[SIZE="4"]Hi
I guess better late than never, right?
I had C3,4,5,6 fused 4 years ago, after a botched laminectomy. Recovery was not so bad, couldn't drive for 6 weeks. I saw my Xray after the surgery, it looks like a bicycle chain. Screws, and rods and all sorts of hardware. He used cadavar bone at one point, rather than using mine from my hip. I was in the hospital for 4 days, they wanted me to stay longer. He went in from the front, I have a very tiny scar on my neck. I don't remember having a lot of post op pain, the J collar was a nusisance. Had to basically be a bum. No housework, lifting anything. I smoke, and have diabetes. Because of that, they orderd a bone stimulator for me, I was to use it 30 min a day for several months.[ So now it is almost 5 years later. I have good range of motion with all of my hardware. BUT!!!!! Because my neck has been stabalized, I have developed scoliosis, kyphosis, have bone fragments above and below the fusions, and radicuopathy. I get Botox trigger point injections for the pain. I'd still do the fusion surgery again. I may have to do lumbar fusion in the future.

Hope you see this, and it helps./SIZE]