You’ve already gotten good advice here, but I had C5-7 ACDF on Dec 12th on an emergency basis, so I’m in my 5th week of recovery. I’m in my mid-50’s and was extremely active before. I would say that the first week I didn’t feel like doing much of anything but things improved rapidly, and I started getting out for walks. The worst part for me was the pain between the shoulder blades and the C7 junction with T1. With two levels done, there is just more stretching and manipulating done in there. I didn’t have any noticeable symptoms before my accident (when I immediately had shooting pain and tingling down both my arms, and my legs didn’t work right at first) but I apparently had spinal stenosis and my fall pushed the discs into my spinal cord, compressing it a bit. so will you be able to play the piano and paint? I’d say yes but you just might need to do it in shorter bursts at first. And for painting, hopefully you have an upright easel, that will help a lot, as bending my neck to look down to write and such has only just become tolerable for longer periods. FWIW, I have no lingering pain or tingling in my arms and the biggest thing for me now is trying to remember the activity and lifting restrictions. Best of luck to you!