I went through a progression over 20 years. EVERYTHING mentioned above and more. The neurosurgeon waited too long to do surgery. The orthopedic surgeon FINALLY said do the surgery IMMEDIATELY. My disc actually fell out of the bones grafted together! (but the pain finally stopped. 😉 With the nerves crushed, your lower limbs don't get fed and become dysfunctional. However, the lumbar spine surgeries were MUCH better by the time I rolled in. The trick is - in my opinion - learn everything, try everything, get many opinions (I had 4) and keep plugging away. I was THRILLED with the results of my lumbar surgery 6 years ago. Now, I go back to the surgeon to figure out the outlying areas. I am 68. The quality of life issues were important to me and I wanted to stay active. Find the best orthopedic surgeon, pain mgt team (I have had 2 or 3). Stay away from scams and don't be tempted by phoney things. I almost came close to having my whole back redone when the surgeon got mad at me. Turned out to be a blessing 3 years later when the surgeon I "fell head over heels for" (in a professional way!) said he did all the guy's revision surgeries! Unbelievable! There are a lot of noninvasive things along the way, I did and stay in PT. Keep moving. Find the meds which work best for you. RFAs (heat method not pulse) and having fluid-filled sacs removed and limited epidural/cortisone injections helped me last 20 years until sliding into surgery. Unfortunately, my nerves were a little too squashed for too long so I continued to have some small amount of problems. I talk to total strangers when I found out they had lumbar surgeries. This forum is a great place. Search out the conversations... good luck!