Got my third opinion today - second surgeon opinion - from an orthopedic spine surgeon. He wants to do a laminectomy with no fusion on C3,C4,C5 and C6. That seems like a whole lot of bone to lose. I asked him why not a laminoplasty and he said in his experience, people end up with a lot of arthritis pain from laminoplasty in the long run - I did a little research today and found a big study that showed that >3 level laminoplaties do seem to come with more long term pain than their laminectomy counterparts. I would worry about horseback riding with that much of my spine exposed I think though. He says he doesn't feel that I need fusion with my neck the way it is and that the laminectomy would be fine though. Anyone know much about laminectomy? The surgeon I saw today was wonderful - he said he was really happy that I was getting as much info as I could and said he was impressed with how much I had learned already. He also said he felt the other NS I has seen was an excellent surgeon and he could see why she chose what she did and that it was certainly a viable alternative - and that if it didn't work, I could still have the laminectomy later and that the acdf was less invasive - however he did say there would be a shorter time before I could be back to normal activities with the laminoplasty and it wouldn't effect my range of motion at all, which is certainly appealing.

I guess I am not curious to see what the third surgeon says. But with two surgeon's saying yes, I would be very skeptical if a third said no, I think. Both of the surgeon's I have seen have a reputation for not doing surgery unless it's absolutely necessary.