Can 600mg of ibuprofen a day after back surgery cause any harm?

Answer

Naturally talk to your doctor, but generally 600 mg (3 tablets) is within the acceptable dosage range. However, be careful, because if you just had back surgery, it sounds like you may be taking other medication that the doctors may not want you to mix with ibuprofen.  

Answer

Prolonged Ibuprfen use can be damaging to the stomach and the kidneys. It's hard to believe, but over 30,000 people die every year from aspirin and ibuprofin use (this is due to gastrointestinal and genitourinary damage.)
Anyway, I understand that there needs to be pain management after surgery. One must be careful, however, that he does not over do himself because he has numbed the warning signals. In other words, pain is your body's way of teaching you it's current limitations. When you do anything to decrease the pain signal, you must keep in mind your present capabilities. Often times people feel that they can do more than they actually can, because they have desensitized themselves. They are able to be more active or use a greater range of motion before they feel the same amount of pain. By this point, the body has already taken more stress/damage than it had desired to, leaving it in a more injured state than before. This can lead to greater use or more often use of the pain killers, which creates a perpetual cycle of self harm.
Although absolutly not intentional, we can sometimes cause more harm than good, when we overide the body's master control center. Use drugs responsibly, even if they seem like harmless, over-the-counter drugs!