Hello! This forum has been a really useful source of information. I’ve been reading other peoples’ introductions and their surgical outcome stories, and I’m grateful to hear the direct experiences of patients.
An orthopedic surgeon recently recommended that I get a Prodisc-C artificial disc at C5-C6. I went for a second opinion with a neurosurgeon, and he agreed.
I’ll try to make my story brief: I’m in my 40’s, and I hardly have any neck pain at all. Instead, I have arm problems: repetitive strain injuries from working in jobs that involve almost constant computer use. After not working for a number of years, some of my symptoms have settled down, but other ones continue.
We’re now looking at the possibility that neck problems (cervical radiculopathy) may be causing some or all of my remaining arm problems. My persistent symptoms are about the same in both arms:
- Finger stiffness: all my fingers feel tight. With increased hand activity, my hands start to turn red and feel hot.
- Forearm “pins & needles” pain: tingling pain along the outsides of my forearms below the elbows.
- Some elbow pain: soreness and tenderness at the elbow and just below the elbow.
I’ve tried all the conservative treatments: rest, physical therapy, neck injections, and so on. Hand activity like cooking and using a computer make the symptoms worsen.
Two areas where I’d love some feedback:
- I’m interested in hearing the experiences of other folks that have had arm problems corrected via cervical ADR surgery, particularly people that have had finger stiffness and forearm tingling pain like me.
- I’ll be pursuing the surgery through standard Medicare, so I’m interested in people’s experiences with getting them to cover most of the surgery costs. My understanding is Medicare approves cervical ADRs for people under 60, but I don’t know how easy the process is.
This is longer than I wanted it to be. Thanks for reading this far!
-Karl