@chrisanon In my decision on no spine hardware, that allows my bone to have the same flexibility as before my surgery. If there was hardware attached, it would be more rigid than the bone by itself. Not that small spine vertebrae are doing a lot of flexing, but that thought in addition to working on all the muscle spasms that act on my neck will reduce stresses on it. My PT does myofascial release and that also helps to break up surgical scar tissue. The incision gets tight as it heals, and then over time it periodically tightens, so it's an ongoing practice for me to release the built up tension. This year will be 9 years post fusion and so far so good. I still could have adjacent segment issues in the future, but I'm fighting that with what I do. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome that tightens my neck and I have to keep working to loosen that.

Also core strength helps support my spine from the bottom up and I own a horse which does wonders for that just riding at a walk. I could have had an artificial disc, but I wasn't a great candidate for it because of 2mm of movement. As it turned out, my body does not like foreign materials at all. I did have an ankle fracture in 2020 and owned some titanium plates and screws for awhile, but I had that removed. I was getting chronic hives, pain, and pigmentation of the skin. There is a lab in Chicago called Orthopedic Analysis that tests for immune responses to implants. That 's not foolproof because you can develop it later and I had tested negative on that, but 6 months after the ankle fracture, I started having issues.
https://www.orthopedicanalysis.com/