Pain after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion C5-7

@eeppler59 Hello and welcome to Connect. I've asked a moderator to move your discussion into the spine group where you can meet other spine members.

I had a similar surgery to you 6 years ago having C5/C6 fused. I do remember the first 6 weeks had the most pain, and that is how long it takes the incision to heal. By 3 months, I was able to forget that I had spine surgery. The incision tends to tighten up as more scar tissue forms, and my physical therapist helped me loosen that up a bit, but it was after the 3 month mark that I was allowed to do physical therapy because it takes about that long for the fusion process to solidify. You will probably have a follow up with X-rays to determine that. I did not have plates, so I had to be very careful and stay in my neck brace. That was by design since I didn't want hardware on my spine and all I had was a bone spacer.

Muscle spasms and adjusting to all the retracting of tissue from the surgery takes some time. That pulled muscles in ways they don't want to be yanked. I had a lot more muscle spasms before my spine surgery than after. A heated microwavable neck wrap might help ease some tension. It does get better, but it is a long recovery and a bit different for everyone. Because I was in a neck brace for 3 months, my neck was very weak, and I needed some physical therapy after that to get the strength back. The weakness is tiring. I slept a lot, and after surgery like this, your body is directing energy to healing, so you will be tired. Make sure that when you sleep that you are keeping your neck supported and not twisting it. I don't know if you are using a neck brace. I found sleeping in a hard collar to be very supportive, and I would wake up because it was different, but it was OK. Even, now, I have to be mindful of keeping my neck supported while sleeping because I also have thoracic outlet syndrome, and it creates tightness in my neck that is worse on one side, and it can start rotating my C1 through C4 if a muscle spasm starts, so I have to work on that if it happens.

As the saying goes “time is on your side” and you need time to heal after major surgical insult.

Thanks for your comment and reply. Appreciate it.

All above is good advice. Six weeks isn't very long and you might benefit from adjusting your expectations accordingly. There months to "almost perfect" is a good rule of thumb I think. Best of
luck!

Thanks! Appreciate the advice!

Congratulations on your recent procedure. I am 7 months post op ACDF C4-7. Recently had my six month X-ray & everything is coming along nicely.
I still continue to have muscle spasms, occasional neck and upper back pain. I have been told it is the decompression of the nerves that were severely compressed for a long time are “waking up”. It can take 12-18 months for a final assessment of the surgery.
Are you in physical therapy yet? I am still in PT, get myofascial treatments and work on recovery everyday. Walking and eating a healthy diet consisting of lots of protein is important. Hang in there - recovery is not linear and there can be good days, bad days etc. sending you healing thoughts

Thank you so much for replying from what I'm gathering. I am kind of getting too anxious to be all better too quickly so now I am adjusting my expectations. Thank you so much for the information it really does help.