Hello @quickray, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It sounds like your doctor feels that because you can manage your pain without meds, you are likely not at the stage of needing to consider an invasive surgery at this point. How fabulous!

You will notice I have moved your post into an existing discussion, which you can find here:
- Herniated discs, history of injections, is it time for surgery?: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/herniated-discs-history-of-injections-is-it-time-for-surgery/

I did this to allow you to review others' thoughts given their circumstances and will enable you to respond to the members who have replied to you already, like @katcollins and @vincescs.

Have you started taking your doctor's advice and seeing how your neck does with some light activities?