Surgery & c5/6 foraminal stenosis

I got the same diagnosis as you in October.  I did not have as good a palette of medications as you describe, but do take Tylenol or NSAIDs, Tramadol (as needed, Hydrocodone (5/325) as needed, muscle relaxers (Methocarbomal aka Robaxin, or SPZM, an herbal formula), lorazepam for anxiety as needed, and Ambien for sleeping issues when the pain keeps me awake at night.  I also used an inflatable cervical traction unit I found on Amazon that costs $30 US (Instapark brand, Amazon part B00573S4KI).  It helped a lot at first.  I also have an inversion table, too, but it does not seem to help with issues related to C5-C6, but is great for lumbar and mid-back issues.

Spent hundreds of dollars to get a new mattress and pillow and then went through mattress pads on Amazon trying to get one that did not aggravate my symptoms.  Finally got there after several tries.  Sleep is that important, IMHO.

I am getting a little better since my peak symptoms in October, but the pain is more chronic, so I would personally disrecommend surgery unless your pain is constant and unbearable.  This was the recommendation of the two best neurosurgeons in Florida for me - I went to both, as I had good insurance.

Everything helped some, including the sterioid injection in my cervical spine, but what helped me the most was ACCUPUNCTURE.  I have now had about 21 sessions.  I started with sessions 2 times per week, then reduces it to 1 x per week.  Insurance paid for the first 15.  After the very first session, I only had about 4 hours of pain relief.  But it was 4 hours of real relief... 8 hours after the 2nd and 3rd, but it got more consistent after that, like peeling layers of a pain onion, if you will. 

It does not make the bone spur or the stenosis go away, so physical activity, which was almost impossible before, is now possible but then aggravates my condition.  So, I now go to the accupuncturist one time per week to manage my chronic symptoms.  And, I try to take a muscle relaxer every night before I go to bed, as I find that reduces my symptoms.

If you dont have a good accupuncturist in your area, then I would suggest deep tissue massage therapy instead, starting at 2X/week, focusing on the upper back and neck.  Again, think "pain and spasm onion".

If your pain is constant and intolerable, then I would suggest you try the cortizone injection or accupuncture or deep tissue massage therapy  BEFORE surgery.   Surgery is not always the best option for this problem, as about 35% get no relief or more pain afterwards.  Given that, it makes sense to try everthing but surgery unless the pain is unbearable.  

In my case the surgical option was remove the disc and either replace it with an artificial one or fuse the two vertabrae together.  If I am faced with that choice in the near future, I would opt for the artificial disc first, as you can always get a fusion if that does not work, but once fused, there is no other option.

I even asked, "cant you just go in there with a laser and get rid of the bone spurs"?  The answer was "no" - that works for the lumbar region, but not for the cervical spine.

There is this little known treatment, which is an alternative therapy, available here in Florida and the US, called PROLOTHERAPY, where they inject the affected areas of your cervical spine with an irritant to cause it to heal from injury, but even though it is available in my area, I am not sure of its effectiveness; most insurance companies wont pay the thousands required for the multiple treatments, and it requires 10 or more treatments, across a couple of months.  

Can someone explain why this is the case?

THere are 2 or 3 different types of surgery which they employ for stenosis.  Mostly they are concerned with stabilising the vertebrae with fixings whioch ultimately restrict movement.  There's no guarantee of pain relief because there's no way of predicting how the neck will react post-surgery.  I believe,  but I could be wrong,  that a 50% to 70% success rate is claimed.  However,  sometimes the beneficial effects are only temporary,  and the same issues can start reappearing within a year.  I was offered surgery ,  but I declined because of the unpredictability.  However, that option is still available if needed (open appointment at Neuro Hosp ).  I have found that the C/S condition changes itself,  and sometimes symptoms improve,  but again,  that's also unpredictable.

Perhaps something to bear in mind is that surgery cannot be undone,  so whatever the outcome,  that must be managed.  My choice has been to stick with the symptoms I'm used to rather than take a chance on new symptoms appearing,  but it's different for everyone , and it's a difficult decision to have to make.  One thing I was particularly aware of was that I didn't want to resent having made a bad decision.if surgical outcomes were not favourable.