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I have two recommendations, surgery to repair cervical discs or further PT, what is your experience?
I have two bad discs, stenosis in three places and the surgery would use cadaver bone and titanium laminate to open the collapsed spaces permanently. Surgery would be outpatient, recovery would be no driving while on pain medication for two weeks. I currently am severely impaired with little use of my left arm, limited of my right. I have pursued PT since July 2019 with not only no improvement but some setbacks. Fibro is clouding the symptom picture for the specialists, but not for me. Any… read more
Answer Summary
Members strongly encouraged someone facing the choice between cervical disc surgery and continued physical therapy to move forward with... Read more
Hi @A MyFibroTeam Member... I have a joint surgery pending too. I've been through the PT and chiropractor and D.O. rollercoaster of hope and disappointment. All three specialties were convinced that they could literally prevent me from going through surgery. The D.O. ironically was originally the person who adamantly advocated me to have the initial surgery that I didn't need, it turns out. What's that, you ask? Well! The surgeon (after surgery!!) stated that the MRI didn't show the proper detail 🤬🤬🤬 so learn from me.
As a result of the 1st (unnecessary) surgery I now require surgery.
For 3 years I looked into the different treatment modalities, supplements, injections and made certain to have annual x-rays to demonstrate to MYSELF the rate and level of deterioration. I am now confident the surgery is necessary. I know that surgery doesn't solve all the problems and can create other problems. The biggest benefit is the peace of mind knowing that I did everything possible to avoid surgery. Like you, I'm significantly handicapped.
The other benefit 🌷was that I learned about a superior form of the surgery via the implementation of robotics. For the first time in 3 years I'm actually excited to move forward.
I hope this helps 🌸💛💫and I hope you have peace of mind while processing your options...💞🍀🦋
I had the surgery in my neck. I fully recovered from that. If you trust the surgeon, I would go for it. I Also had surgery years earlier on a herniated disc in my lower back. The pain relief was instanteous. But all this happened years before I ever started having fibromyalgia pain. So you may still experience pain, just maybe not as much, and hopefully clear the fibro picture for the Dr.
Do the surgery and give yourself a chance at a healthier life.
Sounds like further physical therapy is useless by your description. So you have no choice but to go ahead with surgery. Sorry Jan
Since most of my pain is in the head and face area, I have been to a neurologist to determine if arthritis in the cervical spine is accounting for this or not. The follow up with her is coming up. I had a lot of bone spurs in my neck at age 40, now 25 years later, what happened to them? are there more? I am also keeping a calendar journal of the weather changes and my pain issues. I know that there is a relationship between really cold weather, precipitation, and pain. This could be related to my thyroid as I am hypothyroid, and even though on medication for that, can not get the thyroid to perform normally.
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