r/SpineSurgery

Hello. I am an immigrant. I moved to the US 20 years ago. I am still amazed by the Healthcare system here. I would like to know if my experience with trying to get a neck surgery is just how things are here.

My neurosurgeon told me that I needed 2 cervical discs replaced. Prior to that I was sent from one doctor to another. I had to take all kinds of meds for migraines, tension headaches, muscle stiffness. This is where the fun began:

- I had to ask previous physical therapy places for medical records. I called 1 place 4 times because they couldn't type the fax number correctly. Of course, with lots of push back and attitude, they faxed over the records to the surgeon.

- pre-op appt with my primary care. I show up and they don't have surgeon's orders. I had to find them and provide to the doctor.

-bloodwork needed to be redone. I went to a different place. It took them multiple attempts and pokes to draw some blood. I can't fault them. My veins are weird.

-I had to send over the bloodwork results to my surgeon, because the place I went to couldn't.

-the surgery location was switched on me twice. I had to talk to 2 hospitals and answer the same lengthy set of questions.

-the pre-op appt was moved without any discussion. I got a text saying it was moved.

-the pre-op appt location changed 3 times. I had to call 5 times to confirm.

-my fmla paperwork can't be filled out until the day of surgery. I get it, but it does add more stress because of work and not having anything official.

-yesterday I got a text to get another xray done. I show up at the xray place and they have no records of orders. I tried calling the surgeon's office at 4.30 but they were closed even though they were supposed to be open till 5.

-this morning I get a notification from insurance that my prior auth was denied. My surgery is scheduled for this Friday.

This process was accompanied by coworkers telling me they wouldn't cover for me. I am stressed to the point of breaking.

Is this how it usually goes? Any tips would be appreciated as well.​

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice right now on a surgery I have scheduled for next week (Anterior Cervical Disc Replacement). Maybe I'm just getting cold feet as I've never had a surgery before (40 year old male), but I'm starting to stress out a bit about this. Please bear with me a little bit as I explain the context.

Back in early November I had a sports accident where my head snapped back and to the left, herniating the disc between C6-C7 on the left. I immediately had left hand finger pain and a couple of days later started getting a ton of neck pain. Took me a while to figure out the issue as I tried chiropractic care and acupuncture first in November and December. By December, I was in massive amounts of pain in my neck, left shoulder blade, and upper arm. My sleep at this time was severely impacted as well as I was only getting a couple of hours a sleep a night and everything was uncomfortable and in pain. In January, I was playing catch with my kid and my left arm right above the wrist was so swollen and painful that I thought my arm was broken. I was starting to lose a bit of grip strength as well. I went in for an x-ray and they found nothing, so I went to an orthopedic specialist and they ordered an MRI. At this point my whole arm was starting to go numb and I was getting pain and tingling down my whole arm to my fingers.

Of course, the MRI found the large herniation between C6-C7 with nerve and spinal coord compression and the doctor recommended the following steps:

• Oral steroids (didn't work)
• Anti-inflammatory meds (didn't work)
• Epidural injections (didn't work)
• 6 weeks of PT (didn't work)
• Gabapentin (didn't work initially)

I'm sure there were other meds I'm missing, but essentially, nothing was working, so at the beginning of March we scheduled the surgery option. Since then, I've been on an increased dosage of Gabapentin (600mg 3-4 times daily) and have continued to go to PT.

Over the past month or so, I've started to feel a lot better, although the symptoms haven't fully resolved. There have been a couple of times where I've gone off the pain meds for a day+ and the symptoms have started to come back, although not as intense as they had been previously. The surgery is now a week out. I'm starting to freak out a bit that I don't actually need the surgery and this isn't something I can't take this back once the surgery has happened. All the symptoms are still there, but just way less intense. I just don't know if I'm actually getting better or if this is just the build-up of Gabapentin in my body. Symptoms I still have include (but are WAY less intense than they were):

• Neck pain - especially acute pain when moving my head back and to the left
• Shoulder blade tension and pain
• Upper arm pain
• Forearm feeling swollen (have to take my watch off)
• Numbness and tingling in my arm all the way through my fingers
• Grip pain

Again, the symptoms are way less than they were and I'm sleeping fine. However, I don't want to be on pain meds forever and I want to be able to get back to an active lifestyle (I've basically stopped most forms of exercise). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello, everyone! I am on mobile, so apologies for any formatting issues.

I had a Laminextomy and Spinal Lesion Resection on April 29th. I am having my staples (25 total) removed tomorrow (May 13).

I am looking to see insight in others experiences medication wise post staple removal? The start of my healing went really well, but the last 3 days or so have been pretty rough.

I am running low on my perscription, and I would prefer to start weaning off asap. Did anyone else find their pain improve a lot after their staples were removed?

I have been pretty light on the heavy meds overall, so if I can avoid doing a refill I would prefer to.

Any insight into your personal experience is appreciated. Thank-you!

Anyone here have their disc replacement removed and revised with a fusion? I had my disc replacement surgery in Dec 2021, and my pain has only gotten worse since. I've seen 3 surgeons now that have recommended removing the disc replacement and doing a fusion instead. I understand this is not super common so would love any thoughts or experiences!

RANT: 45m moderate stenosis L2-L4 and L5-S1. Dish in Thoracic Spine and T11 fracture in fall 2025 sometime. Currently wearing AFO on left leg for 2/5 foot drop and leg weakness. Using a cane to walk. Been dealing with this since beginning of November 2025. EMG shows cause of foot drop likely peroneal nerve in left knee area. Also possible nerve impingement and/or irritation L5-S1. Knee MRI shows no obvious compression. Explained as a “double crush” due to nerve issue and L5-S1 and peroneal nerve. Neurosurgeon doesn’t do personal nerve surgery referring me out another neurosurgeon for evaluation. Also osteoporosis. The typical blame is that I lost 200lbs so everything “shifted”. Not out of the question the two
Surgeons I’ve talked to won’t do surgery because they don’t know where to operate in my low back. I don’t want a surgery that doesn’t fix or prevent things for worsening but I would like the ability to gain some function back in my leg and maybe stop using the cane. It’s so frustrating I’ve been dealing with this over a decade but the severity went through the roof 6 months ago. Just defeated because every test feels like this is going to be permanent loss of mobility. I know I need to wait for the next neurosurgeon to give their two cents just a long wait. I was hoping I had more time before my mobility was affected. Anyway thanks for reading I’ll wait to see what the next surgeon says and post an update.

I have been struggling for years, and these last 5 months have been the worst of it. I'm experiencing saddle numbness but the scans apparently don't show cauda equina (although I'm worried somehow we're missing something). I'm worried that every day incurs more and more nerve damage. I have so much anxiety I feel like I could combust any minute.

Bless everyone who's ever had to deal with a herniation, or any spine issue. This has been the hardest chapter of my life.

I just need to make it 36 days. Praying that insurance approves. 36 days!!!

In June 2020 I (now 43F) had C4-C7 ACDF with 80% improvement in symptoms (numbness, tingling, weakness, reflexes). Only major complication was wound dehiscence - well, that and the only 80% resolution of symptoms.

May 2021 I had a cervical epidural and it got me to 100%. Yay!

September 2025 brought return of symptoms. I went back to my PT exercises and gabapentin. No change.

In March 2026 I got another epidural. No benefit at all. Another MRI was ordered and showed severe stenosis into C6-C7.

Finally saw the neurosurgeon this week and he said that since my last MRI (late 2020) I have developed small bone spurs at C2-C3 (which he isn’t worried about) and then significant heterotrophic ossification at C6-C7 intruding on the spinal column.

My main choices are:
- live with the symptoms (because they aren’t dangerous, just annoying) (I hate this option)
- Keep trying epidurals (even though the last one didn’t help and I hate the side effects of the steroids)
- surgery: either a repeated ACDF to clear out C6-C7 or posterior laminectomy to create more room.

Any advice or experience with this type of complication? I’m relatively young, very fit and active (Pilates instructor), and I’m devastated to be looking at another surgery that could put me out for 3-6 months. I had never even heard of HO before this. It seems like my fusion was an overachiever! I appreciate you all.

Oh, also, I am waiting for a second opinion from a neurosurgeon at a very large university hospital so that may factor things in too. I’m just looking for advice or reassurance or camaraderie!

65f..I have a spontaneous lumbar autofusion and I need a surgeon who specializes in complex spinal reconstruction. This all happened a year after I had l3-l4 discectomy and foraminotomy from l3-l5. I also have L4-L5 spondylolisthesis. My legs are extremely weak affecting my ankles, big toes, little toes, the whole foot to where I cannot drive. Plus I have extremely poor balance as well.

I'd like to get recommendations of any spinal surgeon that you may know of with a good reputation and such surgery.

It’s been just over a year and a half since I had C2 to C7 fusion surgery. I got immediate relief and it lasted for a while but within six months it started coming back pretty badly. I am now throwing up daily because the pain is so bad all the time every day. They’re stingy with pain medicine because they have to be because of all of the addicts. I had an MRI done about four months ago and there was no new damage. X-rays don’t show anything new either.

So is this it? Am I just supposed to feel like this every day and suffer?