I have had back surgery twice to repair a the same ruptured disc, Dr Tibbs at UK did both of mine He is a great surgeon. The first surgery lasted about 1 1/2 years and the second surgery has been 2 years ago. The surgery I had was a microdiscedamy(I think that is how you spell it) My pain was to the point I couldn't walk 30 ft without being in excruciating pain down my right leg when I sat down my pain would go away in about a minute. My quality of life was miserable. I couldn't play with my kids or fish and hunt. I was taking 800 mg of motrin 3 times a day and it wouldn't cut the pain. I did physical therapy with no results and I did 3 pain shots in my back at a pain clinic and KDMC with no results. Then I changed Dr's to Dr Tibbs He said with my condition none of this would have helped me and it didn't. With this surgery I was off work for 2 weeks and couldn't lift anything over 5 pounds for 6 weeks. With this surgery i was in the Hospital for 1 night and then to the recliner and bed. It wasn't that bad. I am doing fine now.