Buddy let me tell you what. I returned from Iraq in July of '08 and as opposed to going to Korea and changing MOS to 15T my back was killing me all the time and no matter how much I stretched and worked out nothing helped. So they started doing cat scans mri's turns out I had 4 herniated discs in my L to my S l3 l4 l5 s1 pain got worse and they just kept feeding me vicodin for the last year I was in the army so fast forward to now 5 years later. No surgeries only Injections every 5 months my Dr Barlow at st Vincent's in birmingham. Don't do the surgery unless you want to have another. My surgeon straight up told me that the technology isn't advance enough and that I wouldn't be able to pick up anything heavier than a milk jug for a year! My best advice is to get evaluated for a microdiscectomy. Look it up people in the military are doing it and being cleared off any profile in 30 days. Best of luck