My wife is facing having three disks replaced in her neck. The neurosurgeon showed us the MRI clearly showing the nerves are compressed on one side. My daughters are in the health field and said the results vary according to the doctor's skill. Some have bad result after bad result. It also helps to find one that does it on a regular basis. If the guy is replacing disks 6 times a week he should be very experienced and hopefully up to date with the newest procedures and appliances. Especially in the neck where it's major surgery. They go in from the front of the neck moving your esophagus and trachea to access the spine. Due to arthritis and disks that are compressed it can cause the nerves in the neck to wreck havoc. The pain can be excruciating. The pain is actually taking place in the brain but because of the nerves it's felt in the upper back, arms and hand.
Sometimes I think it a better course of action as we age is to stop doing things like the squat. Many can do it with no repercussions but some will get compressed disks as they age causing major problems. I won't even mention the hip joint. You can work the legs really hard with stuff like dumbbell squats, jumps, free hand squats, kick back machines, leg press and other means.
I have been through this, I had disc replacement 10 years ago now, i waited too long and got atrophy all down my left side, I have replacement at c4,5, c5,6 and C7,8.All titanium.
Procedure done the way you describe I did get 80% muscle back but it never fully recovered same as jay, Ronnie etc once the nerves been compromised it never fully recovers. My chiro missed it, kept trying to rub out the spasms related to the nerve compression that was referring down the associated muscular pathways.
Will never forget the pain, never did any opiate pain or oxy, pre or post, just seeing the zombies waiting for surgery scared the hell out of me.
Best thing I ever done getting it done. Was never the same, never trained heavy again, and could never get as big again as upper body never grew proportionately due to the nerve problem, but you can stay fairly symetrical smaller which suited me, my heavy lifting, contest days were gone and I had a family and business commitments.
Its worth doing you will have far less issues than fusion.