Adios compression socks

I am now 6 weeks out from my surgery and doing great so far.  I am happy to be done with the compression socks, although I did get used to them somewhat as the weeks went by.  At the magical 6 week mark, I am now allowed to resume "light aerobic exercises" such as the elliptical machine or stationary bicycling.  I have completed my pool physical therapy and will be starting some land based PT shortly. 

I had a set of xrays this morning and a follow up with my surgeon here in the US, who was very interested to hear about my experience.  He gave me an order for the land based physical therapy at a different location as he liked their program for post disc replacement a bit better.  This will make 4 total different physical therapists I've been to since the start of my "journey."  He was happy with the placement of the disc.  I also asked him for a copy of his CV and a letter stating the average costs of a discectomy and fusion to include in my insurance claim.  Hopefully, they will see that my disc replacement costs were much less than a fusion would have been and cover the costs.  I go back for another follow up and xrays in 6 weeks.

He also asked about what I had been told about possible future facet joint complications and I told him that one of the reasons I went with the M6 was because of the graded resistance that should help prevent facet overloading.  He said that was a good point, as he had only worked with the Charite, Maverick, and ProDisc devices, none of which had graded resistance.  He then showed me a device he had used with some success on patients that had facet issues.  The small device called the Coflex helps unload the facet joints and is a very simple and easy surgery.  This is good to know in the event I develop any facet problems in the future (although I hope the M6 prevents this).

Here is a link with some more info on the Coflex:
http://www.paradigmspine.com/products/interspinous_technology/coflex/indication_specific/en/

Here are my 6 week xrays:

The placement still looks good, although when I looked closely at the side view, it looked to me that I might have a small area of bone growth on the posterior (back) surface of the top endplate.  My surgeon here did not mention it and I didn't see it until I took a closer look at the images once I got home.  I'm not 100% sure of what I'm seeing, but I sent the images to Mr. Boeree and asked him about it, so we will see what he says.

Other than that, things are still going great.  I've been keeping my activities limited to walking and the pool therapy to this point just to be safe.  My hip pain is still present when I do a straight leg raise, although it's very minor and has improved a small amount.  It is really barely worth mentioning, and would not be much of a problem if it never went away.  I go back to work on Monday and since I work from home, this should not be much of a problem.