I've been a member for a very short time and I happy to announce that I had a Non- Traumatic discectomy in L5-S1 yesterday. I got into this forum to find someone who had this kind of surgery. Nobody answered so I realized that people having this kind of surgery go back to their normal lives and are not in this forum. So, I just was confident with the experience of the doctor who referred me to this place. He went through this surgery 11 years ago. I haven't had any pill for pain in almost 23 hours now, only with ice pad, my husband changed the gauze once, not stitches, an opening of 4mm. Local anesthesia and sedation, I didn't feel anything, just woke up in the recovery room, later I was helped to go to the bathroom, walking slowly because I was dizzy, but my right leg (the bad one) was moving normal, not limp. Today I've been resting as indicated. I will have two weeks of passive therapy at home, then aquatic and land therapy. Total of 6 to 8 weeks therapy. I suffered 3 months with a big herniated disc, tried treatments, didn't work and the last MRI showed it was already extruded. I just had the herniated part of the disk removed, any other thing was touched, not bone, ligaments, anything. So it's really non invasive, but expensive one. I'm lucky I will have big part reimbursed by insurance. I had a discogram the day before. They do this in order to have a clear road map to the disc. I had sedation and anesthesia so not painful at all. I highly recommend this surgery to people that can afford it!!!