--both from your standpoint and his.

Given that he's 72, and apparently has always been active, it may just be a wonder that symptoms have held off this long. There's a saying that almost all of us who survive past middle age now outlive our spines--they just don't seem, evolutionarily at this point, to be able to handle all that upright bipedal pounding for that long a time.

Over 50% of people past age 50 have arthritic degeneration of the spine--most notably lumbar, but often cervical--but not all have symptoms. If he is the big stoic type, he may well have had symptoms of mild-to-moderate variety for a long time and ignored them, so as not to worry you and contribute to any more stress for you.

The real question here--and sure the spinal disorders people (and Liza Jane) will give all sorts of opinions--is to what extent the cord itself, and the cauda equina terminal extentions of the cord, are being impacted by the stenosis. This is generally looked upon as a more serious situation than impingement only of the nerve roots resulting in a radiculopathy. (One can have both, of course.) From what you posted, there seems to be fairly minimal foraminal narrowing (the foramen is where nerve roots are), and a lot of us have diffuse disc bulgers, but the severe facet hypertrophy and ligamentum flavum thickening seems to me the most arresting part of the report (that, and the nerve root cysts--something has been irritating something there for a while).

I would hope that a myelogram would confirm the idea of a laminectomy. How is he otherwise functionally? Is pain the basic symptom, or does he have other neural symptoms, or muscular/autonomic compromise? The latter would be more alarming and more likely to result in more extensive surgery.