I’m kind of in shock that you continued to work as a nurse with your back issues. My 1st wife injured her back rupturing L3, L4, L5 discs putting a Foley catheter in a women with rather large legs. She was on Workers Comp until she developed a severe cardiac illness (prinzmetals variant angina) which disabled her permanently. The docs thought the stress from the injury was a contributing factor.
Once I injured my back, not from nursing although that was my profession too, I could not go back to doing medical record auditing and sitting all day or do floor nursing either after my fusion and 2 years of disability.
I guess it depends on how much pain you’re willing to tolerate with a screws up back and hopefully you don’t continue to deteriorate until you make a decision.