Laura - I know that you are frightened at the prospect of these surgeries, but as long as you have good doctors, you will be just fine.
I went thru this very thing and more in 2006 - only I had 3 surgeries between March and September of that year. I still refer to it as "my year in hell". My results from the first 2 and with 2 different doctors, was less than successful - but that's because both docs were true hacks!!! It took the 3rd doc from a large university medical center to repair all the damage that the first 2 did.
It's a very long drawn out story, but if you want to talk about it/ask questions/etc, I'll be glad to go over my saga with you, and maybe ease some of your anxiety in doing so. Just PM me with your email - I did have it at one time, but no longer.
And the only thing that I found to be painful, was having to be in a neck brace for so long. Pain from the surgery itself, was minimal.