I made it through with no painkillers so you can too. I took one oxycodone just to see what they were like and never took another.

Same with lumbar procedure. I may have been taking Tramadol at the time, but I don't think that it helped any.

@jayjay1926 I didn't think pain after cervical fusion surgery was that bad. The pain meds nauseated me, so I didn't take them at all after I left the hospital. I did just fine. It was exhausting. Ice helps. If you fear pain, it makes it worse. I accepted that this was healing pain and that was a good thing. All of the spine symptom pains that I had before surgery were gone after surgery when I woke up. Think of that as progress when you get there.

@jayjay1926
I’ve had an anterior cervical fusion C3-C6, and later I had a complete
C3-C6 rebuild. They had to remove the plate and 6 screws, then break my cervical spine in two places, quite literally with a hammer and chisel. Then they flipped me over, and did a three level bilateral cervical fusion with stabilization hardware of pedical screws and connecting rods, then flipped over again and replaced the anterior plating and 6 screws. That’s what they call a 360° fusion. I just had thoracic kyphosis repair immediately before this where stabilized T2-T12, that created a cervical lordosis issue that was the reason for the 360. The pain was no different than any other fusion I’ve had, and this was a twofer. One in the front, one in the back. I did have to wear a a Miami J Collar for an extended period of time and that was more discomfort then all the trauma. You have nothing to worry about the pain being worse, it’s not. Sorry about the one pic I tried twice and didn’t work. All in all, I’m fused and/or stabilized from C2-C3, T2-S1. 14 back surgeries in 10 years. I know my fusions. You got this !

Had lumbar L4-5, and anterior cervical fusions C3-7. The cervical was nothing compared to the lumbar. Hardly any pain and fast recovery. Do the rehab. I don't know what levels you are having done but I can twist, turn my head and raise my arms. You got this.

I had a C5-C6 cervical fusion on the 16 and recovering great. Mine involved decompression and osteophyte removal that was pressing on my spinal cord. Had a spacer, cage and plate. I had mild/moderate pain the first two days and currently no pain at all. (My worse pain was a 4 on scale of 1-10). Worse part was a moderate sore throat. Had oxy for day one and Tylenol thereafter. Muscle relaxers help a lot. Don’t be anxious about the pain as it can be easily controlled with scheduled medications. Best wishes on your surgery.

I've had 2 spinal fusion procedures done on my neck, C5-C6, and 18 months later again at the C7-T1 level. The post op pain wasn't bad at all.