I had back surgery back in 2016, I had herniated L4-L5 and bulged L5-S1, the herniated disk had fragmented in the spine and I had a lot of nerve pain, I tried 3 back injections, PT, and a Chiropractor, nothing seemed to help very much, I was taking a fair amount of Hydrocodone a day with muscle relaxers, after a year I couldn't stand it any longer, when I would walk it would pinch the nerve to step all the way forward with my right leg and my leg would start to go numb when I would be standing there, my hips were starting to hurt because of how I was walking, and know matter what I did I couldn't get rid of the pain, after surgery, it was so much better but after a few years I have started having mild sciatic nerve pain through my right glute down my leg and into my calf, its nothing like the pain before surgery but I feel like my back is so temperamental. I was lucky enough to get away with just a microdiscectomy but next time the doctor said it will be a fusion, I plan on getting an inversion table and seeing what that does.
I feel like once you open up your back to surgery it's like opening a can of worms