I am 3 months, 2 weeks post C5-C6 ACDF. I'm having a tough time with the muscle spasms too. What's particularly frustrating for me is the conflicting information I received regarding recovery time prior to having surgery. I think my doc was 'overly optomistic' and indicated I'd be on the shorter end of recovery (2-3 weeks). He didn't tell me that the neck pain and upper shoulder muscle spasms would be an issue. He doesn't understand why it's taking this long for those symptoms to resolve, yet my physical therapist says this is normal for the type of surgery I had.

I use heat and ice frequently to try to calm the spasms. Usually heat first thing in the morning and when I go to bed. I use ice over the area periodically throughout the day. I take tizanidine for a muscle relaxer at bedtime and still use oxycodone during severe episodes. I've been on the oxycodone longer than I would like but I can't tolerate the pain without out. From what I'm reading on the boards and also from what my P.T. says, it will be a good 6 months before I start to feel 'normal' again. The only symptom that the surgery took care of from the get go was my arm numbness and tingling.

At this point, I feel like I am not being taken seriously by my doctor when I tell him how bad the pain is. It seems like he's being skeptical or thinking I'm malingering but I'm not. This is all very real. The muscle tightness and spasms can be confirmed with physical examination.

Has anyone else here stayed in physical therapy beyond 8 weeks? Have any of you had difficulty with your P.T wanting to end treatment before you felt ready? That's another issue I'm having. My P.T. says his job is done. However, my pain has increased since stopping P.T. for the past two weeks. Also, my P.T made a big deal saying he was 'concerned' that the insurance company wouldn't pay for any more therapy after a certain number of weeks. I called the insurance company and found out everything is fine and I have plenty of sessions yet. But that wasn't good enough for the therapist. He went around me and called the doctor telling him we should stop therapy and the doc should put me on anti-inflammatory meds. I was like WTF?? That's B.S. I'm thinking of asking for a referral to a new therapist.