Just over 4 weeks after 2 levels c4 c5

Hello & welcome to Healing Well. It sounds like you appear to be healing ok from your surgery. However, a word of caution you will be in the healing stages for many months, not weeks. We have plenty of members here that has had this surgery & bottom line is, you are still pretty fresh from surgery. A lot of the members slept in recliners after surgery because it was more comfortable. If you have a recliner, try sleeping in it. Sleeping in the bed at a wrong angle or even the type of pillow you are using can be interfering with your sleep.

Keep us posted on how you are doing. Take care.

WELCOME!

Very near the top of the posts is Chronic Pain 101. In it go down to Sept 2014 and read many thoughts written by and for those of us who have had cervical surgery. You are already past some of the suggestions, but some of it may still be helpful.

My own story is here somewhere with the title just like it is in my signature.

I had more fusions than you, but I would not have been allowed to lift 15 lb for much longer. And sleeping positions were difficult for months. That just seems to go with the surgery. How is your range of motion? I certainly hope you continue to heal well and quickly!

I am going to be completely honest with everyone in this forum. I had my first lumbar spine surgery in 2008. It was 2-xstops, they are titanium spacers that are totally reversible if need be. In other words they could be removed if they were not doing me any good. I have worked steel and I was up in Vail, Colorado putting up steel when the spacers finally gave out. They were wedged in my spine. It did not work so I arranged to have them removed and a 2 level fusion on S1/L5-L5/L4, that surgery was a year later. It was a long surgery the neurosurgeon told me because of the spacers being in there and all the parts that grow over them and make them hard to remove, so I had a 4 hour surgery vice a 2-1/2 hour surgery. Well it didn't do much at all for me and it really has been a constant dealing with chronic pain in my back and I am sick of it. I then had to go in and have a 2 level fusion in my cervical spine, C8/C7-C7/C6 and the same neurosurgeon, did my neck as my back and trust me I did not want to do that with the surgeon. I really did not want to but I had to as there are just none better in this state. Well my neck and shoulder and arm and back and all of it are totally screwed. I mean I have never been in this much pain in my life. It is at the point where I am not going to go on like this very much longer, I just physically can't do it. It is unreal I am in so much pain it is crazy and they just keep wanting to give me steroid shots, and now they want to do an RF Frequency to my back in other words burn my nerve ends on the area that is worst with a laser and deaden them. Great just great. I am on Cymbalta, Lyrica, I was on gabapentin (4800mg) per day. I am on diclofenac, tenazadine, trazadone, and I was doing medical marijuana for the last year but I can't do that anymore as I can't afford the medication. I have been waiting on a social security disability case for 9 years I am depressed and I am at the end of the road. I will be gone if I can't get this under control. I am asking you guys as a last resort what the heck do I do?

I have a plate in the front of my neck on the spine with 4 screws into the spine. I have a spider web on my lower back that has 15 screws and is titanium and will never come out. I have had a full knee replacement, oh wait the orthopedic surgeon only did a half knee replacement after I told him his staff and everybody that would listen that I wanted a whole knee I did not care if I needed it or not. So I go into New Mexico Orthopedic Surgeons to tell them that my knee has been having a sharp pain and when the doctor came in the first thing he said to me was I don't do half knee replacements. Oh great well he said I have to go in and take that out and re do the entire thing. No way in hell am I going through that rehabilitation again. I have had both elbows done, ulnar nerve transports, and I broke a shoulder, and I need to have my shoulder fixed but I am not doing a darn thing again. I don't trust any of what they say to me. So what can I do for my pain? Any takers?

Are you under the care of a pain mgt dr? Due to the opioid crisis the only chance a person with chronic pain has a chance at getting pain medication is through a pain mgt dr.. Some pain mgt drs offer injections only, no pain medication. Others will do injections, various procedures & pain medication.

Are you receiving any benefits through the VA such as disability benefits? I know it is a lengthy process going through all of the red tape with them.

If you don't mind can you copy & paste your original post & make your own thread? We don't want to take over the OP's thread. If you can't do it, let me know I will try to help you with it.

rulerjking1,

Welcome, thank you for your service!

What a bunch of issues you have. I'm very sorry and wish I had suggestions for you, but I really don't, other than to let you know I care.

I hope you will copy your first post here, then click on Post New Topic and start a new one, perhaps with Veteran in the title. We have others here who would also be concerned and might know something to help if they see your post.