40 Pounds in 3 months....

[electraglidepi]

I am a 47 year old male and used to be very active both in personal life and exercise. June of this year I had a cervical descectomy with fusion on my c4 thru c-7. The ruptured discs were replaced with man-made discs( thank god at least i didn't have to have iliac crest bone from hip taken), and fused with Titanium plate. I had to wear a hard collar for 8 weeks post as I was a previous smoker. My Doc made me quit smoking before he would perform the procedure on me. That was a good thing for me, however it made me gain 40 pounds which was not. I consulted with him from the start. He tells me that the weight gain has nothing to do with his surgery.  This Thursday, I am heading to see him for my 3 month check-up. For 2 months after the surgery, I started feeling better than before. This last month though, it is a much different story. The radiating and burning pain I had before the procedure is coming back, The numbness and tingling also has returned if I use my arms at 90 degree angles for more than 30 minutes. Swallowing and gagging is still an issue. As far as sleep, I get maybe 3 to 4 hours a night. I constantly get woken up during the night with pain. Headaches have returned but now start in the upper back and work its way up to my skull. Sneezing is a MAJOR problem. My neck has cold sweats 4 to 5 times a day. My voice gets harsh after about 30 minutes of conversation. Since the surgery, I seem to run out of breath just walking from the front of the house to the back. I do feel that I have more pain and complications now than before the procedure happened.  I was on percocet for the major pain and vistaril for nausea for the first week, then put on loritab for pain and kept on vistaril for nausea. I had allergic reaction to the loritab, so was put on darvocet for the pain. I chew 2 to 4 darvocet a day and 4 to 6 ibuprofen for the headache and 2 to 4 vistaril for the nausea. I like many do not want to be treated like I am a 'psycho' or a 'worst patient ever', but am afraid thats whats going to happen. I will be asking the doctor on Thursday, if Neuralgia is a considerable issue, and am very curious as to what he will have to say.

I have a lot of questions about the ACDF but that will be for my neurologist. However one of my bigger questions is the weight gain. I was extremely active pre- surgery. I work at a very fast paced distribution center moving hundreds of thousands of pounds of freight daily. Since the surgery, i was put on a no work  status for a bit, then light duty with a few restrictions. My work wont let me return to work till the Doctor clears me to 100% full duty. From June to now(September) I gained a little over 40 pounds( I feel this is from the quitting smoking for the surgery).. I have been slightly active since the surgery(only what the doctor ordered, not what I was used to). I have lost most of my appetite. I only eat a very light lunch, and a light dinner now and still gaining the weight. I am on meds for high blood pressure, so my family doctor says theres no meds I can be put on for weight loss. Anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to loose this weight. I have changed what I eat to include 100% whole wheat breads, and I eat plenty of fiber. And yes I still exercise a little each day.

[Barb135]

As you noted, this is a very old thread and electraglidipi has not been on the forum since starting this post, so it's unlikely you will get a response.

[moll15]

i posted a scan pic on a profile after i wrote the post, did your screws poke out like that? almost seems like its cross threaded.

[moll15]

Hi, I came across your post googling a problem im having with a screw sticking out on my cervical fusion into my esophegus it looks like, ive been having hoarseness, swallowing problems for 7 mths i go to an ENT Dr next week hoping i found the problem for him by looking at the scans. Anyways I notice this is not a recent post hopefully you are feeling a little better by now i did want to mention being as you wrote your own bone was not used did the surgeon happen to use BMP2(infuse) by any chance? Mine did even though FDA have sent warnings out for them not to use it cervical I also had lumbar fusion were they also used it all without my knowledge until after the fact i am now talking with lawyers being as he could of killed me using it in the neck & theres a whole bunch of side effects including this stuff being very irritating to nerves which causes alot of pain & higher chances of cancer. Google infuse lawsuit theres pages of lawyers wanting business from it. If you do have you op notes its worth a look if your surgeon used this apparantly FDA warnings mean nothing to them we are all test monkeys so i found out.  My surgeon to claimed everything was fine i have 7 bulging disc now started off with 3 lumbar and bone spurs cervical how ridiculas is that after 3 fusion surgerys in 2 yrs i had 2 lumbar fusions the 1st one fell apart before i left the hospital. Worried incase this screw is rubbing inside its stuck out a few millimeters by the look of it id just decided no more surgery get better pain management but a whole in my esophegus from erosion wouldnt be fun, will see next week. I to am on more pain meds than i ever was wish id never met a surgeon.    

[Barb135]

Have you had your thyroid tested?  I had to quit smoking 3 yrs ago to have surgery on my vocal cords; just prior to that, I'd started putting on weight and ended up gaining about 30 lbs in 3 months, I was dead tired all the time, muscles/joints ached like crazy, I had tingling/numbness in my hands, arms, feet and legs.  

Several things pointed to B12 deficiency, so my doctor checked that and dx'd pernicious anemia, which is an autoimmune disease in which you don't properly absorb vitamin B12.  It also causes fatigue, tingling/numbness, etc. I was started on B12 shots and though some of the symptoms got better, some kept getting worse.

It took me about a year to convince my doctor that there was something else wrong - no matter what I did, I could not lose weight.  I finally got thyroid tests and was determined to be hypothyroid and later to have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which is another autoimmune disease.  

I believe I had both of these conditions for many years; however, after I quit smoking, the symptoms got so bad, they could no longer be ignored.  

I suggest that you get your thyroid tested and also get tested for insulin resistance/type II diabetes.

[carcrazy]

I have no answers for your pain except maybe the 40lbs gain is too much for your body to carry at this point but I can probably shed a little light on the weight gain. Smoking speeds up your metabolic rate, stopping smoking would have slowed it down, that coupled with your inactivity post op means that your metabolic rate slowed down so much that you needed far less calories. Now thats not saying youre eating too much but that youre eating too much for your level of activity.

As for your shortness of breath have you considered that it is smoking related? I quit smoking 2.5 years ago, it was just too expensive. I piled on a couple of stone without changing my eaing habits and then my chest went downhill. It turns out I have emphysema, the extra weight bought it forward and then I was/am locked in a vicious cycle. The emphysema means I cant be very active, not being active means weight continues to go on which makes it even harder on my poor lungs. I've maintained my weight on 1200-1500 calories but to lose weight I need to drop x amount of calories, on so few calories I have no energy so am even less active...like I said vicious circle! I am now losing it very slowly and am hoping that my chest improves. <<< The point of this paragraph?...Well to show that its not only you, I believe that youre not stuffing your face with crap but convincing a Dr of that is harder...i've not managed it yet even with a food diary that showed ever last morsel entering my mouth - even the slip ups and treats.

Get back to your regular Dr and ask to see a chest specialist and have spirometry tests. This will show if you have a lung condition, if you have and its caught early you can make the condition fairly static (dont ever touch ciggies again)

Sign up for a weight and food diary tracker on here, it might help to back you up with your Dr. Also see if you can buy a peak flow meter (around $10 I think) measure your peak flow twice daily and keep a record of it...if there is a lung problem it will show a decreased lung capacity for someone of your age and stature. You'll have to google for what your should be getting

Cat

[electraglidepi]

I went and saw my Neurosurgeon today and as Im not surprised, all of my post op complaints ARE NOT  from the surgery. I asked him why I had pain in shoulder blades going up into skull. He said Not surgical related... I asked him why the constant headaches after surgery, He said Not surgical related, I asked him why shortness of breath after surgery, he said Not surgical related... I asked him if it was any possibility that maybe any nerve fron the incision site to the spinal area could have even possibly been damaged by the movement of the muscles, he said Not surgical related.  I asked him why I still have swallow and gagging issues, he said Not surgical related. I asked him why the feeling of being choked with range of motion, he said "you know in our initial consultation, I said I couldn't fix you 100%". I asked him why if not surgical related, am I having to take so many pain pills every day, He said he gives the pain pills to me only because I say that I am in pain.  I asked him why it hurt so bad to lay down to go to sleep, he said Not surgical related. I asked him why the cold sweats on the back of my neck 8 to 10 times a day and dizziness, he said Not surgical related. Then I asked him, what was the next step?? His response baffled me. He said,"I dont know, why dont you tell me"????  WTF.... Sorry to say, but thanks to my neuro, I have a very sour attitude towards Doctors once again. Like the old saying goes, "ONE BAD APPLE RUINS THE BUNCH"....... Oh yea I almost forgot, I asked him about the weight gain and assured him I knew it was from him making me stop smoking. He said as long as I am not loosing weight, then I must be eating well and gaining weight. And he also said since I was as he felt "eating well" then I must not be truthful about the gagging and swallowing issue. My diet consists of lunch, Yakasoba noodles, yogurt, and cottage cheese with fruit, and dinner is 1/2 serving of what is put on the table. Usually a meat, small potato, and vegetable.So eating isn't the reason for the weight gain.