@njh Thanks for sharing your experience. I have wondered if plates and screws make a difference in the pain after surgery and I did not have any hardware placed in my ACDF, so was it easier for me? I also had a lot of hands on physical therapy with myofascial release before and after surgery (when I was healed enough). This let my tissues be looser and easier to retract during surgery, so less pulling on my neck to get to the spine. I think that probably helped a lot. I did have to be very careful not to swallow wrong in the beginning.

We do have different experiences and it is a big surgery. I wanted to let you know (or anyone else) that there are treatments for a paralyzed vocal cord after cervical spine surgery. Mayo does a procedure that places an implant that allows the vocal cords to meet again, and that restores the voice. My surgeon told me about that when he told me about the risks. Here is a Mayo page that describes treatment, scroll down for the information.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/vocal-cord-paralysis/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20378878