Had the worst pain in my life down my right leg. Almost crawled on the furniture to get to the BR in the morning. Went for the injections with some relief, but it returned. Went to the neurosurgeon and they have improved their techniques in amazing strides. Had what they called minimally invasive laminectomy on 2 levels. They went in a 1" incision and placed probes in the right place and then increased the lumen of the probes by slipping new ones over them, just pushing the muscles and tissues aside. when they were in the right place, they used their trimmer and just trimmed away the bulging part of the disk like a PAC MAN. The surgery took 90 minutes and I walked out of the hospital as soon as I could pee. That afternoon I walked my little dog around the yard and the next day I walked down and back from the mail box--about 1/4 mile each way. No pain!! Minimal incisional pain. No lifting of greater than 10 lbs for 6 weeks and no extreme bending. After the 6 weeks can go back to heavy lifting and normal life. Was a breeze compared to the pain. Would do it as 1st line pain relief any day. The risk for infection and complications was around 1%. Any questions, you can PM me. Good luck.