Terry
To answer your question, I was in the same circumstance 5 years ago. I was in severe pain with two herniated discs and had surgery to C5,6 and 7 with fusion (a metal plate with 5 screws). I strongly recommend seeing a spine surgeon and having a test done called a mylogram (where they inject dye around your discs and take x-rays to show the soft tissue damage). Then the spine surgeon can determine better whether or not surgery and fusion is required. A spine surgeon is better than an orthopedic surgeon because a spine surgeon focuses just on the spine. I hope this helps.