Neck pain and disc herniation surgery. ACDF and disc replacement. 

Yes. I had a perfect surgery (C3-C4 ACDF) that caused intractable pain that is now going on for 7 months and is only responding to opioids which I didn't need before but now I am rudely denied them. It made my life a lot worse and now I have a new hernia almost as big as the first 2 levels down. Each level that is fused multiplies the risk of needing another fusion for adjacent disc herniations.

@@Sketch1994 oh dear i am so sorry to hear you are suffering in pain too! I have read about just what you describe. Ask if you can have slow release buprenorphine patches. They may agree to you having them. I hope you get some peace from it. You have my best wishes and thanks for replying. I will certainly learn from your experience. Please take care! Xx Unfortuately people who don't know the level of pain we are in dictate our treatment. Please keep intouch & take care

@@Mrsq93 In my country only the glorified social service workers at opioid maintenance treatment facilities are allowed to handle buprenorphine and methadone and despite not having any brand on the market they went out of their way to make prescribing these illegal in a separate paragraph of the law that was added. Also bupe is not particularly effective for most kinds of pain on many people (Methadone is far superior in terms of pain relief but still not ideal for everyone) and the dependence and withdrawal is horendus. If doctors don't find me a way to manage my pain within 6 more months (feels too long but it could even be too short to expect any change while days and weeks fly by without actually doing anything...I am glad pain at least acts as an amnesic) I will seriously consider the street route and then I might even get to try the patch...It's just overhyped, overglorified and oversensationalized morphine since heroin is a prodrug to morphine (by itself it has no opioid activity) and the effects are completely identical except the faster onset of IV heroin compared to IV morphine which gives the rush addicts crave...I am deadly uncomfortable around needles and was cringing during my whole stay in the hospital as they ignored the doctor's orders to switch me to oral medication (and then was the fatman nurseguy who forced half a bag of antibiotics through my by that time collapsed vein...I was asking him to at least change it for at least 3 hours before that and now I am 3 times more uncomfortable against getting pierced with anything) PS: Thanks for the suggestion though. I wish you the best whatever course you chose! It's hard not to rush but if have the slightest chance of recovery without surgery strive for it (the level right next to my fusion had a much smaller ~3mm hernia that is now completely absorbed and unfortunately makes me keep thinking I could have avoided surgery if I hadn't put my trust on people who had no interest in me...don't trust doctors that say hernias can't get absorbed (they are dead wrong) and avoid NSAIDs as much as possible (they inhibit inflamation but healing as well).

@@Sketch1994 oh my goodness what a horrific time time you have had. I must admit i have struggled with pain noe for 5 years and some days i want to end it all. But i have children and they keep alive. Thank you for your advice. I didnt know that about buprenorphine or morphine. I am on both plus gabapentin. Do they cause them not to heal? Oh my God has it been prolonging it? Is that true have i understood you correctly?

@@Mrsq93 Inflamation is the body's way of speeding up healing. The swelling allows for faster flow of nutrients on the area but it also causes pain when it happens near a nerve and it feeds the cycle further. If you ever feel radiating nerve pain from nerve pressure it's a good indication that NSAIDs have to be employed because reducing inflamation can reduce nerve pressure and maybe even stop the progression of inflamation. If the inflamation cycle doesn't break though and the pain keeps coming back NSAIDs will delay a longer term healing process. That's why NSAIDs are contraindicated for broken bones and immediately after surgery. Before I was forced to have a surgery though NSAIDs had put my radiating nerve pain in a remission and it was almost completely controlled with IV Tylenol in the week before the surgery.