Melodie
I too have 4 herniated in the cervical and one in the thorasic....it happened 9 years ago and they decided after several drs...decided that surgery wouln't help...now they are degenerative and have arthritis...painfully I have learned to live with this... I have several friends that have had the surgery and wish they never did...I do have one friend that had to have surgery (it was so bad that if she moved her head she ran the risk of being parlized....they went in through the front of the neck and fused it....she was in a hard collar for 6 weeks, and had a very hard time sleeping she slept in her recliner... but she has been pain free and is glad she had the surgery...she too now has degenerative disk diease and will need to have the surgery again because the disk below in now starting to press on nerves... make sure they are a nerosurgeon and ask questions...I know that when you are in pain you just want it to stop....good luck...