Hi all! New member here
 

Hi all, I hope everyone had a good holiday season.

I am scheduled for an ADR on C5-6 on January 16th, I am not sure what device they are using but I am guessing the Mobi-C.

A little History

In September my neck started hurting out of nowhere, went to the Chiroprator as I thought it was just a typical minor spine issue that could easily solved. Well it got worse. Started physical therapy in Mid September 3 times a week. Still my primary care Dr didn't think it was anything, so I went to an orthopedic surgeon who refered me for an MRI (attached) showed the Herniated Disk with severe Forminal narrowing at that level.

Got my first Cervical Epidural Injection on Oct 31 and that helped, and got another one on November 16th.

Everything was going pretty well until mid December when the pain and arm tingling/numbness came back with a vengeance. Pain Management Dr .who did the CEIs didn't want to give a 3rd and tried and Facet Injection, this was one of the worst pains I have ever experienced. Was removed from PT last week because I could no longer perform the exercises, also went on Short term disability at work.

Met with a Neurosurgeon and have the arthoplasty scheduled for the 16th.

Things I know;
I will be wearing a hard collar for 2 weeks.
I will be on lifting and other restrictions for awhile.
The pain may or may not get better with surgery.
I am scared out of my mind about this surgery.


Things I don't know.
Will I be told to sleep sitting up?
Is there a pillow you would recommend for recovery?
Anything else you would like to add?

Thanks!

I had the same procedure 3 weeks ago. I slept in a recliner for the first 8 nights post-op. It was a personal choice. I was more comfortable that way. I used my normal down pillow. Still using it now that I'm back to sleeping on my side in my bed. I now sleep with a pillow between my knees to help with spinal alignment and to prevent me from rolling over on my stomach.

I'll follow up with more info in a day or two. Watching football now :). For what it's worth, having surgery was the best decision I could have made. 100% of my pre-surgery symptoms are now gone, and the recovery was not nearly as bad as I'd expected. Don't be scared. I wasn't, but my wife was scared for me, and in hindsight it was a little silly.

Thanks Jeep, looking forward to hearing about your procedure and recovery so far. As for being scared, I am an anxious type of guy so a simple knee scope scares me lol.

Stock your house with food. Pre-cook and freeze so you don't have to work hard to eat. Get things set up so you don't need to bend over to pick things up. This would seem like it would be less important with a c-spine procedure than with l-spine but you're going to be limited in how much you can tilt your head. Getting most of your life's necessities setup between waist and shoulder level will help. Make sure that someone else is around to run any errands because, even if you can drive (which is unlikely), you aren't going to want to drive.

Thanks Anna

Luckily my wife is able to take the first 6 days off, so she will be there to take care of me (and keep my 6 & 8 yo kids from jumping all over me).

The plan is to just sit in the recliner and rest the first week, and get up to walk around to use the bathroom, eat etc..

Hi Atticus. I know I said I'd post in a few days... well, better late than never. See my surgery "results" post here: https://www.adrsupport.org/forums/sh...068#post117068

Let me know if you have any questions. Stop worrying... it won't do any good to do it anyway :).