My Introduction

 

     Good Morning nanase!

          Welcome! Were glad you started a new thread, and got an introduction in of yourself!

      Im not sure what the acdf stands for, and am guessing it is a cervical fusion at the c5/c6? Please remember your surgery is considered very fresh, and it takes quite some time to heal, especially the swelling of all the tissue that was disturbed during the surgery.

    It is common place to worry, because we have our expectations set pretty high going into the surgeries...and of course we are putting faith into the professionals recommending it as well.

      Many of us have had the spinal surgeries, and trust me it takes time. PT may make it even more sore for a while, but it is needed to get things back into shape. Are you still on pain med's? Don't cut yourself short on them...they are there for a reason. Give it a few more weeks, and then see where you are at with it.

     I'm glad you joined us...now keep checking in for support....we will be here for you.

       Take care,

      SE

Hi Nanase I think I welcomed you on another thread. I do hope that you have contacted your dr and got in to see him to make sure everything is ok. You are really still in the healing phase of your surgery and have plenty of time to left to keep improving. Be sure to follow your drs post op instructions to the letter its so important.

Now that you are in PT that should help you more. One thing I would like to caution you about is once in a while a therapists can get a little over board and push a patient too hard resulting in the patient getting worse instead of better. Do not let a physical therapist get heavy handed and push you too hard.

Take care and let us know what the dr has to say.

hello all...since my last post i have still been going through very hard times. i had my acdf c5-c6 done dec6th. first 2weeks felt great. by the 3rd week numbness came back and neck/shoulder pain. when i informed my specia;ist of the fall i had jan 30th he didnt request to see me, we just refilled my meds. my shoulder pain has increased so bad i called my specialist i was seeing prior to the surgery, but i cant see him until 2/16. if i stand or walk to long i start to feel very disoriented , my legs/arm numbs up and i start to feel sick and get a headache or slightly dizzy. if i sit up to long my neck gets really tensed like i have no support or its seeming a bit weak. when i sneeze or cough my back of the neck hurts bad. i cant hold my neck back or down for long periods of time. my shoulder is becoming less useful than ever i cant raise it to comb my her or bathe the other side, cant raise it all the way up, just in bad shape here. i had one session of therapy dec 29th. just got approved this week from w.c. for continuous treatment, which i should have been completed by now. now my follow-up appt is monday 1/23/2012 and dont know if my doctor is going to try and release me back to work and im not ready nor capable....plz give me your opinion on whats going on with me.

Hi Nanse, by chance does your dr have you on a muscle relaxer? One of our mods had another surgery this past year and I believe it was his third one. One problem he had for a long while was severe muscles spasms. He said once he got this under control it helped with his pain level. Have you tried using heat & cold packs at home? If not, perhaps give this a try. I quit using a heating pad and make my own heat packs by using a hand towel. I wet it and then wring it our good and nuke it in the microwave for just a few seconds, it can get really hot so you have to be careful. Moist heat seems to work much better than dry heat.

As far as your dr releasing you to go back to work, I do not know what kind of work you do, but if its a physical type of job, please be sure the dr is aware of this. Depending on how you feel at the time, all you can do is be honest with the and tell him physically you are not there yet.

If you have medication on hand that you can take for pain then take it if its giving you some relief. Did you just quit taking your meds or what? Please keep us posted on how you are doing.

Nanase I have posted to you on your other thread about the shoulder situation. If you have had a normal MRI of the shoulder I am afraid there may not be much else for the drs to do to your shoulder except order physical therapy and try medication. You sure do not want a dr operating on a shoulder that does not need it. With a normal MRI this rally makes me think the shoulder pain is coming from your neck and this happens a lot. I have 2 herniated disc in my neck and I refused surgery years ago. In addition to the neck pain, I also had severe shoulder pain that just came out of no where. My dr ordered an MRI and the problem was found on the MRI. I had impingement and did injections that did not help, did a ton of physical therapy, and eventually over time, the pain dropped down to a more tolerable level. It took a very long time for the pain to drop down too. I had to learn to use my left hand and arm for most things because of the pain being so severe.

You asked why the dr did not send you home in a collar, it tells me he does not believe in putting his patients in collars, some drs to and some do not. You may not want to hear this, but you know it really has not been all that long since your surgery and it takes time for these things to heal and get better. That is one of the hardest things I think for us is the waiting after surgery for things to get better. But, you really do not have any choice except to wait it out and give things time. Just try to be as patient as you can. Find some things easy to do to help take your mind off of things, try playing some computer games, work cross word puzzles. A lot of times distraction helps us get the pain off of our minds so much. Try to read a book or put some soft music on and try to relax your body. You really need to try and calm yourself some, getting all upset and stressed out just causes more pain because your body stays so tensed up.

Please take care of yourself.