hi again...no i didnt mean a discogram, what i meant was to inject a pain killer into areas the surgeon thought would be a possible source of the pain. he's looking at the scans and he may have a suspicion that a certain area of the spine is causing pain. some people even get pain from certain hardware. when the painkiller is directed at parts of the hardware and the patient gets relieve the surgeon then knows the source of the pain. he might want to remove that hardware...if he suspects a disc yes he might want to do a discogram.
i am a big fan of exercise. now i know you are in pain. after my neck surgery which by the way was massive i still experienced pain. one day i was cleaning a greasy pan with steel wool and noticed i felt a little better. so i started rubbing a cloth on a table top. i tried all kinds of directions with the cloth. i found certain directions and forces that didnt hurt. eventually i strengthened my shoulders and neck by just rubbing and rubbing. i am now pain free. if i dont do exercise the pain can come back. exercise in my opinion is the number one pain killer.....best of luck......pal pete