Post Op C5-C6 and C6-C7 Anterior Fusion

I am almost 3 weeks out of surgery and doing very well. I had outpatient surgery and received titanium plate/screws. I was never put in any collar and told to not lift more than the weight of a milk jug for 6 weeks and to not do any "strenuous" activities. I was also house-bound for two weeks after surgery and when I resumed work (desk job) it has been half-days until I could comfortably remain in front of a computer. My question is this: How long after surgery do I have to wait until I resume any kind of physical therapy exercises? I was regularly in the gym before surgery and am having a hard time living on my own and not mowing the yard or vacuuming the house. Technically thats not lifting and to make matters worse my pain threshold is pretty high. So when the neurosurgeon's nurse says to listen to my body and stop when it hurts, "strenuous" becomes very loosely defined. I need a list of things I must not do, because I want this fusion to be permanent and not need to be repaired 4 years down the road because of my activity level now. Frankly, I couldn't stand the weeds anymore this past weekend and took 3 days to mow my small yard. It felt great but I'm afraid to mention to the nurse. She can be a real horses backside although Im sure she means well. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Kalvin]

Its good to hear you're doing so well after only 3 weeks, we tend to get more of the negative posts here and I think that actually convinces some people not to have the surgery. Which is a shame in a lot of cases. I didn't have to wear a collar after surgery either, my understanding is that the plate is suppose to eliminate the need. P. T. is really the surgeons call, I've heard of people going as soon as 6 weeks, I didn't go till 12 weeks but I still had a lot of pain. Call and ask them.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with mowing, although if its a pull start, that's probably not too good for you.The things that brought me a lot of pain post-op were things like looking up or down and side to side over for a prolonged period. Bending over was very painful and also trying to look behind me, like when your driving. Try to avoid sudden jerky type neck movements too.  

Their right about the lifting, be careful with that, at the rate your going you'll probably fuse pretty quickly and then you can do anything you want. Be glad you have a Nurse that cares, a lot of us haven't been so fortunate.

Take Care