See if they can do minimally evasive surgery. My son had major pain in his neck, going down his arm to his hand. He couldn't work. They made a small incision in the front of his neck and did a cervical fusion. He was fine in 2 weeks. All pain is gone.

I developed spinal stenosis about 4 years ago. I was put on 20 painkilling pills a day. It went down to 16! I had the operation. The doctor didn't make any promises. I tried to get off the painkillers too soon.

I've tried several things. The latest is a combination of accupuncture and lazar. The first treatment was, "Hmmm! Maybe it'l work. I'm on my 7 or 8th treatment. I've not experienced any SEVERE pain in the last two weeks. I've even gone 6 hours between pills. So far, it seems to be working. About 3 weeks ago, I had a miserable week. I had chiropractic after my accupuncture/lazar treatment. The chiropractor had given me a treatment that I used to get before the onset of spinal stenosis. I know now that is not right for me. A reduced treatment without the twisting of my back is helpful. Especially if my right leg is stretched. This relieves pain.

Based on my experience if you do try the accupuncture/lazar treatment Don't stop with one. You will need two or three before you will start to get relief.
As for the operation, I'm glad I had it. Again, don't expect miracles right after the operation. My accupuncturist had the operation and walked out of the hospital and continued improving.

I didn't feel that there was any improvement for about 5 months. Then it was slight. I'm still improving. I drove my car about 10 miles yesterday. Did some housework and walked the dog at a neighbouring park.

Good luck! Welcome to a new world. Keep remembering, it could be worse.

@beckybee Hello and welcome to Connect. I had cervical spinal stenosis and had symptoms very similar to you. Anything I had to raise my arms to do was exhausting, so much so that if I drove to the grocery store, pushed a shopping cart for half an hour, I could not drive myself home without taking an hour long nap in the car. The good news is that surgery did fix all of that, and I got most of my strength back. I did not have any compression of nerve roots, it was all spinal cord compression. Generally speaking, the sooner you correct the compression, the better your surgical results may be. I don't know what your condition is, but my PT had advised me to try to have surgery within about 6 months of major symptoms.

My surgery was at Mayo, and fusion of C5/C6 done with a donor bone spacer and without hardware. I stayed in a neck brace 3 months until fused. That was a very good choice and I no longer have pain. I was a swimmer too in my younger days. I am an artist and it was very distressing that I couldn't paint anymore because I lost coordination in my arms. I did get that back and had to rehab a bit to rebuild some strength. I encourage you to find a great surgeon. That makes a difference in having a great outcome. You can shop around and different surgeons like different hardware. I didn't want that because my body is reactive to metals. Mine was excellent, Dr. Jeremy Fogelson at Mayo Rochester. Not all surgeons would do a "no hardware " fusion, but Dr. Fogelson did that for me.