Anyone with 3 level c spine fusion doing well?
 

As you can see with my details in my signature, I wonder if there are any patients like myself that are doing well. It seems like my c 6/7 is shot and my c 2/3 not far behind. :(

I had a 4 level fusion last March. So far it has been great. No pain and all of my nerve pain is gone. Everyone says they can't believe the range I have. I had lived with severe pain for 2+ years. This is my experience.

I had a 3 level discektomy and fusion in July of 2007. C 4-7. THe nerve pain which was pretty severe went away in about 2 weeks.
Then all the fun started with thoracic pain and hip pain. In july of 2008 i had some ESI's in my cervical area. My spine surgeon does all levels at once. Feels like the OR staff used you for a punching bag after they knocked you out.
All was ok until feb. 2010. I had a few back surgeries inbetween. When i woke up from lung surgery my upper cervical area hurt more than the lung area.
I just had a cervical osteotomy and revision from the posterior. Not sure if all the pain is coming from up higher as C2-3 though.
Anyway i am now fused from C4 thru L-2. I wonder how much all the hardwear weighs!!
Also not sure if that was any help at all
judy

I had 3 level c4-c7 sept 2009. No issues, range of motion great. But now the same problems are showing up in my t spine at t4. (so it's not an adjacent level issue)

follow up to thread
 

So how are all of us multi level c-spiners doing? I a bit worse; no surprize:o

I just read my post from 2/7. I must have still been on a lot of pain meds because i can barely follow my post.
My neck is fine now although i am still in a brace. My 21 level fusion is doing pretty well . The only problem i know of is the fracture at L2 which will hopefully be fixed soon.
judy

no worries about the posting on meds
 

sometimes that's when we do our best stuff. ;) i can tell you've been through alot!

This may seem a bit off topic but bear with me.

We all have gotten dumb looks and vague answers from doctors. Many of you are here trying to figure out what your doctor can't or can't be bothered to figure out.

I hate MD with a passion so I will not deny any bias on my part so take what ever I say with as many grains of salt as you like. I have had MDs look at my MRI and tell me that I should not have pain where I was indicating. I am sure some of you have had the same thing pulled on you. I have been accused of drug seeking. I bet you have been through that too. I have been given medications that had horrible side effect ie skelaxin and neurontin.

There is a reason why you are in pain and it is really not up to you to figure it out. It's up to the overpaid charlatan with a scalpel and too much money to figure it out.

I suspect that there is nerve irritation for some of you. Consider this. There are people with some seriously messes up spines who are asymptomatic.

There is a theory that the damaged disk release inflamtory chemicals. Actually, I think it is more than a theory. Sadly NSADS are not very good. They work for some people but it is a fact that 1 in 1200 people who are on NSAIDS for more than 60 days die. Dr Greed won't tell you that but it's the truth. The GOOD news is that there are safe anti inflamatories. Here are a few. Willow Bark, Cat's Claw, Tumeric (that's the spice they use in pickles) Papain (that's in papaya) Bromelain (That's in fresh pineaple) Chondroitin and glucosomine, (pharmacies sell that) Devils claw, Stinging nettle, flax seed oil, ginger, black pepper extract, Boswellia serratta, Hylurronic acid.

There are also natural muscle relaxers like magnesium, valarian root, lavander, horse radish, marijauna, Catnip, Chamomile, Hops, Red Clover, Spearmint

Another thing G.O.D. (greedy obsolete doctors) don't understand is muscle tone. I am not talking gym stuff. I am talking about how some muscles get in the habit of being tense even though there is no identified neurological cause.

G.O.D. is to busy to actually examine your muscles let alone touch some one as lowly as us. Accupuncture and trigger point injections can get your muscle tone back to normal. If you bring this up to G.O.D. he will tell you that there are things we lowly humans cannot know.

You have had surgery and they beat the crap out of your neck. You have had trauma to the muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones. Cutting a slot in a vertebral body is not gentle procedure. Your spine as much as G.O.D. won't admit it COULD be dare I say subluxated :eek: that means dislocated slightly. That is blasphemy in G.O.D.s realm.

There are things you can do to correct these subluxations that only evil chiropractor can see on x rays. Yoga can help. So can the Dorn Method but sometimes we have offend god and see a DC. DC stands for devil chiropractor and MD stands for Me Deity. When I had my near death experience and was in heaven waiting to see the other god this guy with a stethoscope slung arrogantly over his shoulder walk right into God's office ahead of me and I had been waiting for hours. I complained to St Peter and I asked who that guy was who went into God's office ahead of me an St Peter informed me that is was God and sometimes he like to play doctor.

The three things I told you all about may or may not help but they won't hurt you and they will not put any money into the coffers of big medicine.

I have read some of your problems with great interest and I suspect I have given them more thought than your doctor. I'm no saint and I probably don't have an altruistic bone in my body but I'm better than most and that is not saying much.

There are things that can help you. I have seen surgeries and I think a monkey could do must of them and rich Machevellian monkeys did your surgeries. The monkey probably did your surgery right as far as monkey surgery goes but the monkey only knows what it is taught. Monkeys are not critical thinkers. Their handlers don't want them to think.

There are a lot of really bad surgeons and orthopedic surgery is still in the dark ages but there are some advances coming down the pike.

This little rant has point. Monkeys are sneaky greedy dangerous animals.

ADR Seeker,
You do speak the truth in most cases. I know you believe there are some good doctors mixed in with the monkeys.
My doc does believe my current problem with my lumbar spine is a nerve irritation and is doing things to try to avoid surgery.
I have been actually fired (as i called it) by a pain management. I needed to pick up my scipt one day early as i was leaving on a trip the normal day. Well did i get called things in an email by him. I answered right back and then was told he could not treat me anymore.
I have a nice one now.
I do believe my muscles are tense in my whole back. do you think a really good physical therapist doing massage can help with that? Kind of where i wanted to head.
Thank you for the natural remedies. I knew about a few of them.
I personally will accept any advice you have
thanks
judy

Pain is the devil! Try these things. They are inexpensive and they could help

People tell me I am a liberal because I think outside the box but when it comes to medical things I am very conservative. I have decided that I probably won't use a drug created after 1980 unless I really research it. I trust the Mafia more than I trust big pharma.

I think that there is a massive void when it comes to the treatment and diagnosis of back pain and back problems. For the most part IMO PT is joke but there are some PTs who are passionate about their profession who can be effective.

Here is a free book about how orthopedics should be done.

There are MDs who went into it for the right reasons but the industry has hamstringed them because industry run state medical boards often harass them.

My cousin works in the medical industry and his advice to people is, "Don't get sick." He's seen it all.

Here are some facts about MDs But let me say that they are only s small part of the problem. I understand that medical school is expensive but it only is expensive to maintain the doctor shortage to artificially keep the cost of medical treatment high.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
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you are an adr at the c spine?
 

i would think you would be doing well. i just realized you had adr. I am fused with peek cage bone and plating. it totally sucks! i have adjacent level ddd from it too. my level above and below is having a really hard time from the stress.