Cervical Neck Surgery

I bet you didn’t think you would find an article about Cervical Neck Surgery on a crafting website! This was NOT on my 2025 Bingo card of things to do! I know I typically share fun crafting tutorials here, but every once in a while something happens and I just have to put all of the information together to share it with others who might also be going through the same struggle.

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How It All Started

This all started back in November 2024.  I noticed that my thumb on my left hand was numb.  I thought that maybe I had just overdone things with too much crocheting and figured it would get better.  Then as time went on my wrist was sore, to the point I was wearing my carpal tunnel wrist brace on my left hand.  

After we got through the holidays the pain in my wrist got better but my thumb was still numb.  It would alternate between being numb and tingling.  I went into Tria and the doctor said it was carpal tunnel.  He made this diagnosis without even seeing me.  Someone else did the exam and just brought him the information.

Since I have had carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists in the past, and this felt totally different, so I did not go forward with this doctor.  Another few weeks went by and now I was getting numbness in my pointer finger on my left hand.  I made another appointment with someone else, and this second doctor agreed with me that it was not carpal tunnel.  She thought that it could be from an old injury when I fell off a chair and caught myself on my left hand.  That could have caused trauma/injury to my left wrist, elbow and shoulder which would be causing the pain.  She suggested we try a cortisone shot and then re-evaluating things.  

The next symptom that came on was pain in my shoulder and back.  The pain was so bad that I started going into see a massage therapist to work out the knots in my neck, shoulder and back.  By this time we were getting close to the time for a trip we had planned, and I told my husband that after we got back from that trip I was going to go to another doctor and get this figured out.

MRI Ordered and Results

For this next appointment I went into Twin Cities Orthopedic off of the recommendation of a family member.  I saw the same doctor that they saw for their wrist issues.  By now I was also having tightness in my left forearm.  I would describe it as feeling like I was always wearing a blood pressure cuff on my left arm. 

After examining my hands, wrist, arm strength and should movement this doctor said that this was not carpal tunnel and thought that it was coming from something in my neck.  This was the first time that the idea of cervical neck surgery became something that I was even thinking about. She ordered an MRI which showed not only was this all coming from my neck, but that I had several issues going on.

When we got the results of the MRI back I was hit with all kinds of words, some that I did not understand, but all of them sounded terrible.

• Disc degeneration
• Herniated disc
• Disc bulge
• Mild flattening of the spinal cord
• Spinal cord impingement

The list goes on and on! I have a copy of my MRI results below, and you can see the MRI of my neck in the main image of this article.

Luckily I have a very close friend who is a general surgeon and when I showed her the information below I knew that it was a good thing we caught this when we did. My friend even thought from just reading these results that I would need cervical neck surgery. She specifically mentioned SCDF surgery and that we find a spine surgeon to look at what is going on. This is when we made our appointment with Dr. Eric Deal.

Consultation with Orthopedic Spine Surgeon

From the moment I made the appointment for the consultation, I knew that cervical neck surgery was in my future, but at this time I did not fully grasp how intense of a surgery this would be. I was hoping to go in and see Dr Deal and have him say “we have to have cervical neck surgery but we can totally fix this” but I guess my case was in worse condition that I would have imagined. 

If you look at the image of my MRI below, you can actually see the spinal cord impingement. If you at the image of my spine below, you can see that there is a dark section that runs from the top of the image to the bottom. That dark section is my spine.

Now look at the white sections on either side of that dark center section. That is what should be protecting my spine. Those white areas should be pretty consistent from top to bottom. You can see on the left side of this image, the thickness of the white area at the top is similar to the thickness of the white area at the bottom. But look at what is going on in the middle!

One of the questions we did ask was if the spinal cord impingement continued or got worse, what could happen. The doctor said that if we did nothing it would just keep getting worse and that could lead to eventually loss of feeling in my entire arm, then other parts of my body.  I guess people who have this would eventually end up needing to use a walker or even in a wheelchair. 

I freaked out!  Why didn’t I go to the doctor sooner!  We could have caught this and fixed it!  But then again, the doctor said that with this type of degeneration a patient could plateau and then suddenly take a big drop or change in their condition.  Then they could stay at that same plateau for years and years.  So really, I could have been in a place where we could have caught this for years, then back in November was when I dropped down to the next level in the progression.

So going into this, the doctor said that the goal of the cervical neck surgery was to stop the progression of the degeneration.  That was hard to hear that the goal was just to make sure this does not get worse, not to reverse what has already happened.  In my head I heard that I might never get feeling back in my thumb and first finger.

The worst part of all of this was probably waiting from the time I was told I would need surgery to the actual cervical neck surgery date.  I am the type of person that will go through the worst case scenario over and over in my head.   

That is when I started to prepare for surgery.  I started turning down opportunities for collaborations, doing new product reviews, and presenting in upcoming summits because I knew that I would not have the time or energy for anything other that getting physically and mentally prepared for surgery and recovery.

One of the things I did to prepare was to make sure we were stocked up on pudding, ice cream and other soft foods as we were told that my throat could be sore and swallowing could be uncomfortable after surgery. I also purchased a shirt that buttons up the front as well as a pair of pajamas that button up the front. These were to limit the need to pull a shirt over my head while wearing the brace.

Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion or ACDF

The type of surgery I would be having is called Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion

• Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF):.This involves making an incision in the front of the neck to remove a damaged or herniated disc and fuse the vertebrae with a bone graft and often a plate and screws. 

Surgery was August 12th, 2025 and I was so impressed with the entire team at Twin Cities Orthopedic!  Huge shout out to Kirsten who put in my IV. I am a huge baby when it comes to IV’s and I did not even feel this one go in.

The entire staff was great. They had seen that I my overnight bag was a Mickey Mouse bag, so the person who was pushing me said that this little ride would be just like being in a Disney parade. When I woke up in the recovery room I really was expecting to be in a huge amount of pain, but to my surprise I was not.  Again, the staff was great about making sure I was comfortable and my husband was well informed about everything along the way.

I said to my husband that it was not as bad as I thought it would be. At that time I did not feel any pain. The only downside was that my thumb and finger were still numb. Otherwise I felt totally normal. I was even up and walking with the help of a walker later that evening!

I did not sleep much that first nigh because the machine that was monitoring my oxygen would start beeping every time I would start to drift into a deep sleep.  I should mention I have a sleep apnea so what the machine was picking up was due to that.  So for the entire night I would drift off and when my body was going into deep sleep and I would have a moment of shallow breathing the machine would beep and wake me up.

I was able to go home the next day. I was still feeling really good. The only hard part was sleeping. I could not find a comfortable position. When I tried to lay down in bed, like I had practiced the day I was fitted for my brace. Every time my head would hit the pillow I just felt so much pain and pressure.

We ended up going back into the clinic to have someone look at my neck brace. It was just not comfortable! I felt like I was in pain no matter what way I would sit or lay down. What was discovered was there was one of the pads on the brace was actually flipped inward and not covering the brace at all. This was on the right side, at the back of my head. Every time I tried to lay down, the hard plastic of the brace was just pushing into the back of my head. My husband didn’t notice this because my hair was covering it.

Cervical Neck Surgery Recovery

What I did not expect from ACDF surgery was that when I did start feeling pain, it was in the side of my neck and then run down my collarbone area and into my shoulder.  I was thinking the pain would be in my neck where the incision was.  I was told that this pain is normal and is most likely due to muscle strain. It really did feel like I just slept wrong and had a stiff neck.

Below are some things I would recommend if you will be having any sort of cervical neck surgery. I have even included links to items on Amazon to make shopping easy for you.

Some things I would recommend to help make cervical neck surgery recovery easier would be a couple of ice packs. I would put these on my shoulder when the pain got too bad. It was also nice to have more than one so that one could be in the freezer while the other one was on my neck.

When I finally was able to get comfortable, it was in a reclined position on the couch, but I knew I did not want to be sleeping on the couch for the next 6 weeks so we needed to find a solution. This wedge pillow was a game changer!

Showering after a cervical neck surgery is more challenging. I am allowed to take off my neck brace but I have to keep my head perfectly still while in the shower. Do you know how hard it is to NOT tilt your head back when water is going down your face? The nurse at the hospital suggested we get some sort of bathing accessory so I could wash my legs/feet without the need to bend. We got a sponge that is attached to a long handle. We also picked up some extra large waterproof bandages to cover the incision.

What I Learned from Having ACDF Surgery

My biggest take aways from this whole journey was to listen to your body and really stand up for yourself! I knew something was wrong and from the beginning when that first doctor suggested that this was carpal tunnel coming back. I knew that was not the answer. I had to really push and go in to see other doctors. I didn’t know that it would something as major as herniated and bulging discs, spinal cord impingement and needing to have three sections of my spine fused, but I knew it was more than just carpal tunnel coming back.

I will continue to update this post as my story continues. I hope that the next update is letting all of you know the date that I was able to get feeling back in my thumb and finger on my left hand, and that I am back to crafting!

Cervical Neck Surgery Update

At my six week post surgery check up the doctors told me that they wanted me to wear my neck brace for another six weeks.  Additionally, I still have not regained feeling in my thumb and first finger on my left hand.

At my 12 week post cervical neck surgery check up they said that I do not have to use my neck brace anymore! I am working on getting full rotation back in my neck and the physical therapy is helping with this a lot.

I still do not have full feeling in my thumb or first finger, but the doctor gave me some medication to try and stimulate nerve growth/repair.  The physical therapist gave me some stretches to do to try and help that also.  The doctors said it could take 6 months to a year for feeling to come back.  If I get to a year with no feeling that is when I need to accept that things were too damaged and I will never get feeling back.