Bell good luck with your surgery tomorrow.
My first surgery was an ACDF for C4 thru C7. I hadn' t asked many questions as it was all a kind of shock that i was having that type of surgery at all. Now i am quite familiar with the process. THat was in fact the easiest of my 9 spine surgeries. Just remember to follow your doctors instructions for recovery, take pain meds on time every time so you are not trying to catch up. The hard collar will protect you pretty good.
When i had that surgery, I woke up with a soft collar, my surgeon said i was so stabalized he didn't think the hard one was necessary. I have since broke my neck under different circumstances and been in a hard collar for over a year and still feel like i miss it. So you will get used to that too.
I did have one thing different though, i did not have the hip bone graft. I had the cages with the bone morphonogenic protein. I have heard that the hip part of the pain can be significant. Just make sure they give you enough pain meds.
Any more questions tonight i will check this site and try to help you
judy
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2007 ACDF 4-7
2008 hip , knee scope, hip replacement
2009 thoracic T-5 thru T-11fusion
2009 VATS T7-8, posterior only T11-12. removal of thoracic hard wear
2010 lung surgery
2010 T2-L2 kyphosis correction
2010 Kyphoplasty T-3, T-4
2011 Cervical osteotomy ,revision C4-T5
2011 Foot surgery
2011 Revision fusion T7 thru L4/laminectomy
2012 Hammertoe correction left foot
2012 Revision fusion T-12 thru L5
2012 Revision fusion L4-L5
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