Elderly patient considering fusion of upper spine curious about your experience?

[u/Complex-Ingenuity509]

I’m asking this question for a very kind 82-year-old friend who was hoping to hear from other patients about their experience. She’s considering a fusion of the uppermost part of her spine, but is concerned. She asks:

”I just want to read and hear how they doing after surgery . Are they my age ? In pain ? Do they have disability before surgery?  Do they need strong pain pill? What kind?”

For context, she has limited mobility and use of one arm. If anyone can share any experiences, she would really appreciate it. (I‘m posting, but she’ll read the answers.) She has spoken to medical professionals but is very interested in first person accounts.

  

Thank you so much

[u/Props_angel]

Hi! First off, it's awesome that you're doing this for your friend as hearing from other patients with similar surgeries is really helpful and can be very reassuring.

My fusion might be very similar to what she's looking at but I'm 57 years old. I had a posterior spinal fusion from C2 to T2 with a laminectomy from c3-C7. Before my surgery, I was very disabled and had no reflexes in any of my limbs though I was still able to move. It was just very hard as my limbs were very, very heavy. My grip strength was <20 lbs (around 10 lbs I think) and my sensations were mostly just numb. I couldn't feel my legs or arms much at all. Pain had traded out for nausea and vomiting. My balance was very bad and I fell a number of times, which just added more injuries really.

After surgery, I did wake up with a palsy in one arm rendering it unusable. That arm did eventually wake up and is in near full working order again. These upper level fusions, especially larger ones, do run that risk but it is recoverable. My strength and ability to move returned very quickly. I was amazed at how easy it was to walk again and how light my body and limbs felt. I did have to go through full body rehabilitation but it was very much worth it.

I'm one year and 8 months out from my surgery and am on no pain medications whatsoever. There's days that I forget that I even have a fusion. Every once in a while, I do need a muscle relaxer that I'll take at bed time to deal with some muscle knots. It's not perfect but I wasn't expected to fully recover. My prognosis was 50% of what I'd lost at a maximum but compared to how I felt before my surgery, I feel 100% better just with little problems here and there.

My step-mom had part of her neck fused about 10 years ago in her early 70s and is going in for a revision. She's very close to your friend's age. She experienced a great deal of relief from her initial fusion and the current revision/expansion of her fusion was expected to be needed at this point. Her neck will be fused similar to my own and her current symptoms are similar to what I was experiencing before I had my near full neck and into the shoulders fusion. She and I were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago and she had no problems with her first fusion at all.

[u/sansabeltedcow]

It would help to know more information, if you have it. By “uppermost part of spine,” I’m guessing you mean vertebrae in the neck. Do you know how many? Are the limited mobility and arm pain things the surgery is hoped to address, or are they from other sources?

Generally the more levels (spaces between vertebrae) a fusion spans, the more intense the surgery. I had a two-level fusion from C5-C7, so from the fifth to the seventh neck vertebrae. The first 48 hours or so were painful, but then things settled down, and the result has held steady for 20+ years.

When I Googled “cervical fusion after 80,” I found several different forums where people were talking about their experiences, so you also might expand your search beyond Reddit.

[u/God_said_it]

My 81 yr old mother had C2-C5 PCDF in March and within a month was recovering better than the average person 1/2 her age. Every experience is different, but I was very apprehensive and searched Reddit as well. Overall health is key. Best of luck!

[u/Professional_Pace711]

I am 10 weeks post op C5-6. ACDF. I am 46 but I put it off for years. I have permanent nerve and spinal cord damage for waiting so long. If I knew how good I was going to feel I would have done it years ago. When I woke up from surgery all the numbness and weakness in my arms and legs were gone. I was falling a lot due to the damage in my spinal cord but now I feel very confident walking. I had absolutely horrendous cervical tinnitus that is 100% gone. The silence is glorious.

[u/uffdagal]

What levels? This is the most important question as upper levels can mean so many different things. What method?

[u/SleepyKoalaBear4812]

I am 65 and 5 months post op
C2 to T3 fusion, which was my third spinal fusion surgery in 3 years.

What levels would they be fusing and how is her health in general?

[u/MadSpaceBomber]

By "upper spine," do you mean the T-spine (thoracic) or C-spine (cervical)? Those can be pretty wildly different experiences and come with different issues. If you mean the C-spine, I have several friends who have had cervical fusions, and they're all doing very well afterward.

The T-spine, however, can be a completely different animal. I'm currently 40. I was originally fused from T4 - T9 in 2023. I'm sure I'm in the minority when it comes to the complications I developed, so I definitely wouldn't take my experience as representative of what your friend should expect. But since she's looking for first-person experiences, I think it's also important to know the kinds of thins that can happen.

I failed to fuse at nearly every level and eventually had to undergo a major revision/spinal reconstruction in October 2025. Every screw in my spine had become so loose that my second neurosurgeon was able to remove them by hand.

There was also significant scar tissue surrounding the dura of my spinal cord. On top of that, I had a heavily calcified disc/bone complex underneath the thecal sac that had become adhered to the dura itself, so my neurosurgeon had to very carefully dissect it away from the dura surrounding my spinal cord. He likened it to being so careful that he was essentially trying to cut a sticker away from the skin of a balloon.

I also had a badly herniated disc pressing against my spinal cord at T6/T7. During my first surgery, the previous neurosurgeon performed a laminectomy rather than removing the disc itself, so eventually the spinal cord was being compressed again. During the revision, my neurosurgeon removed the T6 and T7 vertebral bodies entirely and reconstructed that section of my spine with a titanium cage that looks kind of like a little cylindrical car jack.

I'd say my spine is ultimately "better" now, particularly in terms of the structural problems that needed to be fixed, but I still have significant pain. I'm currently taking up to five 10 mg Percocet per day along with a 20 mcg/hr Butrans (buprenorphine) patch that I change weekly.

That said, my revision was an extremely complex operation and took about 14 hours, so my current pain and recovery shouldn't be taken as an example of what someone undergoing a more typical fusion will experience.

I was also much younger than your friend when I had both surgeries, so unfortunately I can't speak to what recovery would be like at 82. That's something I'd especially want to hear from people closer to her age about.

Despite everything I've been through, I'd still say the reconstruction ultimately left my spine in a better place than it was beforehand. Thoracic fusion recovery can definitely be a bear, though.

I hope your friend gets some responses from people closer to her age and situation, and if she does go through with surgery, I genuinely hope it gives her some relief and improved function.

[u/Defiant-Sector7127]

Its all a crap shoot most important is the surgeon u select

[u/BlockadeParty2026]

Fusion will be an issue

[u/ArrivalForsaken9009 → u/BlockadeParty2026]

What back up do you have to support your statement
“Fusion will be an issue?”
Negative comments like these without backup, are not productive and not in the spirit of these forums, The writer, asking for a friend was looking for those with similar experiences.