Thread: Hello! My story
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Old 08-28-2007, 03:12 AM
tmont tmont is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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John,

Spine surgery is scary and I felt exactly as you did before my C6-C7 fusion at age 36. I had no choice, however, as my pain was incapacitating. But I was so scared about having my neck cut into that I had tears in my eyes when they put me out, so I know how you feel. I was imagining all sorts of horrors and a tangled weave of nerves, veins and arteries and my spinal cord in the middle of it all...was terrified of waking up paralyzed (I woke up pain-free and aside from some swallowing problems that went away with time, no other secondary symptoms from the surgery).

I've since been able to observe cervical surgery several times, and even on several levels. I just want to tell you that I was impressed by the neatness and speed of the operations; all were practically bloodless and things weren't getting ripped out, tied in knots and placed on the patient's chest during surgery . The 'moving around' you speak of is more like gentle retraction of your esophagus and trachea and surrounding muscles, and while nerves have to be avoided, a skilled surgeon ought to be able to do this without damaging them. The spinal cord is in fact behind the space being cleaned out and worked on, and relatively protected (in the hands of an experienced surgeon, not your little brother and his tool kit!)

There are always risks and you have to be informed about them, and unfortunately accidents can of course happen. But I follow Mobi-C (cervical Artificial Disc Replacement) patients in a clinical study and not one has had cord injury during the operation, or any other lasting damage from the intervention itself, beyond some swallowing difficulty and in some cases a hoarse voice for a few days (lasting voice changes CAN be a risk, but again this is relatively rare). I posted a topic last year on observing cervical ADR surgery, as it was a real relief for me to see that it wasn't as gnarly a procedure as I'd imagined. Posting the link here as the surgical technique for ACDF is very similar:

http://adrsupport.org/eve/forums/a/t...3311084391/p/1

I hope it reassures you somewhat. It's not meant to be taken from a technical standpoint as much as a human one. Further on in the thread is a link to a video animation on an ADR procedure in case you're interested (hope it still works; that thread is over a year old)

For the rest, you definitely need to know as much as you can about your case before you decide. Which level(s) precisely, and why the doc wants to fuse rather than ADR for example. I'd then take the time to get at least a second opinion, and if possible more before surgery. ACDF (Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion) will block the operated level. This is what I have, and while I do not feel any difference in mobility I suspect it led to the acceleration of a slight discopathy in the level above, which will now one day require surgery (and there I'm looking at ADR to conserve motion if possible).

So you see, you've really got to know what's going on in your neck and ask each surgeon you consult why he or she recommends the treatment or technique proposed, because notably in the case of ADR vs Fusion, not all surgeons agree on which to do, or when. The more you know about each, and about your own case, the better you'll be able to dialogue with your doc on which option--if it's down to those two--you feel is the best for you.

Trace
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