Hi
I had the same surgery with fusion. For me too it was instant relief of the
severe pain but nagging nerve pain that actually let up after awhile.

BUT this severe pain you are referring too is not right. I don't think this
is something to mess with and you need to call that surgeon and tell him
about your worries here. IT might be from severe swelling and you need to
get that down, and it could be from alot of things.  Are you in a collar???
Did he go in from the front or back???

I now have arthritis in my neck and that is pain as well but if you are
having that pain NOW, then you most definately need to see that doc ASAP.
Especially since it is INCREASED dramatically like you described.

He is right about the nerve damage and it does take time but that amount of
pain doesn't seem right.

Please call him and demand follow up. IF that don't work go to the ER and
have them take some pictures to figure out what is going on.  MRI for
sure....
Ask about a soft collar for awhile, sometimes that helps some people.   YOU
need a doc NOW.

let me know will YOU???
janers

Hi Glenn,
I've had c4,5,6 fused in 2000. I had bad pain in my left arm and it passed
for awhile after the surgery and then came back again. I assumed the fusion
was to correct and relieve the arm pain. It wasn't. It was needed for other
reasons. Do you have pain down into your two little fingers? Tingling? I
finally asked for a referral to a pain clinic. They sent me to a neurologist
for a nerve conduction test. Turns out my arm pain was being caused by my
ulnar nerve being crushed in my elbow. Already had moderately severe damage
to the nerve that was affecting the muscle functions in my arm. Had surgery
to move the ulnar nerve out of the elbow joint. It won't cure the damage
already done, but it will keep it from getting worse. I have the same
problem in my right arm to a lesser degree and that will not be addressed at
this time. By the way, the pain from that nerve damage radiates back up into
my shoulder and neck on my left side. Perhaps a visit to a pain specialist
is in order.
GaryZ

I think that you can ask your surgeon that, what is the main purpose of
the fusion surgery. maybe before your surgery is performed, you must
told your surgeon that you want to solve the pain problem. it is the
surgeon he told you that your pain maybe caused by the C5,6 and C6,7
disc degenerative changes, and herniates. and maybe he thoughts that
after the fusion surgery maybe the degenerative changes was stoped, and
the pain maybe released. but the situation is that your pain not
released at all. at first, your pain's release maybe caused by the pain
killer used in the surgery, then the effects of the pain killer
disappeared, your pain reoccured.

For a surgeon, I do the same operation in our china, we have a lot of
surgeries nearly 4 per day, I think the mainpoint of the surgery in
your situation is the decompression, only the perfect decompression is
performed, that your pain will not release in the postoperative.

Wish you good luck, maybe you can choose another surgeon to perform
another decompression operation.

Benjamin