Neck and Shoulder pain after C5-6 fusion.

[Roonie5038]

A little over a year ago, I had C5-6 fused. With a plate and screws inserted. Since then I am having trouble with pain in the neck and shoulder area just below the fusion area. I wake in the morning with a headache then turns to pain in lower neck and shoulders.
I have talked to the neurosurgeon who did the surgery and he shrugged his shoulders and said I have no idea and sent me back to my neurologist. He gave me a series of injections in both shoulders and the pain stopped for a couple days but then came right back. Then we tried message therapy, it helps but only for a short period. And I have tried changing my pillows on my bed and sleeping in different positions and nothing seems to help for long term.
What can I do?
Thanks
Maureen

[randallvandall]

I have had numerous surgeries on my lower back and neck. This is very common. Especially if you have the deteriorating disc disorder. I have a fusion on the C2 & C3 and within two years the symptoms that I had pre-surgery came back. This is due to the discs just deteriorating and the next vertebrae  starts rubbing on the next vertebrae. it gives a grinding sound and sometimes it gets stuck where I have to take both of my hands and jerk my skull the opposite way of it being stuck, just to get it back to functioning. What is really intolerable is the headaches that feel like lightning bolts running from my neck to the front of my skull. It even shoots like lightning bolts to the back of my eyeball. Nothing like a migraine in the eyeball. It's a form of torture. I ask God what the heck did I do to deserve this kind of abuse, there must be a reason because it has disabled me and the S.S.D.I. doesn't believe that I can have this much pain at the ripe old age of 51.  I've been getting treatments for my spine since 1995 and I've paid for a couple of summer homes for the doctor's treating me. I'm too young to feel like I'm 85. Anyway, hang in there and have the doctor take a look at it and get yourself an M.R.I. to get some answers to your questions. If you wait too long it's going to make it worse. It's amazing all of the new techniques that they HAVE NOW. If and when you do have to get cut open, have a neurosurgeon do it. The spine is their specialty so have one of them do it. Mine is a great doctor and seems like a very nice, genuine person outside of the doctor's office. Good luck to you. The symptoms you have, I had the same thing happen and it became inevitable to get cut open and I've had 3 fusions in my neck, and 4 fusion's in my Lumbar area. They're all going (my discs) so that they will meet it the middle of my back and then I won't be able to move once they get them all taken care of. What are they gonna be able to do for me after that??

[Val1958]

I was in a car accident in June of this year... I have herniated/ruptured discs at C5-6 and C6-7, my doctor told me surgery was the only option... I went through physical therapy and an injection into my disc spaces... 1.  I will not let anyone operate on my freaking neck, 2. I will never get one of those dumb *** injections again, waster of money and did nothing for me.  The best thing I have found is strengthening my neck muscles and resting my head when I need to.  My neck gets "tired" and I have to rest my head by the end of the day.  I have numbness, tingling and burning sensations down my left side through my shoulder, down my arm and into my finger tips... starting to get it on the right side... I would rather live with this than let some butcher cut me open and make it worse... no freaking way!!!!!

[Logansnan]

I just had a John Hopkins Dr Dean do surgery I had 567 fused I am hurting so bad I just gad done on the 7th holy crap all this does sound so good I am an over the road truck driver

[ShaneKruger]

I had Surgery on C5/C6 in 2001 after a car accident. Metal plate and 4 screws and bone from my hip. The pain is now worse than the day it happened. Above and below are now wearing but the surgeon will not do more surgery until I am 60... 8 more years... I am on Morphine Patches and Panadine Fotre and Gabapentin and Voltaren... Still VERY painful... Rules my life.

[happy4u]

I had cervical spinal fusion in 2010 and researched and got the best Doctor!!! I did everything I was supposed to do and I have no problems, except the severe nerve pain that was already there before the surgery. I had to have it done caused my discs were already bad and then got in a car accident and it bruised my spinal cord so if I would have fallen, I could have been paralyzed so I am very happy with the outcome. I did not even need pain meds after my surgery C5 and C6 with a cadaver bone and a plate and 4 screws.....I wish the nerve damage would have went away, but at least I am not paralyzed....happy for that...:)

[rksvienna]

I am just done with surgery for 13 days back. It is c5-6. Yes I had for 10 years back a first surgery of c6-7. Before I got op my surgeon told me which is a normal thing. What is happened with me newly after 10 years is a great that took a decade. My fusion is done with carbon pack without any screw and metal. I am a violinist and for a years back I was suffering by same symptoms and getting worst playing and working on pc. So I hope it will better. Post surgery phase is also not pleasant but if you don't have any other option you have to accept the way of cure.