How Long Will it Take to Recover From ACDF

[Patti9599]

I am 48 yrs old, not in great shape pre-surgery, full time career woman with 2 children ages 13 & 8.  I am lucky to be married to a wonderful man for 24 yrs. I had C67 ACDF with graft , plate & screws on 8-19-08.  Initally I felt really good.  The Dr's said I looked the best of any patient they'd seen the day after surgery & the nurses expressed surprize at my getting around by myself.  The 1st week post-surgery I had pretty much no pain...as if I hadn't had surgery.  By weeks 2&3 I was at the computer & finishing a long-put-off photo project at the dining room table.  I still napped some every day, but was probably not as careful as I should have been about lifting more than 5lbs.  At week 4, I began to feel very tired and depressed.  I had some minor pain between my shoulder blades & the knots under my shoulder blades, as well as some stiffness in my back & neck all along since week 2.  I probably slept 4 of 7 days of week 4; I mean all day of 4 days, 24 out of 24 hrs.  I also began to notice a tightening about my throat in the area of my incision and a cracky kind of feeling when I swallowed.  I am now at the end of week 5.  I am not sure where my old self is, because it is not even my old self feeling so incredibly tired, it's a person I don't recognize feeling so incredibly tired.  My only pain is stiffness in my neck & an occasional shoulder blade knot, but 24 hours of every day I feel as though I'm being choked.  I can not do more than 1 errand or activity in a day; ie. I attended my 8yo soccer game & after returning home had to take a 2 hr nap and was worthless the rest of the day.  Sometimes I feel so exhausted I feel like I can no longer lift the fork to my mouth to finish my dinner.  I am very emotional and feeling depressed.  I stopped narcotic pain relievers week 4 and most days will take 800mg ibuprofen & 10mg cyclobenzaprine.  My neurosurgeon says everyone recovers at a different rate & I'm just having a slower recovery.  I may have gotten the impression that there was little to no recovery involved as my surgeon said some people return to work after 2 weeks.  Am I expecting too much?  When will I feel "normal" again?  I want my old neck back!


This discussion is related to 3 Months Post ACDF.