I had a minor decompression surgery last year for spinal stenosis that caused right side sciatica on me. The surgery was great. It was scary at first because I still had the same sciatic pain for about a week after the surgery. Then at about day 10 my pain was completely gone. However, at the 2 week mark I decided to go to the gym and do hamstring curls like an idiot and screwed up the other side. My advice is to wait a month before starting rehab. Just walk every hour for 5 minutes or so as tolerated. I am getting an epidural L5-S1 injection tomorrow for “diagnostic” purposes. If it helps significantly, my neurosurgeon will know where he needs to concentrate on my next decompression surgery because currently the MRI is inconclusive as to where my nerve is being compressed or scraped when twisting. I only have severe arthritis in my L4-L5 and moderate stenosis in my L5-S1. This time I will probably wait 6 weeks before I start rehab and 3 months before I start trying to jog or lift weights again.
I have had 1 orthopedic surgeries in the last 16 years, and I have not regretted any of them. Only one I wouldn’t have done was a knee meniscus surgery that didn’t hurt me but also didn’t help much. You just have to ask yourself if you can live with what you are getting fixed. You also have to consider the small possibility of the surgery failing or making things worse. I know, it’s a tough decision and there are no take backs in life. Good luck!