This surgery is to prevent future injury to the cord. Even though I tell my patients that this surgery is designed to prevent cord injury, I do see many patients with improvement of their myelopathy after surgery.
Facial sensations are generally not associated with cord compression as the facial nerves are cranial nerves. Cranial nerves do not exit the skull so spinal cord compression should not affect them.
It does fit that you have cervical stenosis now as you had the same stenosis at the lower levels in the past. You probably have congenital cervical stenosis (you were born with it).
Becoming nervous prior to surgery is typical. Nervousness can make us hyper-vigilant. This means that we pick up on some symptoms that we might have that we would have ignored before the neck disorder. This does not mean that these separate symptoms are not of some concern but more likely than not, they are not an issue.
Dr. Corenman
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.