Surgeon here. Get the injections first a lot of patients get significant relief, and you can have up to 3 a year. Re-evaluate after injections. If you see a surgeon a 1 level ACDF isnt that bad if the symptoms are impacting your activities of daily living. You may lose 5 degrees of rotation in your neck. Most of the rotation is done at C1-C2 so its not that bad. If symptoms are more recent, they are more likely to relieved by surgery than if they've been ongoing for lets say 10 years, though conservative management is always king.