Cervical fusion recovery stories?

I'm getting a C5/6 discectomy and fusion. My doctor told me I won't be able to climb or train except for simple shit for 6 months. I'm 45 yo. 

Does anyone have any experience with recovery times here, that sounds excessive. Most fractures take 6-12 weeks to heal. Why would this be any different? 

I broke every metatarsal in both feet once and was climbing hard trad in 3m (it did hurt like a MF!) with no consequences, although I was only 28 yo. And I had carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve transposition 2 years ago at 43yo and was climbing in 2 months. My 11 yo beagle had this cervical surgery done and was backpacking 10 miles a day with me in 2 months, and again (different level) at 13yo and backpacking with me in only 1 month. (FYI UC David animal hospital is the shit! Even if you live far away I'd recc going there for anything serious).

Thanks,

Mike

I had a c3-c5 fusion two years ago. That's two discs removed and fused.  I was 60 at the time.  My doctors orders were the same as yours.  IIROC I waited two months to climb again, but I kept it really mild and made sure not to fall at all.  I climbed regularly after 3 months.  I was probably lucky to get away with as much as I did.  

I wasn't supposed to lift over 15 pounds for the first 3 months.  I lifted 80 pounds after 4 weeks and 120 after 12 weeks.  These were one-time occurrences.  I would be a little more careful If I were to be in a similar situation again.

The neck is doing really well.  I have lost about 20% - 30% in range of motion.

Jordan Day wrote:

I had a c3-c5 fusion two years ago. That's two discs removed and fused.  I was 60 at the time.  My doctors orders were the same as yours.  IIROC I waited two months to climb again, but I kept it really mild and made sure not to fall at all.  I climbed regularly after 3 months.  I was probably lucky to get away with as much as I did.  

I wasn't supposed to lift over 15 pounds for the first 3 months.  I lifted 80 pounds after 4 weeks and 120 after 12 weeks.  These were one-time occurrences.  I would be a little more careful If I were to be in a similar situation again.

The neck is doing really well.  I have lost about 20% - 30% in range of motion.

Thanks for sharing, kinda what I figured, I'll be careful!

Don't do anything stupid till you have evidence that the fusion has taken. After that you can start to open up your activity level, but at 45 it is time for you to start playing long ball my friend. I am 62 and still getting better, though it takes lots of work. The point is takeing the time to heal and then working hard on your recovery is the path to longevity.

Rehab OT here..  

6 mo bc your vertebra, spinal cord, and all surrounding tissue need time to not only heal, but adapt.  

Risk of reinjury with serious life-long consequences is high. With a bad fall, whip, or even just a weird/spicy reach on a crimp or slopper, you could easily paralyze your self or cause long term nerve damage. C-spine is vastly different than toes or a dog’s spine.

Find a good PT to help you recover & get complimentary body work to deal with scar tissue (my top recs are Barnes-style myofascial release & acupuncture).

Look up c5/6 partial/complete spinal cord injuries  and ask your self if it’s worth the risk vs waiting 6 months, taking it slow, rehabbing, and coming back to climbing stronger, safer, and smarter.

Ok fiiiiine I'll be careful! Thanks for the responses/warnings 

 Noel, I’m having it done Nov 7. I’m going to look forward to having this time during recovery to work on my core, low back, shoulders, and cardio. I’m ADD with my climbing so never got good at one particular aspect.  But every injury and surgery I’ve had has made my technique improve significantly, so if I ever actually did train or focus I’d probably be pretty good. So I’m hopeful to strengthen my foundations and come back a better climber. As long as I can climb in the 10 to easy 11 range there’s a universe of awesome climbs to get on later, and I 100% plan on doing them when I’m let loose after rehab. There are hundreds of really hard climbers with much worse disabilities so I’d be a bit more optimistic about your climbing future.

Noel Z wrote:

I'm 47 and will have to have C4-C6 fused, the cause is degeneration and bone spores causing numbness. I've been trying to treat it non-surgically, but it's not working. Surgery is no longer avoidable. Post operation, it is my plan not to climb until there is confirmation that fusion has actually happened, usually in the form of an x-ray. I don't care how long it takes. I am sadly aware that the fusion is a stiffening so it will cause other areas of my spine to work harder. So, the operation fixes a problem (short and medium term pain free) while causing a problem in the long-term by speeding up the degeneration of other sections of the spine. If I climb hard, then I'm risking problem with other areas. It's a sad truth. I still want to return to climbing, but climbing the way I did is over, forever. Hard sport climbing, over. Bouldering, over. Trad and alpine are okay, but I may chose to never lead redpoint or onsight. Everyone is different though and it's your body. 

Have you had your surgery? If yes, how is your recovery and your outlook?  

How old were you first start having neck issues? How long did it take before you really started to address it? I’m 34, I’ve been dealing with my own compressed nerves in the C5/6 region for the past couple years. I’m finally starting to make a little headway, which has greatly improved my daily quality of life, but I want no part of this demon. There’s nothing quite like the inability to exist without extreme pain for months and years, and the mental toll that takes. It’ll change a person. Do you have any advice for someone on the front end?

Hi! Best of luck with your surgery! I’m curious to know at what point did you decide to have surgery. Earlier this year I had some headache dizziness issues and the only thing they found was a messed up cervical spine with a 3 level fusion needed if pain ever gets too bad. Well of course I kept climbing once head issues were gone… but now the numbness tingling and pain in left arm is pretty bad.  I decided to take some time off to try and calm it down… and then try to train and climb  in a way that doesn’t irritate it.  Is that even possible?!!  Thanks for reading…I don’t want to get a fusion but I don’t want to stop climbing either!!!!

Thanks

Eileen 

I’ve had off on neck spams for years and this year the pain switched to a constant dull ache, then daily headache. Then my arm started going numb at the end of the day. Then I started missing work and stoped exercising completely. After I used up all my PTO on “sick days” I felt it was time. I’ve only needed ibuprofen or a good crack, but after awhile my chiropractor couldn’t do any more and it started to make it worse. It’s never been severe. Also some days it doesn’t bother me at all and I start to second guess my decision but inevitably the next morning or so I feel like shit.

I went through the same stages with carpal tunnel surgery and ulnar nerve transposition two years ago. So glad I got those fixed or else my arm would probably be dead.

Thanks Michael for your story. I just went to my pmr Dr and he said it’s time to make a choice… do I want to have surgery so I can continue to climb or do I stop climbing. Climbing is my life.  But Im so afraid of having the surgery. :(

Thanks for sharing, sorry to hear about your challenges ahead. As climbers we can be so dedicated to a goal that healing can definitely happen if we change how we look at pain. We spend our lives pushing through pain, ignoring injuries to our limbs and talking about where where we need to improve in strength and flexibility, but we don’t talk enough about spine health. It’s a completely different beast than any other part of the body. It will absolutely shut a person down from any hope or dream of living a physically active life, and then it’ll ruin the ability to earn a paycheck. It’ll even challenge friendships when you start seeing the world differently and lose what you once had in common. My own situation has changed my perspective on a lot of things. I’m young enough that I could be a decade into the healing process and still capable of enjoying climbing for years, but my brain may not allow me to enjoy it with everything that I’ve been through. I have to push that thought aside though, because priority #1 is get out of pain. Can’t do anything without doing that first. Perhaps a year or two without pain will change my perspective again.

I’m not getting an artificial disc due to possibility of it ejecting into my spinal cord on the event of a bad spill

No, he recommended it

M L wrote:

No, he recommended it

Based on what?  Red flag for me is when docs sometimes recommend against procedures they are bad at, but they still want your $$$ so they recommend a procedure where they haven’t killed anyone yet.  Older docs = more likely to want to do things the old and familiar way.  Lots of data on artificial disks at this point and adjacent disk degradation post fusion is real and likely - also lots of data on that.  Artificial disks are relatively new.  Docs make a ton of money on procedures like this, so getting a second opinion might be wise - but within a region they all know each other and will never say anything contrary to another, so GFL with all of that.

James W wrote:

Based on what?  Red flag for me is when docs sometimes recommend against procedures they are bad at, but they still want your $$$ so they recommend a procedure where they haven’t killed anyone yet.  Older docs = more likely to want to do things the old and familiar way.  Lots of data on artificial disks at this point and adjacent disk degradation post fusion is real and likely - also lots of data on that.  Artificial disks are relatively new.  Docs make a ton of money on procedures like this, so getting a second opinion might be wise - but within a region they all know each other and will never say anything contrary to another, so GFL with all of that.

To that note: here’s a bit about a doctor / hospital kickback program where the hospital was paying doctors for surgery referrals. I can’t imagine that would result in doctors recommending surgery pre-maturely, right??

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/surgeon-pleads-guilty-federal-charge-accepting-33-million-illicit-payments-perform

My doc normally does artificial discs and he’s a peer (I’m primary care) so I doubt he has anything but my best interest at heart 

All I know is a fusion is totally bombproof (after recovery). The only patients I’ve had get multiple have severe multilevel stenosis and my dog had to get a second a year later. I don’t usually get into how rehab is going, but again have never referred for a second 15 years in practice and seeing mostly geriatric as PCP.

I am curious why your surgeon said that long term stress to other areas is hypothetical. Adjacent segment disease is a post surgical clinical concern (at least in the USA).
I would have to research this a bit for up to date numbers. but off the top of my head I think it experienced by 1-3% of patients who have had ACDF.

This thread is a bit of an interesting read for me since it is coming more from the degenerative conditions side rather than trauma… you guys definitely benefit from getting to do your homework.

But I shattered C1 paragliding in December and now C1C2 is fused. I’m back to more or less the low 12’s now after being in the mid/high 12’s before. Lots more focus on sport climbing now rather than big mountains, huge alpine missions etc.; generally it’s forced me to be more conservative. Which is fine, I had a great run and got away with so much without injury before and still get to walk around after.

What I guess I would definitely say in hindsight is that I wish the surgeon (who did a fantastic job with the surgery itself) would have done as equally a fantastic job of educating me. I had a chance to maybe avoid the fusion (which took place 8wks after the accident) but with the assumptions I made about a neck injury being like every other injury, I overdid it and won myself some screws. The fusion very likely would have happened anyways so I can’t be too harsh but what it taught me was the neck heals NOTHING like ordinary bones. A LOT more time and babying is recommended. Had I laid down for 6hrs more a day, not gone and walked a bunch on a hill, worn the collar tighter… who knows maybe I’d be rotating my head fully again instead of halfway for the rest of my life.

Hey Michael- you don’t know me but I love your book. I hope it all goes well:)