Question
I had surgery on my neck april 18 2007. It was a c4 c5 fusion. It has been a month and I am still in a fair amount of pain. The reason for my surgery was a pinched nerve that left my left arm worthless. I am a healthy 32 year old man. Except lower back pain and the neck pain. When he did the surgery he said I had major bone spurs also which he removed also. None of this showed up on a mri, myleogram, or x-ray. My Dr said I should be fine now but I am not. My neck and shoulder still hurts, I can tell the nerve is no longer pinched. Its not sore it hurts. My lower back feels like there are bones grinding together. My question is 1 should I still be in pain 2 Is it possible that I have bone spurs in my lower back that are also not showing up on any of my other films. I have had about 6 films of my lower back and they say mild deteriation. I am not crazy my back really hurts, I can move wrong or even sneeze and I am out of action for days with lower back pain.  

Answer
Hi Neal,
There is much to your question so I'll try and answer things in succession.

First, bone spurs ALWAYS show up on X-ray, why your doctor told you otherwise is a lie.

It's only been a month so you will have pain, in fact, many people after fusion in the neck or low back unfortunately end up on pain killers their whole life.

At least you sound like a candidate for surgery, most are done unnecessarily. If you lost control of your upper extremity, surgery is usually indicated.

As for your back, nip it in the bud early before it gets to a point where you are out of options. Start taking glucosamine sulfate/MSM 3grams a day with regular Chiropractic manipulations and ultrasound treatments. This will accomplish many things, first it will enable your body to regenerate the lost cartilage on the articular surfaces of the joints that are in your low back and elsewhere, second it will free up your range of motion and enable your nervous system to work properly and third the ultrasound will break up any exogenous bony growth that precipitate spurring while increasing the blood supply to avascular areas. It will also force the G.S./MSM into the areas that needs it most, basically it speeds up the healing process.

You cannot have this done over the fusion if there is metal left behind but you can have it done on areas elsewhere.

I really feel bad for you that you had to undergo such a drastic but necessary procedure, lets just hope the out patient care is good and you get more than two opinions from doctors outside the area. This avoids any conflict of interest from happening. As you progress and you have questions, feel free to contact me and I will give you a straight and unbiased opinion on the best course of action you should take.

When you sneeze and you feel a sharp stabbing pain in your back, it probably also goes down your leg. If this is the case, get an MRI, you have a herniated disc at L5/S1 or higher. This can be fixed without surgery, if you need to know how, let me know.

I hope things go better for you in the near future!
Dr. Timothy K. Durnin
drs.chiroweb.com