@ccchang
After my ACDF surgery on c5-c6, many symptoms improved right after surgery but they were more noticeable after surgical healing. My pain/weakness/numbness improved but it took a while for me to realize some weakness remained in arms/hands.

For my L3-L5 decompression/fusion, the surgery was very painful so I didn’t start to fully realize the after affects until 3-6+ months later. My numbness in my lower back/hips/buttocks/thighs and feet improved (had some post op numbness in a few toes noticeable the day after surgery). I would say my numbness improved overall fairly quickly with decompression of spinal canal/cord/nerves. I am dealing with new nerve pain in back/hips/hip flexors and weakness in buttocks/legs that’s tied to a new herniated disc and severe stenosis at L2-L3.

Did you have baseline EMG/nerve conduction studies prior to surgery? Nerves and spinal cord compression can take a while to heal if injured and some damage may be permanent. If you still have numbness, it could be inflammation, irritation, scar tissue formation, new compression or nerve damage during surgery. How long has it been since you had surgery and what levels did you have it? The procedure you had went in from the side while my ACDF on neck was from the front and lumbar surgery was from my back. The back muscle cut was extremely painful and I have some nerve damage and muscle weakness in my lower back as a result.