My Journey To Neck Fusion Surgery

A major procedure, with major faith

I often write about my deep and vast history of mental health, and addiction history. While that does cover a detailed account of the journeys my life has taken me, it isn’t by any means the only health matters I have faced. Five years ago, a long term issue with neck, nerve and spine issues culminated with a major, complex and crucial surgery. It was the main event that ended a multi year battle with some of the most extremely painful neck and arm pain, I ever experienced.

While neck fusions are often viewed as very dreadful hit or miss type of invasive surgery, my story was one that would end up proving just how far along, these kind of procedures have come in the past 10, 20 years.

I’ll set the stage by going back to a couple years before I needed my neck fusion surgery. I began to have these random bouts of constant severe pain. The pain would be stabbing and unbearable. Deep inside my entire neck, as well as a similar type of pain running down my entire left arm. It was mostly a mystery for a long time. I knew it was related to cervical issues as well as nerve issues. The arm pain made that a dead giveaway.

The first round of this pain seemed to come, but then disappear by around the 4th week. A few months would go by without any pain at all. However it came back a second time after those pain free few months. This time I saw my doctor, who determined from an xray that we would try physical therapy first.

I had that typical generic “herniated disc” diagnosis. I went through the physical therapy, and sometimes I thought it would feel a tiny bit better, but only during the actual therapy. The extreme pain was there all the other times. This 2nd bout was longer then last. This time, the pain didn’t stop until around the 8th week.

It came back for a third time. The severe neck and arm pain was worse than ever before. I was clearly able to tell that there were definite pinched nerves involved I finally was able to get an MRI this time around, and the MRI showed a thousand different potential issues, in which it was likely that only a few were the reasons and causes behind the pain and discomfort.

This time around, I was sent to a special pain doctor who is actually an Anesthesiologist. The kind of doctor that injects a pain block numbing drug directly into the neck or back, whichever the problem area is. It’s up to three rounds, and it’s one of those processes that either works great, or doesn’t work much at all. My mother actually had this same type of injection therapy and it lasted close to ten years.

Unfortunately for me, it barely worked, and it’s small difference lasted only two weeks. Round three of that pain seemed almost rejuvenated and I just couldn’t stand it. This time, the pain was just not stopping, unlike the first two times. Finally the plan for neck surgery had to be addressed. And I couldn’t be any more excited. Because to me, surgery meant that the end of the problem could finally begin its journey.

From there we began to get ready for that.

A major point and side note to bring up about all of this, is the fact that what may had been my weakest point if I was in active addiction at the time, ended up really requiring a lot of strength. Because the pain really was the type of pain that many would need narcotics for. However I was in total sobriety through these experiences and painful bouts. It was a time due to circumstances that I had to try really hard to not need those type of meds. Never taking anything stronger than an ice pack and advil. I knew surgery recovery would be another story. There would be an absolute need for strong pain medication considering my neck was taken apart and rebuilt. But let’s not get ahead of the story. I did the right thing anyway, as I had a loved one hold my medications post surgery. But back to the road to surgery.

There was the usual processes and procedures leading into my surgery. A lot of pre admission testing, a few meetings with the excellent neck surgeon I had selected as well. He was really great, and the kind of guy that a person get a good vibe from 10 minutes after meeting him. He was able to look at the mri, and the entire mess of issues my neck had, and determine which of those were likely causing the painful problems. I put my faith and trust in him. Not to mention the two level neck fusion he planned to do for me, was a surgery that he does three or four times a week.

I was in the absolute best shape of my life, leading into this. I exercised and lifted weights through the pain every single day, while also running about 28 miles a week. The surgeon said the best advice he had, was to work my ass off to get into the most extreme shape I could, and that meant working my ass off in the gym, all the way up until the eve of my surgery. Apparently that could assure that the surgery itself, and the recovery is as smooth as possible.

The surgery was a great success. I immediately had no more arm pain. It was gone when I woke up from the surgery. It ended up being a process that involved more work than originally planned. In addition to the repair of the 5 through 7 cervicals, I also ended up having bone spurs that needing removing. I also needed a stent installed through the spinal canal to assist with stenosis that I had unexpectedly as well.

I would say that the pain I did have upon waking up was pretty bad, but it wasn’t a type of extreme that I wasn’t expecting. I did need heavy medications, but I used them for as short amount of time as possible, and like mentioned earlier, I had family members holding the bottle. They themselves were educated on the dosage and instructions, so that helped assure everything was kept smooth with no drama.

I was to spend the next 3 weeks in a hard neck brace, and then another 3 weeks wearing a soft neck brace. The lack of movement quickly shedded any neck and shoulder muscle I had, but I figured I’d get that back soon once the healing was better.

Unlike most other surgeries, this time physical therapy was not to start until six weeks after surgery. No real work could be done until the fusion process had begun. Because before that, the construction on the neck was all still loose and brand new. I ended up meeting a physical therapist who was referred to as a neck expert. I can admit I did enjoy the many visits with that neck specialist.

It has been five and a half years since that surgery. And with all things considered, I would say much about these years have been miraculous considering no damage was done to the hardware inside my neck, since I lived many tumultuous I have lived back when I was relapsing with my addiction.

With the exception of occasional stiffness, I really have no complaints about my neck. I relied on blind faith going into this the best I could, and that faith didn’t disappoint me.

It was a process and experience that reminded me that I had to be very grateful that I was able to go through that process sober. Because I don’t even want to imagine how it could had been if I was having those issues while also being unable to get my damn life in order.

I am blessed and thankful for this journey, and it gives me a lot of hope that the process of fusions are only getting better and better.

-End