Medical Story
I am a patient of cervical spondylosis in Qinhuangdao, and I belong to the category of acute onset of serious illness. in early October 2015, I had pain in my left scapula, and at first I did not care about it, thinking that I was cold and windy, so I sought medical advice and took measures such as putting on rheumatic ointment, acupuncture, massage, fumigation, and small acupuncture, etc. for half a month, but my condition was not reduced, and it was getting worse. painkillers and painkilling injections could not stop the pain, and I could not sleep all night. The pain belonged to the burning pain, which was constant, so I was urgently arranged to be hospitalized, and a treatment plan was made overnight. I was diagnosed with a cervical disc herniation, which compressed the nerve and caused the scapular muscle spasm. The hospital took measures such as infusion and physiotherapy to treat it. At first, I thought that the condition would be relieved by infusion of anti-inflammatory drugs for a few days, but what I never expected was that by the fourth day, the pain in the pectoralis major muscle also started, and the pain was even more intense and unbearable. After two more days of treatment, the symptoms did not subside. The doctor later diagnosed it as neurogenic cervical spondylosis, mainly due to a huge protrusion of the left side of the cervical 7-thoracic 1 intervertebral disc, causing pressure on the nerve roots and edema of the nerve roots, resulting in the current symptoms.
I underwent surgery on October 26th. It took four and a half hours from 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. to leave the operating room. From the time I woke up at 11:30am my pain was gone without a trace.
Post-discharge notes
Day 4 after surgery
I was discharged from the hospital on October 29th and arrived home at 5:00 pm. I took the medication for nerve maintenance, anti-inflammatory and spasm relief on time, my two little fingers are still numb, my scapula and forehead do not hurt, and I sleep well at night.
The fifth day after surgery
On October 30, I took medication for meals on time, my fingers were numb, and I had pain in my scapula in the afternoon, which was stopped by taking painkillers, and I slept normally at night.
The sixth day after surgery
On the 31st day, I took medication on time, my fingers were numb, I had burning pain in my left scapula in the evening, I took painkillers to stop the pain.
Took medication on time at night, symptoms were numbness in the two small fingers of the left hand, numbness in the left arm, burning pain in the left scapular muscles, added Xilapro, sleep was okay, just sweating a lot. In the morning, I woke up with numbness in my left hand and left arm, and burning pain in my scapula.
Day 7 after surgery
On the seventh day after surgery, at eleven o’clock in the morning, the fingers of my left hand were numb, and my left arm was numb and slightly painful when I straightened it, and my scapular muscles were slightly painful. Lying flat for two hours in the morning, walking around the house a few times, no work.
Took medication on time, numbness in fingers, no pain in scapula and chest, tight throat, phlegm, afraid to cough, pain at cervical vertebrae from coughing.
At 7:00 p.m., I took my medication on time and moved around for 20 minutes in the afternoon, holding a ball, stretching my arm, walking around, my left arm and fingers were numb and slightly painful, my scapula occasionally hurt, and I felt tired.
Seven days after the operation, except for the numbness of the left arm and fingers, occasionally the muscle pain in the upper part of the left scapula once, I took Xilab to relieve the pain and the pain disappeared.
Day 8 after surgery
On the eighth day after surgery, at 1:20 a.m., I woke up due to pain in my left scapula and took Cilazol for worsening pain and rested flat on my back. At this time, the fingers and arm of my left hand were still numb. In addition, in the past two days, there was a muscle pain in the left calf, and I rubbed it myself, but the pain was not relieved and I could bear it! This muscle is an old injury left by sports many years ago, spasmodic pain when cool, the pain is not sure if it is cool or related to the cervical spine, I am still slowly experiencing, and keep track of the condition.
In the morning, I woke up with numbness in the fingers of my left hand, numbness in my arm was not obvious, and pain in my left scapula.
In the morning, I went to the hospital to change the medication, the wound was healing well and there was no more pain. Went out and walked for half an hour, and walked four flights of stairs, came home with some dizziness, analysis may be related to the fact that there has been no exercise for several days, and today suddenly exercise. After lunch, I took a nap and the dizziness disappeared. At 3:30 p.m., I felt pain in my left scapula, which was not heavy and could be tolerated. The two small fingers of my left hand were numb and I could not move them well, and I felt numbness in my left arm when I stretched it, but I did not stretch it. Continue to insist on light walking and moderate exercise.
Postoperative day 9
On the ninth day after surgery, no pain in scapula and arm and fingers, numbness in arm extension and numbness in fingers.
I took my medication on time. In the early morning, I started to feel pain in my left scapula, soreness, not heavy, cold and numbness in my left arm, cold and numbness in my left fingers and back of my hand, I kneaded them myself, but I did not see any relief, the room temperature was 18 degrees. In general, the symptoms are obvious at night and lessened during the day. There is also a muscle in the lower part of the calf, the size of an egg, for three consecutive days of pain, kneading many times without relief, the symptoms are more obvious in the cool of the day, this symptom has appeared many times before, are not concerned, are active activities, kneading, symptoms slowly disappear. This time, the pain is still persistent, so I intend to rub it with a medicine that relaxes the tendons and activates the blood.
In the afternoon, I felt that the numbness in my left arm and fingers was reduced, and occasionally I felt pain in my scapula, which was not heavy.
In the evening, I felt significantly better, no pain in my scapula, and the numbness in my left arm was reduced.
Day 10 after surgery
On the tenth day after surgery, I woke up at two o’clock in the morning and felt that my condition had rebounded. I don’t know if my left scapula was cold from sleeping or if it had been pressed for a long time, but I had pain, which was heavier than the pain of the previous days, and I could bear it, and my left arm was numb, but I could stretch it, and my left hand was numb, which was less serious than the numbness of the previous days. The cervical spine surgery site usually does not move anymore, but I feel pain when I turn over, the pain is not too bad, and the pain disappears when I turn over. The surgical wound is basically healed, no pressure is not felt, and there is a slight pain when pressed by hand, which is not much different from the place where there is no wound. Since I had not taken a shower for twelve days since I was hospitalized, my body had composted and I wanted to take a shower.
I woke up at five o’clock, lying in bed, and the pain in my left scapula was relieved, and my left arm was still a little numb, not heavy, and my left hand was numb. And these days after surgery, feel left arm, cold, rubbing with the right hand, the improvement is not obvious.
09:27, the room temperature rose to 23 degrees, feeling warmer, morning activities although some pain, but the pain is not strong, numbness is not heavy. I don’t dare to lower my head casually, it’s hard to lower my cervical spine, so I pay attention to slow action. I felt sleepy after a while because I was holding a cell phone in my left hand for sending microcredit.
At 14:34, I felt that the wound was almost ready, so I simply took a shower. After the shower, I felt fine, my hand numbness was lighter than before, my scapula did not hurt when I did not move, and I felt pain when I held it up, it was not heavy, and I felt lighter and lighter.
On the tenth day after the operation, at 6:00 pm, I took the medicine for nerve maintenance, spasm relief and anti-inflammation on time, and I had occasional pain in my left scapula, but it was fine. Now I try to stretch my arm and move my head, basically I am free, but I need to move slowly, I can’t move rapidly and I don’t dare to move drastically, I can try to do some housework, but I try to squat as little as possible.
On the tenth day after surgery, at ten o’clock at night, I tried to move around, walking around indoors, probably walking more, legs and knees are sore and sleepy, stretching the arm forward or up, as long as the straight extension are not difficult, only when the side extension should be careful not to touch which nerve, worry about causing muscle pain. Today, when I leaned on the sofa, I had scapular pain when I got up on my side.
Day 11 after surgery
On the eleventh day after surgery, I took my medication on time, three kinds of medication for anti-inflammation, nerve spasm relief, and nerve nutrition, and I finished the medication prescribed in the hospital and got two more boxes. The reason for continuing to take the medication is that the scapula still hurts sometimes, and the fingers and arm of my left hand are still numb. When I woke up at 4:00 a.m., I had a condition, because the main symptom was on the left side at the onset, so I have been on the right side for ten days after surgery, and I propped up with my right hand, and when I propped up with my right hand, I had pain in my right scapula from ten days after surgery, which was quite painful and could be tolerated, and the pain slowly disappeared after I propped up. Today, when I sat up, the left scapular muscle now had spasmodic pain, very painful, and the elbow of my left arm was like a cramp, both numb and painful, for about two minutes, the scapular spasmodic pain slowly reduced, and the elbow cramp gradually lifted. When I got up to go to the toilet to relieve myself, I came back from the toilet and sat on the edge of the bed, and the spasmodic pain in my left scapula appeared again. The pain subsided after a while. After five minutes on the edge of the bed, I lay down and the pain disappeared quickly.
Last night, I leaned for two minutes while sitting on the sofa, and had severe pain in my cervical spine when I straightened up, and the pain disappeared after I straightened up.
On the eleventh day after the operation, I woke up at 6:15 a.m., lying in bed, and felt numbness in my hands and a vague pain in my left scapular muscle. Is there a symptom after reducing exercise. The pain in the scapular muscle is related to the cloudy sky.
On the eleventh postoperative day, at 8:00 pm, I took medicine to relieve spasm and nourish the nerve, the scapula no longer hurt, the left arm was basically not numb, the fingers of the left hand and the back of the hand were numb, and it was not flexible to move.
The twelfth day after surgery
On the twelfth day after surgery, I woke up at 2:00 a.m. to relieve my hand, got up on my side and sat on the side of the bed. The same symptoms that I had when I woke up in the early hours of yesterday appeared, namely, spasmodic pain in the left scapular muscle and cramp-like pain in the elbow of the left arm, but the symptoms were lighter than those of the previous day, and the left hand was numb.
Woke up at 6:00 am, felt numbness in hand when lying flat, arm up and heavy, scapular up, painful, not obvious. When I got up on my side, I felt pain in my scapula, pain in my arm, and numbness in my hand. Sitting for about three minutes, I got up and relieved my hand on my side, my scapula still hurt and my arm and hand went numb, but it slowly reduced. The pain in the scapula increased with force. Back to bed to lie down, fingers arm numbness, feel less, scapular pain gradually reduced, after a while no pain. The weather was not good, cooling down and raining lightly, the estimated outdoor temperature was four or five degrees above zero and the indoor temperature was 23.5 degrees.
I woke up at 8:00 am with scapular pain, numbness in my arm and numbness in my hand, which I could tolerate, the weather was bad and it was raining lightly.
For one day, taking medicine to relieve muscle spasm and nourish nerves on time, arm sinking, hand numbness, slight pain in left scapula. In the past two days, the symptoms are generally mild during the day and heavy at night.
At 23:20 on the twelfth postoperative day, I got up to relieve myself, got up on my side, sat on the edge of the bed for two minutes to stabilize myself, and felt pain in my left scapula and numbness in my arm and fingers. When I came back to lie down after relieving my hand, the pain in my scapula slowly subsided and my arm and fingers were still numb. However, I felt that the pain was less severe this time than in the early morning.
The thirteenth day after surgery
At 4:00 a.m. on the thirteenth postoperative day, lying flat on my back, I felt a sore and sleepy feeling in my cervical spine and my arms and fingers were numb.
When I returned from the surgery, I sat on the side of the bed for a while and felt pain in my scapula and pain in my elbow joint like cramps.
At 7:00 am, lying flat on my back, I had vague pain in my scapula, slight numbness in my elbow and numbness in my hand.
Try to move in the morning, feel good, no numbness or pain in the arm, no pain in the scapula, as long as the hand is still numb, but the symptoms are obviously reduced!
For a day, strengthening exercise, fingers still numb, arm basically no numbness and no pain, scapula occasionally pain, basically no pain. However, due to the long standing time, the number of times to lower the head, cervical spine has a sore and sleepy feeling. Personally, I don’t think I should over-exercise.
Post-operative day 14
On the fourteenth day after surgery, the sky was cloudy, my left hand was numb, but the numbness was reduced, my left arm felt numb and painful when I stretched it, and my scapula hurt occasionally, but not too often. When I tried to move around, I was basically comfortable with stretching, but I felt sore and sleepy in my cervical spine after standing for a long time. After feeling sore and sleepy, I lay down and rest for two to three minutes and feel less sore until I feel nothing.
The fifteenth day after surgery
On the fifteenth postoperative day, the sky was cloudy, and when I woke up in the morning, my left hand was numb and had cramping pain, which was light after five or six minutes.
Postoperative day sixteen
On the 16th postoperative day, I woke up in the morning with easy pain in the left scapula, sinking left arm, numbness in the left hand, no pain at the cervical vertebrae, but I did not dare to move my head down freely, and the symptoms were relieved after a while. I took a shower for the second time after surgery, my arm was not handy, my daughter-in-law helped me rub my back.
I eat and drink normally, I have occasional pain in my scapula, it is mild, my left arm is heavy, I feel tight and painful when I stretch it, my left hand has three numb fingers and the lower part of the back of my hand is numb, I can’t move easily and I can’t eat.
I insist on exercising, moving my fingers and stretching my arms, but the hand numbness is still there, my arm is numb and painful, my scapula is slightly painful, and my cervical spine is sore and sleepy after standing for a long time.