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C4,C5,C6 fusion surgery - successful?

I'm scheduled for C4,C5,C6 discectomy-fusion surgery next month.  I've had severe neck pain that has not been relieved by PT, cortisone shots, etc.  I have numbness in fingers and arm, but no pain in arm.  I've seen both an orthopedic surgeon and a neurosurgeon.  Neither can 'guarantee' that pain in neck will diminish.  I'm looking to chat with anyone who has had this kind of surgery - successful?, recovery time?, post-surgery difficulties.
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7721494 tn?1431627964
Surgery is often used too early in the pain process because of biases against using narcotic pain medications.

Always get a second or third opinion regarding surgery.


A famous 11 year study showed that patients with similar back conditions showed no long term benefit from those who were treated by other means.

For a story about how people are doing after a C4-C7 ACDF surgery, read this post:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Back--Neck/pain-after-my-anterior-cervical-fusion/show/552636

Unless you have severe spinal or foraminal stenosis, or have an instability like a pars fracture, surgery should always be a treatment of last resort.
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Avatar universal
I hope yo are better Danielle.   Saw spine doctors but after reading these forget it.  Yet i meet people who do quite well by this. How about th e stimulator trial  medtronics??

I have chronic neck pain torn ligament in the spine.  Doctors suck.
Helpful - 0
175688 tn?1297556647
Hi there. I just recently had a procedure called Anterior Decompression with fusion and plating at the C4/C5 level in my neck. I am having a lot of complications from the surgery. I am still having severe pain in my neck. All of the pain that was in my fingers and arm is gone, but the pain that is in my neck is still terrible. I am not happy at all with the surgery. I was hoping to come out of the surgery feeling great. I was told that my pain would pretty much diminish when the surgery was over and once I recovered. But I am almost 2 months out of surgery and still have not completely recovered. I don't know if this helped you or not.
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