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.

Is there anything to prevent you from continuing the P.T. on your own? Usually when I've had courses, I've had exercises to do between sessions and keep doing afterward for maintenance.

You might look into myofascial trigger point therapy, and ask you surgeon if it's ok to try. Once one of those knots gets established, they can be difficult to get rid of. Not all P.T.s know how to do this properly (even though they may say/think they can). Speaking from experience, MF therapy has helped my wife & self tremendously with spasms, and with help from a certified therapist, we've learned to do it at home, and still do when needed.

Working at computers all day is what caused our myofascial TPs to begin with. The therapy can be very effective for that - even for people who haven't had surgery.

Doc

Thanks Dr. Smith. I will definitely look into that! I still do the exercises and the stretches but it's not enough. I think it's time to find another P.T. and I will ask specifically about myofascial trigger certification.

You don't want a P.T. You want a Certified Myofascial Trigger Point Therapist (different animal), which may be considered "alternative" and not covered by insurance (which makes no sense at all - this therapy helped JFK with chronic back pain).
http://massageunwrapped.com/2011/01/...point-therapy/

MF Trigger Points can be strange li'l buggers indeed; they can work singly or in groups and telegraph pain far from the actual problem. We get recurring pain/spasm on top of our shoulders that are actually caused by 3 TPs that begin way down under the shoulder blades. We not only have to hit all three; they must also be treated in the exact correct order, and followed up with balancing stretches, but it's worth it!

Here are a couple of links to get you started. If they don't have a therapist listed near you, don't give up (just went through this with someone else); not all of them list with this site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_point
http://www.myofascialtherapy.org/
http://www.triggerpointbook.com/
(better prices to be found)

Doc