Wellness

[LAllyR]

I'm looking for anyone who can tell me their experiences with cervical spine fusion surgery and life afterwards with limited neck movement.

I have had rheumatoid arthritis for 37 yrs so have had a lot of damage to my joints including my neck which has been causing numbness & tingling in my left arm/thumb when I tilt my head back. In the past I've had both hips, both knees & both elbows replaced and also just recently found out that I can have both shoulders replaced with the "reverse" method. To complicate things, the shoulders cannot wait too long as there is hardly any bone left to work with .... and ... the spine surgeon is concerned that I may fall or have an accident which could jar/damage my spinal cord because of the lack of stability in my neck as it is now!!

My surgeons are all at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN so we are talking about some of the best in the world .... at least that is some comfort!

I'm quite worried about the spinal fusion surgery from the research that I've done so far (some youtube videos have been very informative) and am hoping that some of you have had this surgery or know someone who has. What was the surgery like? How painful was the recovery? How long was the recovery? How many of the C-Spine joints are fused? If all of them are fused, do you have any up & down movement left after surgery? Do you have much side to side movement? Did they operate from the front or back? Anything else you can tell me?

Also ... I'm sure this would be quite rare but have any of you also had shoulders replaced before or after spinal fusion? I cannot decide which to do 1st as I have such limited movement in my shoulders .... it will be hard to reach my head if it is fused!

Any help is greatly appreciated!! I need to make this decision soon so I can make the appointments & get started with the surgeries. Thank you Q friends!