11 Days Post ACDF C5-6

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seanacdf

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Hello to everyone

I am 11 days post op for C5-6 ACDF (disk herniated causing pain in left shoulder and neck).

When I lift my left elbow half way out to my side and rotate the arm towarRAB my front I get a terrible knife feeling under my right back shoulder blade (left arm lift, right shoulder blade pain)
 
Hi. You are not even 2 weeks post-op and so you are in that period where all sorts of things will hurt mainly due to swelling in the area of the surgery and elsewhere. That area that hurts is controlled by the nerves just below the surgery area so as you are upright, the extra fluid can settle downward and aggravate the lower nerves.

You need to give it time. this type of surgery takes a good year to heal and you will find that all sorts of weird things will happen during that time but you should slowly but surely feel better once the fusion has taken(3 months for that).

Scroll on down to the Spinal Cord Disorders board and check out what others who have had this exact same surgery have to say. You'll find out what to expect and what has already gone well.

But it does take time.

good luck...............Jenny
 
just curious here if you actually had ANY other significant findings that were ON that right side and also more down towarRAB that c 7-t 1 level?? any real solid findings the rad saw would simply be listed in the summary at the very back page and end of the rad report? do you actually even have a copy of that MRI report yourself? just what was the full extent of the c 5-6 problems?? what was really being impacted? anything directly impacting the cord level to any degree?

while what jenny stated IS pretty much the way things go here with what you had done, any NEW pain like this should also be noted as well in some type of running 'journal" just like in a notebook type thing so you just DO know for certain and be able to mention this to the surgeon when you see him the exact day and time of onset and how what you did/do actually produced anything like pain or even nurabness of tingling(esp if this should get even worse or not actually go away). its just a really good way to try and keep track of your healing course, and possibly tell if the surgeon may have missed something or something was inadvertantly hit during any given sugery. theres just a pretty wide margin between that c 5-6 level and what area would have to be really impacted in order for you to even 'feel" what you are feeling and esp where. the under the shoulder blade sensory innervation is actually more at the T 1 thru T 2. and that one i do KNOW from my own experience.

in order to really find just what actual muscle innervation actually is, you need to simply look up 'myotomes images",and it should show you some type of a person with certain areas shaded in that show you the actual muscle innervation, just like the "dermatomes" would show sensory type of innervation too?

for now, just take it easy and just make certain to really be doing that running journal even a few worRAB about how this or that day is going and how pain levels are, with specific emphasis on ANYTHING strange/unexpected that should happen to simply pop in like this one did too. this really IS very very helpful in alot of ways, trust me, or i would not be telling you to do this at all. and your surgeon will have a really good idea of alot off different things just from this one thing you can do right now for yourself. hope this does eventually go away for you. but if you could actually answer the questions i asked up there, it really would be really helpful in trying to help you.

while some nerves just simply run in some really strange ways inside our bodies,and esp in the inner abdominal and up thru thorasic, actually having a left sided movement create a right sided type of pain upon a particular ROM, just is a bit odd to me. but also just knowing how truely extensive that c 5-6 problem was/is would also tell alot too, esp like i mentioned, if there was ANY contact at all with that cord itself. good luck with this and please do keep us posted here.Marcia
 
Thanks Feelbad and Jennybyc

Well, I am 17 days post op now and I am still getting that pain under the back side of the right shoulder blade. When I say back I mean the back of me, maybe 6 inches to the right from the back of my spine and under the shoulder blade area.

My original pains were actually under the left almost in the same spot I would say, they would cause a dull pain that ran up through the neck area on the left. That has calmed down a lot after surgery, not 100% but definitively better. But now I have this sharp pain on the right side which concerns me. This new sharp pain started 3 days after surgery.

A few days after my first posting the pain calmed down when moving my left arm(the new pain I get on my right side). I went a couple of days and then the pain just started happening on it
 
I messed up, it is my right shoulder which is cranked down compared to my left. So the right should(side of the new sharp pain) is 1 inch lower then the left.
 
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