I'm nine days out from my neck dissection and seem to be healing well. I'm wondering how long it will be until I will be able to turn my head far enough to safely drive. Right now I can turn it about half as much as usual on the left and maybe half again that much on the right. I'm doing my stretches everyday and it does seem to be loosening up. I'm due to start radiation in 5 weeks and I'm hoping that I will be able to drive myself at least for the first few weeks. Does anyone remember how long it took them to feel comfortable driving again after ND?

Comfortable or safe? I was somewhat confounded after my neck dissection to discover that the trip to my gym suddenly had a "breakneck curve" I had never noticed before. Two years later and it's back to being a mild bend in the road.
So while I could drive safely, I had to twist my entire body and turn my head around so far that it was painful, not comfortable for about four months. After my neck dissection, I did not drive to my radiation treatments after my cancer had come back as it required a high speed merge that I could not do fast enough to be safe. But I also had had salvage surgery which traumatized my shoulder and chest muscles at the same time so that was an additional factor that makes it hard for me to accurately sort out the impact of the neck dissection.

I drove myself the first two weeks to radiation the first time I had cancer but I had not had a neck dissection. By the third week, the Erbitux had made the raw skin on my neck to painful to drive safely.

So IMO, it depends on how challenging your drive to radiation is as to when you can safely do it.
Keep the faith
Charm

I drove pretty much through it all- went away after getting out of the hospital for a week so I was about 3 weeks post op - and yes needed to do the full body turn - for a bit - but by the time I got to radiation I was okay to make the trip daily no problem with turning my neck - rads will make you more stiff as it tightens up the scars etc... But just keep doing your exercises. So glad you are healing well!

I was also driving a couple of weeks after getting out of hospital Tracy.
I did have 2 minor problems however. One was that I could not lift my arm any higher than my shoulder level for some time and went to a physiotherapist for that.
The other problem was that the seatbelt went right across the healing scar on my neck. This was solved with some foam padding around that part of the belt.
Not having the radiation I cannot comment on that.
So happy to see you are doing so well after surgery and am following your progress on your blog.
Gabriele

Thanks, guys. It sounds like it won't be too much longer before I'll be back on the road, then. My hospital is in San Francisco, so I will have to parallel park when I go for treatment. Should be interesting!

The first 2 weeks radiation should not cause you problems that would keep you from driving. Maybe ok for 3rd, you'll just have to wait and see. The neck stiffness (for turning your head); it is still a problem for me at times, not at others. I can always turn my head, just not easily sometimes. So allow plenty of time to drive, so you won't feel pressed to change lanes much, and have enough time to parallel park. Seems like there is always that spot where you can't pick up a car behind you in your mirror in the other lane, and it takes more than one turning of the head to find that out. People who easily parallel park (like my husband) are actually happy when they get to do this.

Hopefully you do not have a long commute. You certainly don't need a vehicle accident to contend with now. Lucky for me I did not have to drive myself.
Best,
Anne

About 2 weeks out I could wear a helmet again and was back on my motorcycle, and was driving the truck to work after about a week. A little careful on the movements but it was OK.