Wife Having Neck Surgery

[hunterridgefarm]

Fellow TBNers,

My wife is scheduled to have 3 vertebra (disc) fused together and a metal plate screwed to them on 11/19 and hopefully be home 11/20. She will be out of work for 6 weeks but since she is a school teacher she has about a year of sick time and vacation days built. This is only the second time she has ever had any type of surgery, first was child birth. So if you think about it next week please keep us in your thoughts.

I also want to see if anyone here had experienced this and what issues you may have had as well as recovery time.

I told her she planned this because sheetrock on our house would be completed that week and this way she would not have to help paint .

Also told her I was looking for a portable metal detector I could carry with me so I would know if she was sneeking up on me.

Thanks guys/gals,

David

 

[Bird]

No more MRI in the future. That sure sounds to me like a quick turnaround to go home that soon after surgery, but it sounds good, too. Most of us feel better just to get out of the hospital. So we'll pray all goes as well as is obviously expected.

 

[NTEXSAM]

GOOD LUCK AND A SPEEDY RECOVERY SAM

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Thanks Bird and Sam.

The surgery is supposed to be routine but...3 bone chips and a metal plate does not sound routine to me! But the doctor said she should go home the next day.

 

[TxTom]

I had a similar surgery about 3 months ago, cervical diskectomy with fusion. I've always had a fair amount of neck pain but I just kept on going. One morning, I woke up in really bad pain with right arm numbness and loss of coordination. When I got to the ER, they said it could be pinched nerve or mild stroke. I just turned 39 and that really woke me up. The MRI showed a bulging disc pinching the nerve between C5 and C6.

About 2 weeks later they removed the disc, replaced it with cadaver bone, and plated the 2 vertebrae together. Recovery was to wear a neck brace continuous for the first week and only while awake and moving the next week. Three weeks from the day of surgery I was released to go back to normal activity. I've regained all my strength in my arm that I had lost and the neck scar is fading.

I'm very glad I did the surgery and not try to fix it with physical therapy.

Best wishes
Thomas

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I wish her the best. I know when I was trying to decide about if I wanted to have them operate on my back I kept thinking of all the horror stories from friends. I am glad I listened to my doctor though, he operated and I feel very little pain in my back now. My recovery is 3-6 months though. It isn't a fun feeling going into surgery and I wish her and your family the best.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

One morning, I woke up in really bad pain with right arm numbness and loss of coordination. QUOTE]


Tom,
Thats some of the same problem she had pain in neck and numbness in her right arm. Doctor was treating her form pinched nerve unitl she asked for an MRI.




Robert,

Thanks for the kind words. I am sure back surgery is worse than neck. Glad to here you recovered.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I think anytime they operate on the spine it is major regardless of the location. I was not comfortable with the whole idea going into my surgery just because of what they were operating on. I send my best wishes to her though as it is not fun going into surgery.

 

[riptides]

No worries. I have plates in my head. Also have spinal fusions, both anterior and posterior using titanium rods and screws in the family.

Will say a prayer accordingly, and really, the procedures and results are
mind-boggling.

best of luck.

-Mike Z.

 

[BTDT]

Best wishes to your wife and hope she has a speedy recovery. On the bright side (for you), at least now you have it documented from a medical professional that "you" are not her pain in the neck