@cyp238ress
I empathize with your depression. I am there, too.

My surgeon told me not to rely on EMG for assessment of spine/spinal cord/nerve root/nerve health. I have “normal” EMGs (except for carpal tunnel) but many neurological symptoms in limbs. This means the symptoms are tied to my spinal cord/nerve roots/nerves. Your upper/lower limb muscle nerves may be okay but the central/peripheral nervous system may be having problems sending/receiving the right signals from your limbs. I also have DDD/spondylosis/arthritis throughout my spine and the thickening of the joints/bones and bone spurs that form plus disc bulges/herniations can irritate/compress spinal canal/cord/foraminal nerve roots. Pain can also be caused by modic changes to vertebrae.

You may need surgery if they can confirm that the proposed procedure(s) will address/relieve your symptoms. It is important to fully understand risks/pros/cons and recovery time/expectations.

@cyp238ress Having a steroid spinal injection that helps take away pain is telling you that surgery may be able to fix that pain. It reduces inflammation and buys a little bit of space for your nerves and/or spinal cord. If either bone or a ruptured disc are compressing nerves or the spinal cord, it can generate pain or weakness. When a disc bulges, it disperses weight unevenly, and that can cause bone to change. Uneven pressure on the end plates of the vertebrae cause bone to remodel, thicken or form bone spurs. A ruptured disc that has spilled out the jelly like nucleus causes inflammation and stimulates growth of bone spurs. That is arthritis of the spine.

During spine surgery, a surgeon will reshape bone as needed. They remove bones spurs and enlarge the spaces in the foramen at the nerve roots. They need to prepare the surface for what they are implanting. With fusion, that is s flat surface of a bone disc or cage, and with artificial disks or implants that slide in, it may be a groove that is cut to match the shape of the implant.
A normal EMG is a good thing and tells you that your nerves are working. If the EMG was abnormal, it may be indicating a problem with your peripheral nerves and your doctors will start looking for a different problem.

My neck was pretty noisy before my spine surgery. I had a ruptured C5/C6 that had been bulging for years, and I think it was the disk rubbing on the bone of adjacent vertebrae causing the noise. By the time I had surgery, the disc height had collapsed by 50%. Sometimes noise like clicking comes from facet joints. As a disc collapses, more weight shifts onto the facets and they wear out. Normally 80% of body weight is supported by discs, and 20 % on the facet joints.

Spine issues do cause muscle spasms, and it is common to lose the lordotic curve in the neck as the cervical spine becomes straight. Sometimes it can bend forward (kyphosis). I had lots of muscle spasms before my spine surgery and my physical therapist was treating these and pain with electrical stimulation at the nerve roots. After the surgery that freed my spinal cord from compression, the muscle spasms really calmed down. They had been bad enough to independently rotate my C1 & C2 vertebrae and that caused vertigo.

If you have spinal cord compression in your neck and no other spine issues in the rest of your body, it may cause foot and sciatic pain and numbness in limbs.

With your question about the lordotic curve in ADR vs fusion, a fusion tends to be a straight join that dumps the spine forward a bit. The ADR can allow movement and may allow a more normal curve. That is a question for the surgeon, and specific to the implant. It all depends on how many levels need surgery. if you have a single level that needs a fusion as I did, that doesn't affect my curvature very much and my range of motion is about the same as before surgery.

Keep on learning about your condition and consult as many opinions as you need to make an informed choice. Your story is similar to many spine patients with cervical issues. Find the best surgeon that you can. I had a great result from my surgery, and it changed my life for the better. We are all different with different issues and other health issues that may possibly affect our ability to heal and recover. Learn about all the risks of any procedure and balance that against the benefit you can achieve. Ask questions and advocate for yourself.