[annapurna]

First, the risks he's described are what you'd expect for a cervical spine surgery. Second, if you don't know which level your bad disk is at, you need a second opinion bad because your first surgeon hasn't given all the information you'd need yet. A single level of black (dessicated, water's diffused out and the disk height has been lost) disk isn't bad enough to describe all of your symptoms unless the disk also herniated and is pressing on your cord. That, in combination with your disk height loss, makes you a likely candidate for disk replacement, either ADR or fusion, but remember my opinion is probably worth less than you've paid for it.