Bulging disks? No wonder he has so much pain. If you look at a picture of the spine and all the disks and such, you'll see that on each side of the opening in a vertebrae is where all the nerve bundles come through. With a bulging disk it can put pressure on those nerve bundles. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this adequately so if someone could give me a hand I'd appreciate it.

What does his doc say about these bulging disks and treatment for them?

I'm glad (I read through the entire thread before posting) you decided against it. It seems to me there might be some very serious risk involved. What jumped out at me is what would happen to these bulging disks if the wrong kind of pressure was put on them? Among other concerns. Is there risk of damage? I mean in addition to the problems Alan already has? Was that discussed at all?

Barbara