@joy75 I am sorry but it DOES seem like your cauda equina is being compressed! I had the same thing. (exactly the same from your description!) Was ALSO TOLD BY A NEUROSURGEON HE COULDN'T DO A THING. (What a jerk and he ended up being the head of a dept at the biggest teaching university in the U.S.. after 20 years). You need to see an ORTHOPEDIC surgeon, with current MRI in hand. But honestly, they will do a simple xray in their office so don't worry if your MRI is older than one year. I had FOUR different opinions. By the time I walked into my prince charming surgeon, it took a blink of an eye for me to say DO IT (the surgery). My vertebra had actually fused ITSELF together when the disc fell out over 20 years. I had the SAME debilitation in my legs. The nerves were permanently damaged by the time I found prince charming surgeon. Everything you described is your Cauda Equina being SQUISHED to their demise. I am THRILLED with my lumbar surgery every day of every week of every month of every year since 2018. GET ANOTHER OPINION from a good orthopedic school! (did I say I had FOUR?!) Private doctors were terrible, I found. One said I had nothing but a sprained back, the other wanted to completely fuse me from neck to tailbone! DON'T STOP reaching out. It sounds like you are being ran through the hamster wheel. I know. My orthopedic work is done at UCSD.