Deciding what to do about ongoing back or neck pain is rarely a single decision. It is a series of smaller ones, made over months, often with incomplete information. A patient tries rest, then medication, then a course of physical therapy. Somewhere in that sequence an MRI is ordered, a surgical opi...

Persistent pain that originates in a spinal disc has a way of quietly reorganizing a person’s life. Workouts get shortened, then abandoned. Long drives on the 405 become something to dread. Sleep grows fragmented, and the simple act of sitting through a meeting or a family dinner turns into an...