back to work to early ?

[silverbuderfly]

I had cervical fusion Dec 07, the surgeon sent me back to work after five weeks, now I'm in pain all over again, did he send me back to early? Does any know if you can herniate the disk again after its been fused. I'm going for another MRI may 22 ?

[Bad Boy Bad Boy]

All depends on the type work sent back to. No you can not re-herniate a fused Disc, for the Disc was removed to become fused.

[stiffnecked]

How about a CT scan to see if the bone is actually fusing??

[1171]

those are medical questions best determined by a doctor.
bone is fused; disc is not. so yes if the disc is still intact then it can rupture.
again, these are medical questions best answered by a doctor.

[lfoster21]

My Dr. was able to look for a fusion by dong an X-ray. However, even though there is usually a white film where the vertabraes were fused, My Dr. did say that there are times that the X-ray looks like a non fusion and when he has opened the person back up..there was a good fusion set. So, there is no 100% way to know that you are fused, but and X-ray is one way to look for a fusion.

You can injure the discs above or below the fusion, that happened to me. A Discogram found that out for me, but I would guess and MRI might be able to do that as well.

Make an appt. to see your Dr. and if he thinks you need longer healing time, he can always say that you need more time off.

Good luck.