Jennifer, I am at the end of week 7 post-op. My biggest concern was being unable to swallow satisfactorily after surgery. At 6 weeks post-op I saw a speech therapist for dysphagia, and she noticed how tight the right side (same side as my incision) of my throat was compared to the left side, and ordered a barium swallow test. She thought my swallowing problem may be due to either swelling of my throat or to scar tissue from incision. Anyway, the swallow test had to be postponed this week because she was out of town and wanted to be with me during the testing. In the meantime, I began to very gently massage the really tight muscles that began up closer to my chin (not the ones farther down below where my new disks had been implanted), and then two days ago I noticed that the right side of my neck had become much softer and for the first time I was able to take my pills without any major problems, and I even got down a larger nutritional supplement, which I hadn't taken since my surgery. I have concluded that my swallowing problem was the result of swelling after surgery, which brings me to another issue. The night after my surgery, I had a nurse who was wonderful about making my pills into a smaller or in some cases even a powdery form, which she mixed up with chocolate pudding. Then the next morning, she was replaced by another nurse who while I was too groggy to really know what was going on, put all of my pills into one cup of chocolate pudding and fed it to me. I, not understanding what was happening, bit down on one medication that not to be broken apart, and just the liquid from it got down my throat and caused me to violently throw up. Needless to say, when I finished throwing up, I asked the nurse why in the world she gave me the pills like that and she told me that was how she always her patients their pills, even ones right after ACDF surgery. Then she told me that, albeit unconscious at the time, I shouldn't be having any problem taking the pills because I was able to take all of them with just water when I first arrived in my room, which implied my problem was just an emotional one, not anatomical one. Now that I have figured out that my problem swallowing, that I have had until recently, was related to swelling in my throat, causing my muscles to be too tight. Therefore, I am guessing that the reason I was able to take them when I was first out of surgery was because my throat had not swollen yet. Anyway, that was the only bad experience I had while at Mayo. Everything else was wonderful!