@upstatephil I am a Mayo spine patient, and I know you're in good hands there. As a comparison, did you feel immediate improvement from the ACDF procedure? I know I did. I had central canal spinal stenosis at C5/C6 because of a ruptured disc with bone spurs. It was generating pain all over my body, and when I woke up from surgery, all that pain was gone! The pain I had at that point was from the incision and surgical path. Did you have an experience similar to that from your first procedure?

A laminectomy adds space similar to raising the roof on a house to build another floor. They remove some bone during a laminectomy and that can be effective. My older cousin had just a laminectomy and it helped him quite a bit. He did not have any other spine procedures.