Aaron came to me as a new patient in 2012 with alarming symptoms. He had a significant foot drop where he had complete numbness and weakness in his foot. He also had a history of chronic back and leg symptoms through the years prior but, like most people, was just dealing with the pain because of his other priorities. He was the father of 2 boys and was a videographer, traveling all over the world for a broadcast media company. We discussed different surgical options and he was not ready for fusion surgery. He underwent emergent microdiscectomy for his foot drop. Due to a quick response to address his foot drop and his hard work with physical therapy, he was able to regain strength and was pleased. However, he still had a history of chronic back pain that needed to be addressed. When he was ready to treat his back pain, we discussed performing a discography to analyze the health of the discs and where his back pain was coming from. His goal is to remain active with his boys and avoid a large spinal fusion surgery that could limit him. I offered him a compromise. He would receive a minimally invasive fusion at the two most painful discs confirmed by discography, and the other degenerative disc level would be injected with his own stem cells. This treatment gave him the outcome he was looking for and his symptoms continue to be stable.