So sorry you have to go through the surgery. I had C3-7 fused after a failed fusion at C-6-7. I have all the hardware as well. I came to neruo talk for the exact same thing you are, to find out what may happen and what to expect. Please do dicuss pain management fully with your neruo surgeon. I had already been on Morphine, and did not feel I got enough pain control after the proceedure. It was pretty ruff there for few days. I had reversed the cure of my spine as well, and that was re-aligned. The first two weeks at home were hard. After that, the pain level went down to very managable levels. I did get enough meds. to bring home with me, and I was on time with each dose! It took me a long time to feel good again. I would say for myself at least three months. I also started PT as soon as the neurosurgeon cleared me even though I was afraid of doing it too soon because I was still in pain. The PT helped me. I think I started it at 4 weeks out. I hope that you will have less pain than I did. Oddly enough the throat didn't hurt much at all, and neithor did the incision. My incision was through the front both times. My pain was over the site where the hardware was placed, across the middle back of my neck. I do wish you all the best, and if there are any other questions I might answer for you don't hesitate to tap back. I received the truth here, from another survior of the surgery I had. It was ruff waking out of surgery and those first few days after, lots of injections of morphine. It will be OK however, it does pass, and my results were really good. It was worth all I went through to have some quality of life back. I wish you all the best. ginnie