others in spinal surgery. You definitely want some one that specializes in doing spinal surgery, and in your case cervical spinal surgery!

Also I want to add that we are often our own worst enemy, we tend to put unneeded dead lines on our selves. I understand your reasoning to want to get this surgery done as soon as possible, and that is fine! But as far as you getting things done, before the surgery..........well don't kill yourself trying to get everything accomplished before hand! You have family, let them help share your burden! What you don't get done,..........well it will just have to wait, or......get your family to do it! Allot of times we often put unneeded stress upon ourselves! You have enough stress on you now, anxiety about the surgery is normal! And there is no easy way to get rid of that, after all your human, and what your experiencing is normal human emotions! Just don't add to it! LOL You will make it through this, and one way or the other everything will work out!

When your surgery is over and done with, turn over your reigns and let your husband and family do EVERYTHING! and you just concentrate on healing and getting better, and do this for as long as it takes! There is no set time on how long it will take for you to heal and feel better! Just from experience, it will take allot longer than what your doctor and surgeon tell you! The bone graft in fusions take time and there is no way to change that! Nerves take time to regenerate and heal, and you just need to be good to yourself and let your body heal! Your family can take care of YOU and everything else during this time!

You will do alright! and we will all be here to support you!

Good Luck!

White Beard