Hi nanase, you have had quite a surgery, and with that said it will take a while for you to get any where close to feeling back to normal. So Please be patient with yourself, it will take some time, I had my first ACDF done in 1985 and I had some major damage done to my neck, the disk was at C-6/7 and it was so badly herniated that I had free floating fragments of the disk floating in my spinal canal! In fact the disk was pressing into my spinal cord and the spinal cord looked like a horizontal U shape, the doctors could not figure out why I was not a quadriplegic the damage was that bad! Well I had the surgery and at that time they did not use any hardware such as screws and a plate, or donor bone in a cage. They took the bone graft from my pelvis, and put it where the bad disk was. When I awoke from the surgery my head and my arms and my hand were completely numb. I was in a private room and was dark, and no nurse call button in sight! I had a soft cervical collar on my neck and I hurt like crazy, my neck and my pelvis. I tried calling out and I had no voice! I was terrified! I was in the military, but at a civilian hospital in downtown Anchorage Alaska! I was in the hospital for eight days and then released back to the military, hospital in at Elemendorf AFB they did not have room for me so they gave me a plane ticket and sent me back to Eielson AFB just out side of Fairbanks with no post op instructions! They did not even make arrangements for my luggage so I had to try and carry it myself! When the stewardress on the plane asked me about my cervical collar and I wrote her a note, since I could not talk she literally freaked out and said I should have been allowed to fly alone and that they should have been told about my condition. It was very very scary, and when my wife picked me up at the airport in Fairbanks she had called my doctor on the base, and he was did not know I was even being released or sent back. Anyway I stayed at home and slept in a recliner, and I was not allowed to work or even go outside for many weeks, as it was winter and icey and they were afraid if I slipped and fell I would damage the graft till it had time to take hold and grow solid, (remember not hardware to keep it in place and solid) after six or eight weeks I was allowed to go back to work light duty for two hours a day for a few weeks then 4 hours a day two in the morning and two in the afternoon, over a couple of months I worked up to being back full time. It took over three months for me to get my voice back. The surgery did take away my arm pain but it took many many weeks of recovery before I even started feeling better. It took the Air Force about 3 months before they finally diagnosed me, and then it was an emergency and they had to do surgery right away, thus sending me to a civilian surgeon at a civilian hospital in Anchorage. I survive the ordeal and retired from the Air Force in Sept 1991. Every since that surgery I have had problem with an abnormal gag reflex and some swallowing difficulites.
In Sept 2009 I had to have another ACDF at C-5/6 ( the disk above the 1985 fusion) I was having pain in my arms again, they wanted to go in on the front left side, but with the trouble I had with my first fusion, ( it was done on the right side) they checked my vocal cords before doing the surgery. They found that my vocal cords on my right side was still paralyzed from my first surgery, so they could not go in the left side as they wanted, because they were afraid if they paralyzed my vocal cords on the left I would have no voice at all!. (that is a risk with this type of surgery) Anyway this time I was in the hospital three days, and they used donnor cadaver bone, and a plate with screws to hold it together. As soon as I came out of surgery my arm pain was gone and the surgery went well! Recovery was still difficult and I had about two months of physical therapy after I got healed up well enough to start having it. I did have my good and not so good moments, I posted here at this forum all through my ordeal. My friends and family here at Healling Well helped me get through it! Twice in fact! As the following year I had the articular joints at C-3/4 fused, they went through the back of my neck for that one, and put in pins and rods. My family here on this forum, was here for me all the way through that ordeal. I can not thank them enough for all the support they gave me!
nanase talk with your Doctor and tell him of any problems your having, and follow his instructions to the "T" and be Gentle and Patient with yourself, ( I cannot stress that enough!) and of course, come here and share any thing you want to share with us, you are family here, we all are here to support you, and we all understand what you are going through! We will listen and we are here for you. {By the way I did see your other post and I had written a very long reply to your thread, ( twice in fact) and both times before I could submit it, it dissappeared, and I finally got discouraged and gave up. that was a while ago.} So sorry I did not get back.
Anyway I hope this has helped you in some way, and just know that you are not alone! If I can be of any further help just let me know.
Good luck to you, and I do wish you well!!
White Beard