ACDF surgery recommended for C3-C7 - is it worth it?

I am 54 years old. In 1991 I had a motorcycle accident and broke my jaw. For the majority of my adult life I've had lower back issues but still maintained a pretty active life and have even run a few half marathons and many shorter races, etc.

About 5 years ago I started experiencing numbness in my hand.. throughout the years it has moved up into my shoulder. Last year (Sept) i had really bad neck pain, which forced me to go back to the orthopedic and had an MRI. I then started physical therapy. The pain went away after about a week but the numbness has never gone away and continues to become more intense. Since then I've had 3 other bad neck experiences where the pain was at a level 10. So a total of 4 bad neck pain episodes and 24/7 numbness. After 7 months of PT I went back to an orthopedic who said I could try shots, etc. but that my discs are not growing back. Two of them are "gone" and I'm bone on bone.

Yesterday I finally got in to see the Neurosurgeon who was very good and thorough. He explained my MRI and recommended ACDF surgery for C4-C7. The more I read about it, the more freaked out I get.

Would love to hear from others about your experiences - is the surgery worth it? How tough is the recovery?