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one week post op acdf
I'm one week and one day post op for the acdf of my c5-c6. Surgeon says surgery went well. The disc was pressing against my spinal cord a bit more then what the MRI had shown. Recovery looks like it's going to be slow. I hope it works, I'm in a lot of pain right now and still need the pain medicine.
They kept my pain well under control at the hosp. I ended up staying an extra night at the hospital, due to not being able to swallow and being on the pain pump. They sent me home with more pain medicine then I was previously taking for my recovery. I'm pretty comfortable at home as long as I take it easy. I'm really hoping this surgery worked and I will have minimal pain for years to come.
They kept my pain well under control at the hosp. I ended up staying an extra night at the hospital, due to not being able to swallow and being on the pain pump. They sent me home with more pain medicine then I was previously taking for my recovery. I'm pretty comfortable at home as long as I take it easy. I'm really hoping this surgery worked and I will have minimal pain for years to come.
I had ACD/F in 2001. I had the surgery the morning of March 16th, and they wanted me to go home that night! I was too scared to go home, I had three levels done and I had visions of me sneezing or something and my head falling off! LOL So at my insistence, they kept me overnight and popped me out into the world at noon the next day. I never needed pain meds post-surgically. I had a four-inch titanium plate in there, so even though I wore the Miami-J collar for added support it was casted internally with the plate, so everything was nice and stable. I had to wear a bone growth generator for five months following the surgery so that the bone grafts (I had the cadaveric grafts, not bone from my own hip) would grow and fuse more easily, but other than having to wear the Miami-J collar 24/7, and the stupid bone growth generator for three hours a day for five months, there was no discomfort at all post-surgically.
This is why it is so upsetting to me that I am now a lifelong pain management patient because of the myelogram they gave me prior to the surgery. The ACD/F worked like magic, and in fact, my X-rays were so perfect, and the procedure went so well, the company that makes the plates filmed my surgery and uses my X-rays to show potential clients "this is how it looks when it's done". The nerves in my spinal cord reacted badly to the dye from the myelogram, and now I am left with adhesive arachnoiditis for the rest of my life because of that. A totally successful surgery that should have left me completely normal has now left me waiting for the day when my leg(s) don't come back from being asleep and having to use a wheelchair for the rest of my life. But I'm getting off the track here.
From what I understand, my surgery went better than most. They expected me to have some pain, but I had absolutely none. Just take things slowly and you'll be fine. Do you have the plate in your neck as well? Or are you just wearing a collar? The main thing to remember is to not turn your head, which is difficult, because our normal inclination is to turn our heads when we see or hear something. Teach yourself to ignore things so that you're not tempted to twist suddenly. If you need pain meds, by all means take them. Don't be a hero. I would, however, only take them on a regular schedule for about a week longer, since it is easier to prevent pain than to get rid of it once it's there. But after about another week, your pain should be considerably lessened, if not almost totally gone, so at that point, I would take a dose and then wait to see how bad the pain gets before taking another one, because if you just keep taking the meds every four hours, you'll never realizie whether or not your pain is actually gone.
If you have any specific questions about the surgery, feel free to PM me and I will think back and see what I can remember that might be helpful to you. Hang in there. It's all over and you're on the downhill slide. Things should get better from here.
Ghilly
This is why it is so upsetting to me that I am now a lifelong pain management patient because of the myelogram they gave me prior to the surgery. The ACD/F worked like magic, and in fact, my X-rays were so perfect, and the procedure went so well, the company that makes the plates filmed my surgery and uses my X-rays to show potential clients "this is how it looks when it's done". The nerves in my spinal cord reacted badly to the dye from the myelogram, and now I am left with adhesive arachnoiditis for the rest of my life because of that. A totally successful surgery that should have left me completely normal has now left me waiting for the day when my leg(s) don't come back from being asleep and having to use a wheelchair for the rest of my life. But I'm getting off the track here.
From what I understand, my surgery went better than most. They expected me to have some pain, but I had absolutely none. Just take things slowly and you'll be fine. Do you have the plate in your neck as well? Or are you just wearing a collar? The main thing to remember is to not turn your head, which is difficult, because our normal inclination is to turn our heads when we see or hear something. Teach yourself to ignore things so that you're not tempted to twist suddenly. If you need pain meds, by all means take them. Don't be a hero. I would, however, only take them on a regular schedule for about a week longer, since it is easier to prevent pain than to get rid of it once it's there. But after about another week, your pain should be considerably lessened, if not almost totally gone, so at that point, I would take a dose and then wait to see how bad the pain gets before taking another one, because if you just keep taking the meds every four hours, you'll never realizie whether or not your pain is actually gone.
If you have any specific questions about the surgery, feel free to PM me and I will think back and see what I can remember that might be helpful to you. Hang in there. It's all over and you're on the downhill slide. Things should get better from here.
Ghilly
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