Shirley's neck

This afternoon Shirley goes in to the hospital in Genk in preparation for an operation tomorrow morning. For years she has been dealing with pain in her arm and neck (you read about this in the blog even five years ago). After various attempts at medication and therapy, the doctors have decided that this is the only option left to remove the pain She could also simply learn to live with more and more pain, but already the slight damage to nerves in her arm are causing an atrophy in the muscles.
So Shirley has decided to go ahead with the fusing of three vertebrae. The doctors remove the disks at the C6-C7 and C5-C6, place blocks (space holders) and fuse those two areas. This will relieve the pressure on the nerve to her arm.
Shirley is upbeat about the operation and looking forward to less pain, although she knows that the recovery time (about 6 weeks of taking it easy) will be a challenge. Some of you have also gone through some of this and I am sure that Shirley would be interested to hear your experiences. If you would like to respond, simply add it to the comment section below, or email us (sraabs[at]yahoo.ie). What helped you? What were your experiences?
Thank you for your prayers. We will keep you updated on how things go.