When did you decide it was time for surgery?
Hey there r/Microdiscectomy, have a question for you: would you opt into surgery at this point if you were in my shoes?
About me: 34 years old, would have considered myself pretty healthy/athletic pre-injury (was playing soccer once a week and golf once a week), occasion ~2 mile run.
Got a ~10-11mm herniated disc at L5/S1 in February 2025. Have doing physical therapy fairly consistently for the last 14 months, was doing twice a week in the beginning, now go into a PT clinic once a week and will do 1-2 at home workouts a week and walk ~1-2 miles a day.
Over the last 14 months I've brought my pain levels from ~8-9/10 when I first got the herniation down to a ~1-2/10 on a daily basis. I still have daily nerve pain, just not as intense. That said it's still pretty easy for my inflame things and shoot back up to a pain level of 6 for about four weeks if I'm not careful
Any time I've tried progressing past "PT" exercises and lift weights I flare things up. Any time I try to jog/run I flare things up. I can't play sports. I can pretty much just work, walk, and do low intensity PT exercises
Pretty much, I feel like I've reached a plateau where I don't really think I'm getting any better.
Met with the top Ortho in my city and he says in my shoes he'd opt for surgery at this point. Says to just let him know if he wants to schedule me in.
Personally I'm leaning into opting for the surgery. But I guess I'm just looking for feedback from folks... when did you feel like conservative treatment wasn't getting you back to where you were before?