[Ram_2L-ADR]

Hello All,

I'm a 31 year old male patient. I had a 2 Level ADR using Mobi-C in Hong Kong, performed by Dr. C. Leung. He was the 6th doctor I saw after having first received the diagnostic that I needed to operate on two of my discs C4-C5 & C5-C6. He was extremely professional and spent 45min with me answering every query I had and going through each steps of the surgery.

Going back a few month, the reason why I started to see doctors in the first place, was a coming and going tingly, and numbing sensation throughout my right arm and hand. I am 6 days post surgery today, and I must admit that I feel much better than I thought I would when I went in for surgery. Numbness and tingling in my right arm is pretty much gone and only slightly persists in my hand. So here's

Pre Surgery: The Dr proposed two options 2 level ADR or a Hybrid, meaning Fusion on 1 level and ADR on the other, the curvature of my neck allowed for both options.

Day 0: Surgery Day - I reconfirmed my will to go for a 2 Level ADR with Mobi-C. Full anaesthesia. Just under 4hrs surgery including recovery. Waking up was quite a weird sensation (this was my first ever surgery), first I was shivering intensely as if I just had finished a few sessions of cryotherapy, but once this faded, I would say about 10-15min later, I was taken by a strong urge to talk, a lot! Apparently that's all normal, but basically the feeling is like being at this happy drunken stage, when you're conscious that you're drunk, but you're just really happy. After this passed I basically fell asleep of tiredness.

Day 1: I woke up a first time in the early hours of the morning, around 3 am. I felt my head was really heavy I could only really move my arms and legs. I wasn't wearing any neckbrace and wasn't sure how much I was allowed to move. So I just stayed there, playing with my phone and messaging my friends and family.
I finally needed to go to the toilet so beeped the nurse and asked if I could move, she confirmed, but my reflex feeling was to carry my head between my two hands as I straightened myself. Somehow it gave me the comfort I needed, I also managed to get up on my feet, but was too dizzy to stay up. I managed to urinate and that was very comforting to myself, and the medical staff. Followed this was a repetitive motion of falling in and out of sleep.
In the early hours of the day, 8-9AM my family finally came to visit (I had a shared room, so no overnight stay), I was able to greet them standing up and even walk around a little.
I forgot to mention that I also had a tube from my throat that allowed the medical staff to monitor the bleeding from my wound. After half a day and the doctor's approval, they confirmed that the wound was in good state and the blood drained very limited. This meant they could extract the tube and I would be discharged by the end of the day (6 hours after removing the tube).
One of the main questions is the difficulty to swallow, that is true, it is quite annoying, especially the first day or two, but it is very similar to an extremely sore throat due to a bad cold. I was eating soup with corn from the first morning post surgery, and even a bit of solid vegetables.

Day 2-4: I was basically in and out of bed for most of these days, but was able to walk around the house and play a bit with my young children. Most of the pain was mainly in my trapezoid muscles, not exactly sure why, but this is the one that lasts longest. My throat never actually hurt me as much as it bothered me with a feel of mucus, again like a bad cold.

Day 5: I woke up feeling extremely tired on this day, not much pain, but just intense exhaustion. I spent most of it in bed sleeping or sitting watching TV. Except for the morning when my throat is dry, I could relatively easily eat solids.

Day 6 (today): I actually feel in great shape all things considering. I've just written all the above in one sitting, woke up with much more neck mobility and comfort. Really happy with the results so far. I have my first follow up with Dr. Leung from Q9 in Central HK, in 3 days.

Wishing everyone who is looking to undergo this surgery luck and speedy recovery. A piece of advice, in the span of about a month, I saw 6 doctors prior to accepting to go ahead with my surgery. Everyone would keep saying that I needed to be comfortable with the doctor, I didn't understand what that meant, as for me I simply needed someone with the experience to do the 2L ADR, but once I met Dr. Leung, I knew that this was the right doctor for me, he was patient, self assured, and clearly knew what he was talking about. In the meantime I had even tried to contact Dr Bertagnoli in Germany to have the surgery done there, but this is a sad story for another post!

Great day to All!