@ashby1947 Hello and thank you for your post. I am a spine surgery patient and had surgery at Mayo for spinal cord compression at C5/C6. I didn't have foraminal stenosis, but I did experience some nerve compression at the nerve roots if I side bent because the disc had collapsed about 50% leaving much less room for the nerves to exit and that produced stabbing pains. Living with constant pain from that would be tough. One thing that also happens with spine issues is muscle spasms in the neck that can move the vertebrae and twist or tilt them and moving the bones around a compressed foramen can increase pain. Have you thought of trying physical therapy? PT along with myofascial release helped me a lot prior to my spine surgery and realigned everything properly until the next spasm moved things again.

Here is our MFR discussion and there are a lot of links to information in the first pages.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

Have you considered surgery to clean out the foramen? Bone growth remodeling of the spine also happens from uneven pressure so keeping the spine aligned as best you can helps. Myofascial release is a very gentle stretching of the muscle and tight fascia that keeps things bound up, and it helps to restore normal movement and alignment again.

Have you been evaluated by a physical therapist? What do you think about trying myofascial release?