Excellent visit with MD this week. Am right where I should be pain wise and recovery wise. Feel like there's a lump in my lower throat but able to eat anything. I drove over 4 hrs round trip to MD 2 days ago and also worked that day prior to visit. Pain is getting better and strength returning to arm. I drove 6-1/2 hrs today almost non-stop mostly over bumpy 2-lane back-country roads. Not easy looking to right for traffic as can't yet look over my shoulder so wife was my traffic spotter. She later drove another 2 hours while I iced my back and shoulders. Failed to mention that I had a sore throat and some difficulty swallowing the first couple of weeks, especially week 1, which is quite normal for this surgery.

I wonder if the ROI-C disk implant is the difference between my experience and other posts. Surgery was out-patient, no screws or plates used as the ROI-C was inserted between the C5 and C6 and is held in place with 2 small flat drive-in anchors, locking the C5, C6 and ROI-C together (as I understand it). No graft either as the MD filled the center of the ROI-C with synthetic bone(?). I'm very pleased so far.