Like Judy I can't remember everything you wrote without looking at it again however like Judy I will say you're ONLY 17 days out from surgery so go easy on yourself re recovery! Also like Judy I will advise to report new pain to your doctor (new pain, new location). It never hurts to keep the surgeon over informed vs. under informed!
I'm not sure about how many cervical levels are FDA approved. If I'm not mistaken and I could be I think we are still at one lumbar level being FDA approved here in the US though I do not know how many cervical levels are FDA approved in the U.S.
Good to read about your prescriptions and how your doctor is trying to handle that. I hope it all works out as it's supposed to. It's great that you don't have to deal with stupid insurance limitations and such. They can just be so stupid!
One of my neighbors just got an ADR in her cervical spine and she also needed another level worked on so she had a fusion there. She's doing good but it's been a bit over 2 months out from her surgery. At the 17 day post surgery point she was still pretty uncomfortable and spent a lot of time resting/sleeping I believe. She has shown marked improvement since then and I hope you will as well.
I know you said you're taking Valium I guess for some relaxation tho I wonder if you're on a muscle relaxer? That might be helpful too. Also you may be doing a fair amount of compensating re your pain and how you carry/hold yourself so this alone might be adding to the musculature being knotted and hard.
I think generally people like to cut their pain meds down a bit quickly post operatively especially if not experiencing a great deal of pain necessitating more pain meds than before surgery however I'm of the belief that your body will let you know when you are ready to decrease pain medication or other medications as well.
There's been a great deal of work done in the area so realize that there is a fair amount of inflammation in the area and that just takes time to calm down.
Wishing you a continued good recovery and as much resolution from pain as you can get from this surgery. Please do let your surgeon know of any new and different developments however.
Maria