Question
I am a 46 yr old male and about 7yrs ago I went to the doctor because I was having neck pain. After having an MRI I was told that I had a herniated disc that was pressing on my spinal cord. I was told that it was C-5 and C-6. My doctor told me to take ibuprofen (Advil) and I had physcial therapy for about 8 weeks, twice a week. This took care of the pain and I was pain free for the next two years.  

After about two years I started having neck pain again but this time I was also having pain going down my right arm. I went to the doctor again and he told me to take ibuprofen again (Advil)and sent me for more physical therapy. This time those things did not totally remove the pain but they did take some of it away and since I did not want surgery I just accepted it.

About one year ago the pain in my neck and going down my right arm had become unbearable even if I took ibuprofen. My doctor gave me  medicine called "Lyrica" but it did not relieve the pain at all. He then gave me a medicine called "Hydrocone". This took care of the pain but I could barely function at work and my doctor told me that he could not prescribe it for me for a long period of time. I took it for about one month and then decided to have discetomy and fusion surgery with an attachment because I basically had not other options to remove the pain, which was very bad.

I had the surgery on April 1, 2009 and after about two weeks the pain was gone but to my surprise it came back and has been just as bad as it was before I had the surgery. My doctor gave me a medicine called "Tramadol 50 HCL", which he had me taking shortly before the surgery. He has me taking it 3 times a day. If I do not take it at this rate the pain returns. He said that the pain may be here because the nerves are still very sensitive from me just having surgery and that the pain could last for 6 to 12 months because it takes people differnt amounts of time to heal. He also said that since I had the herniated disc for so long before surgery perhaps permanent nerve damage occurred. He said that he wants me to go to physical therapy and wants me to have an xray of my neck to see if the fusion took although he said that he thinks it did. What is your opinion as to why I am still having pain in my neck and going down my right arm after having surgery on 4/1/09 and how long it will last?

I am sorry for the length of this question I just wanted you to have my history so you would have all of the information that you may have needed.

Murphy  

Answer
Wow, awesome question.

Sorry about the history, that doesn't sound like much fun at all.  I know you gave me a long history, but please tell me if the MRI showed only one herniation?   Let's start there.  Have you had a follow up MRI after the fusion?

Tramadol is used for severe nerve pain. I agree with your doc, you should give the surgery some time.  As to whether the surgery caused this, I have no idea.  It may be that you had multiple herniations in your neck.  Don't think by a long shot I'm done with your answer... I'm going to keep asking questions to get to the bottom of this.