Hi all give you my long history and try to make it short as i can. I hurt my neck back in 2002 at work picking up boxes did not want surgery i was dealing with the pain in the daytime although it constantly got worse could not deal with not sleeping for 6 month (burning in shoulder blades and arms while laying on my side) so i finally got acdf on c45 and c46. first one was compressing on left side of spinal cord with spondlayis (sp) and the other was compressing on my right side and c47 is bulging slightly. Worst part of the surgery when i got home was not being able to swoller (still find that hard to do especially with pills and most of the time it feels like the dr has left a cotton swab or something in my throat) Oh and surgery was december 18, 2007. i still haven't gotten my voice back maybe because i didn't completely quit smoking and the hard neck brace (finally out of that thank god) guess i didn't realize what bad posture i had but it hurt places in my back that i've never had any pain in before. When back to doc on 1-4-07 and he gave me a spinal pak (bone growth stimulator to wear 24/7 it is really anoying. Everyone I know that has had this surgery didn't have to wear one or either it was just for a few hours a day. i was feeling really good when i went back to dr getting my energy level back but since i have been wearing this i have had a dizzy feeling like my equlibrian is off and just feel bad all over and don't want to get up and do nothing because of the dizziness. Has anyone else had to wear this thing for this long? and if so did you have any problems or side effects? I thought i would be going back to work in 2-3 weeks but he doesn't have my xray scheduled until 2-22-07 and i have got to wear this thing until then and boy oh boy my boss is having a fit thinking i'm milking this. thanks in advance for your help.