This Sucks

Well I went to the back doctor for my follow up this afternoon. The news is less than good. I was correct in my previous post to conclude that my disc/s were herniated. I also noticed the dark color of my discs on the MRI. This dark color (as opposed to the milky white of the "healthy ones") means that they are degenerated. The darker the color and less milky white, the more degeneration. Nuff said. The treatment is where the news is, well, dismal.
The MD ordered a "discogram." No, this isn't what you send your lover from the 70's... "Attention all men. Impress your lovely lady with a special surprise, a real blast from the past - send her a discogram and get your groove on!" It's really not that fun. At all. Just google it. Reports say it's an "uncomfortable procedure" to "it's the most excruciatingly painful thing I've ever done." As the doctor put it, it's "a non habit-forming procedure." Ugh. The whole idea of the test is to elicit pain.
Here's the problem. The fact that I have at least two problem discs, both with degeneration and bulging, he's unsure if the pain I'm having is from the disc compression (the degeneration) or from the bulges. Incidentally, the treatement for the aforementioned conditions is completely different. If the pain is from the compression, I need a spinal fusion on at least one (possibly two) levels. If the pain is from the bulge, a discectomy (like I had before) is the solution. Enter the satan "discogram."
In this procedure, they put you on an x-ray table, and insert a needle into the disc of your spine. This is thru many many layers of skin, muscle, and, oh yeah, around that huge nerve that runs the length of your entire body. And the whole objective is to elicit pain. To reproduce the pain you are already having (or not). Then they shoot this radioactive dye into the disc to put pressure on it to see if it elicits pain like or unlike what you are already experiencing. In other words, if it's the same pain (only much much worse) it's the compression that's the problem = fusion. If it's a different pain (but none the less, pain) it's probably the bulge = discectomy. The only problem is that you have to be the one to determine which type of pain it is, hence, no pain medicine pre-procedure, and definitely no mood-altering good stuff during. That would defeat the purpose. I guess it's so uncomfortable, you get 3-5 days off work just to get over the test.
As you can tell, I'm really looking forward to this.
So that's the good news... how's everyone else doing?