Marita,
I would not go to a less-practiced surgeon, especially if you might get a cervical fusion. In fact, if you only need a one or two-level "correction," a cervical fusion state-side may serve you well. I have a few friends here in Mass. that had cervical fusion years ago (15 or 20) and both are doing well. That said, many patients here abhor the notion of fusion, since adjacent level degeneration is a possibility down the road.
But we STILL can't say what causes DDD since docs aren't diagnosing the causes -- which I believe have a definitive etiology stemming
from infection.
Check out TBI and the others in the US. Dunno about NM, but you can search members by state - I'll help you do that this weekend if you need help with that...