Hi LumbarSpine,
Welcome! Yes, your story has many similarities to mine. It is a big decision to choose the surgeon and the disc type. Every surgeon will have a different recommendation. It seems that you are thinking between Prodisc-L and M6-L. In my opinion, those are not the optimal discs to choose from. If you want to go with an UHMWPE disc, Activ-L is your choice (FDA approved in U.S.!). If you are going for elastomer, I would place my bet on LP-ESP, with possibly Freedom being relevant in the near-future. Just to add some more choices to confuse you even some more