I have had three discos. Not fun. Each time, the surgeon said the ins. company requested it before approving the surgery. The first two were done with mild IV sedation. I forget what it was right now. It most certainly hurt like crazy when he hit the "hot" disc but it somehow didn't matter so much. I was awake and do remember saying something uncomplimentary about his manhood. The third one was done with a local only. Perhaps he thought I would get mouthy again. It was supposed to be a two level procedure.....the suspected bad disc and a control level. It turned out being a four level procedure as I ended up with three bad levels not one. I bounced all over the table and woke up the next morning with a spinal leak. That put me in the hospital for 36 hours as it took three seperate blood patches. I know that last experience is the exception, not the rule but I can assure you that I would never permit anyone to do another discogram w/o mild IV sedation. Best wishes.