Hi annrossyoung ~
there are so many questions to be asked of you before we could give you a good answer to your questions.
If you wouldn't mind me asking a few then I may be able to help answer them? What kind of problems are you having pain and symptoms? Did you injure yourself?
1. When you say the "top of the spine" are you saying cervical (neck)?
2. What kind of spine surgery did your doctor say you needed?
There are so many different kinds of surgery.
3. Did your doctor say the surgery would be anterior (front side), posterior (back side), or 360 (both front and back)?
4. Will the doctor be putting in hardware (plate, rods, cages, and screws)?
Here is a start of some of my questions. ;)
you may want to post this on the back problems board here or you can try the board under my signature.
Imshirl
spine and beyond