I'm back!!!!

[pochofeo]

Hello everyone. I had my surgery on Friday and am now home feeling relatively good. I underwent a three-level cervical adr in Orlando, FL. The surgery was performed by Dr. Robert Masson Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Back Surgery, Artificial Disc Surgery, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Surgery | NeuroSpine Institute | Central Florida and Orlando. Along with the disc replacement were removal of osteophytes and some repositioning/alignment of vertebrae. The surgery lasted approx 2 hours. Dr. Masson is really quite impressive as is his entire staff.
Within an hour of regaining consciousness I was moving around and speaking. Symptoms such as paresthesia, numbness, claudication, radicular pain, weakness seemed to have disappeared.
The pain from the procedure is another matter. For two days I had intense muscle tension pain and especially pain when swallowing. Within two days that has subsided somewhat. At the moment issues are: swelling of the incision which has me a bit worried; muscle pain and the desire to really give my neck muscles a good stretch which I will not do of course; and a general discomfort with the position of my head and neck when I sleep. Apparently my head is now screwed on at a slightly different angle. So I’m getting used to that.
Someone in the forums made a comment a few months back about how the insurance companies want people to believe that they are not covering this procedure when in fact they are. For over a year I did not submit a request to my insurance, UHC, since I assumed it would be rejected based on the feedback I got. Since my insurance was about to expire and I was switching to a different company I figured why not submit a preapproval request for something “crazy” like a three-level procedure. I wasn’t even waiting for their response when the Dr’s office called to say they had approved the whole thing. The rest is history.
I have amassed a pretty good amount of information about procedures, Doctors, etc. If anyone is interested in this or anything else I can do to help please let me know.

Thank you all so very much for your support. This forum is invaluable.

Frank