Post Surgery at Hospital for Neck Fusion

[RevKev51]

I am having a 3 disk neck fusion with utilizing of the insert piece.  What are the possible complications immediately following surgery of neck disk fusion at the Hospital?  Doctor told me that possible ICU with inncubation is possible with breathing difficulty and this was alarming.

[ggreg]

Well, I'm no expert, but I believe this is because when you do surgery in a particular location, the whole area kind of goes into shock.  It's kind of like if you have bowel surgery, digestion shuts down for a while.  So, maybe that's what the surgeon is talking about.  

I think you should talk to him again about all this, about your fears, why this breathing thing might happen, maybe they give anti-anxiety meds for this possible complication, and of course they hook up monitors detecting breathing, heartrate, and so forth, connected to ring big-time and flash lights if anything is abnormal, and  the nurse's station is within the room (ICU has nurse's desk in there instead of down the hall).

Surely they have something they can do for people like you (and me) who sure as heck don't want to be confined in a situation where normal breathing might become labored.  I imagine he has had plenty of patients becoming upset when it may be hard to breathe.  If you DO have a problem, they can always put a little oxygen tube in there, so your lungs will continue to function while your throat may sort of be uncooperative.

You can make an appointment to see him again before the procedure, or if you're okay with going ahead with surgery, the doc always comes in to speak to the patient before they take you to the OR, and you can tell him of your concerns then, too.  I wish I could offer more info, maybe I shouldn't have posted, but there are others here who WILL know about this and can reassure you or direct you on what to do about this, if they decide to join in with your thread.

[milvet]

I had neck surgery back in 2005 and my surgeon was amazing.  Dr. Taliwal.  I had no problem at all he has wonderful bed side manors and has never made me feel scared about the surgery.  I had surgery on my c5-c6 disc they replaced and fused the disc.  Had surgery on Thursday and on Friday evening I was at Stars on Ice.  It was  a breeze.  My doctor is very careful and did a wonderful job.