I had pain radiating down my left leg for years, it would even wake me up at night. I coped with epidural steroid injections and nerve ablations for about 5 years until I suddenly started having severe lumbar pain when my L4-5 disc herniated. With a diagnosis of DDD, radiculopathy and myelopathy I had a laminectomy and fusion at L3-S1 last March. I just had my 6 month check up with my surgeon and all is well. Everything feels so much better. I still have an occasional bout of nerve pain in my left leg but my surgeon assures me that it is because the nerve was pinched for a very long time and it is still healing. I can now go days without any pain at all so I know he is right and we both expect it to finally disappear altogether. 6 months is still early days and my lumbar spine is still healing. I am very happy with my results. I wish you the best of luck and I hope your results are as great as mine are.