5 months post-op

[swatkind]

It's hard to believe that 5 months ago I was writing in fear as I was getting ready to have surgery.  Crazy how time flies!

I wrote a couple months ago expressing general satisfaction with my surgery; headaches seemed diminished, fewer dizzy spells, general quality of life improvement.  But, I was struggling in physical therapy trying to get range of motion back in my neck. I had a C1 laminectomy with duraplasty, and the PT was pretty stumped as to why I (and him, for that matter) could not turn my neck to the right.

I saw the surgeon on Tuesday.  I was expecting him to nod off the range of motion as just a consequence of surgery.  Much to my surprise, he's ordered a CT and concerned that perhaps I have a compression fracture of C1/C2.  Yikes!  I did some research on Google, and found that this is a fairly rare complication of decompression surgery, but nonetheless plausible.  Anyone else have experience with this?  Beside the range of motion issues, I do still struggle with some pain in my neck, particularly when moving around, but I figured this was just part of the healing process.  My incision also hasn't completely closed, so he's concerned that perhaps my patch didn't completely "take."

Leave it to me to take a fairly rare surgery and have rare complications!

[AZHR]

I am almost 5 months post op.  I have seen tremendous improvement in some things but little improvement in others.  I get overwhelmed by complex decision making, crowds in small areas with a lot of talking, too much sensory input at once, etc.
Even with all this I would still have the surgery.  The symptoms I had prior were getting worse daily.  Theses lingering issues I can live with, if I must. I would like to know if anyone else has these or similar symptoms or is it my age!  Oh, my memory is terrible & I have problems remembering the correct word, too.

[selmaS]

  Good luck with ur CT.

Deff  get tested for EDS as it may be playing a role in what is going on...

[swatkind]

I was never tested for ED.  It's tough because before surgery my ability to crack my neck was extraordinary.  Perhaps that was for the worse, but I got used to having an extremely "loose" neck. Now...stuck.

My CT is tomorrow, and I follow-up with the surgeon on the 25th.  I'll update when I have more information.

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome back !

Sorry u r still having issues....my ROM was almost 100% better post op as it was really bad b4 surgery....and I did my exercises to help prevent stiff muscles and scar tissue ....

I would think if u do have some sort of compression fracture it could be the reason for ur pain/discomfort.

Did they rule out Ehlers-Danlos? Those with it will take longer to heal.....and if u have it u would have a higher risk of rejection of a patch if it was nething other then ur own tissues....

[mike709]

I had anterior cervical discectomy with fusion last April and my range of motion is terrible. My doctor said I didn't need PT for some reason and now I have trouble turning my head and have a lot of pain. I had decompression surgery last June and still have issues with weakness dizziness and balance problems.  Hope you get well soon.