@bobbiellen You can find a list of myofascial release John Barnes methods trained therapists at https://www.myofascialrelease.com/ . If you don't find someone near you, call Therapy on the Rocks in Sedona, AZ and ask for names of people who trained there. They don't all pay to be listed on the website. You'll need an MRI to determine nerve entrapment and stenosis as X rays will just show the bones and alignment and some arthritis. I had cervical central canal stenosis at C5/C6 and had a spinal fusion at Mayo 2 years ago without added hardware. I stayed in my neck brace until it fused at 3 months. Get as many opinions as you need and look up anything and research papers you find on your surgeon. Get one who's area of interest matches your case, and who only does spine surgeries, and ask how many they have done. Make sure they explain to you exactly where your symptoms come from and how they determined that. They can get it wrong if you have overlapping symptoms with other nerve issues in which case surgery would not fix all the symptoms. I also had thoracic outlet syndrome at the same time as the spinal cord compression. Arnica gel helps pain applied topically. A therapist can also use a cold laser or Dolphin Neurostimulator to calm down symptoms and muscle spasms. This surgery is a big surgery, but for me it wasn't as painful as I expected and the pre-surgery nerve pain was gone immediately when I woke up from surgery.