I'm 30 days today post ACDF C5-C7, My first weeks were the hardest, and the pain between the shoulders from surgery position was intense at times. But let me tell you this much, when I went into Surgery 6/2/09 at 7am I went in with pain/numbness & tingling in the right arm and fingers, When I woke up from surgery and got my bearings, the arm and fingers were 99% back to normal. The pain was gone and stayed gone. The numbness which was on a scale of 1-10 prior to surgery was staying around 9 in the fingers had gone to 1 after and within 2 weeks has gone to (0) yes Zero. Swallowing has been an issue and still is but that's getting better. I'll be happy when those issues are gone. It's hard to learn how to sleep in the hard collar but trust me you'll figure it out. I go back to my surgeon this Monday July 6th I hope I'm released to go back to work. I'm just not the type to stay home, I do walk several miles a day .