My husband has a herniated disk. Not ruptured, but bulging. It was a workers comp case and they wanted to do surgery. I was TOTALLY against surgery. did you know there are so many back surgeries that go wrong, there is now a Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (or something like that). Crazy. Heard about that on Oprah. anyway, he tried decompression therapy. Basically you lay on a table, and they do small stretches of the two vertibre around the disc. Workers comp decided to allow him to be the guinney pig for them since this was going to be so much cheaper than surgery. IT WORKED!!! he does do some very simple exercises at home once in a while if his back gets sore, but he's pretty much back to normal now. It's definately worth checking into. Please try all options before surgery. If it goes bad, there is no coming back from it.