tell me how you sleep at night

Post date: 2020-01-20 05:03:00

I'm having some purely positional difficulty sleeping since my spinal surgery and I was wondering if anyone else has solved a similar problem for themselves.

I had a 4-level ACDF in September 2018 that was extremely successful in a number of ways, primarily in that it ended most of my chronic pain and nerve damage-related disability. Yay! Unfortunately it has severely limited the positions in which I can sleep without instant pain or pain on waking up. Boo!

Right now I can only sleep flat on my back, which is super for my neck but suboptimal for the herniation at L5 which I cannot currently have repaired (but ideally can some time in the future). Under extremely rigid and unyielding conditions, I can sleep on my left side only, which is suboptimal for the creaky scrapey awful labral tear in my left hip, and also causes neck pain if I remain in that position for a full night's sleep. Sleeping on my right side is extremely and instantly painful for my neck, and sleeping on my stomach will never happen bc boob.

I have tried the pillow under the knees thing and it seems to put MORE pressure on my lower back rather than providing any relief, as well as pulling uncomfortably on my hip if any part of my leg shifts from that position. Similarly, a full body length pillow for side sleeping doesn't mitigate either the eventual or the immediate neck pain.

The problem with side sleeping seems to be that I need as much support for my neck as I do for my head without disturbing the natural line of my spine, but rigid foam pillows that provide that support are horrible for the sensory issues I get with things touching my head, and softer moldable-fill pillows always come unmolded.

If you, personally, yourself in your current corporeal human flesh form, have had a fusion of your cervical spine, of 2 or more levels, what, if any, changes have you made to the way that you sleep that have been beneficial for you? Super firm mattress? Super squishy one? Sleeping suspended by wires? In a weightless tank? On the back of a majestic pegasus in flight? Please show us all a photo of the pegasus if possible.

Please try to resist answering this question if you do not have the direct personal experience of living with (and sleeping on) the cervical spine results of this specific kind of surgery. I absolutely appreciate that you want to try and help, but just tossing out random suggestions of things you've heard or things pertaining to different body parts that therefore have no bearing on my current reality will not in fact be helpful. Remember the bees.

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