I couldn't live with the pain so I got surgery right away. I'm pretty much healed now 4 months later and can lift 30-50lbs without any issue.

That's great to hear! Did you have the disc replaced? I have similar pain in L5-S1 due to a disc protrusion affecting the nerves in that region (either via impingement or, more likely, inflammation). Unfortunately, the surgeon I consulted said that surgery is rarely performed that far down the spine unless there's really serious symptoms.

In the meantime, I keep monitoring these studies on mesenchymal stem cells for disc regeneration, hoping one of them makes it to clinical trials :(

I had disc replacement as well as fusion, since C5-6 is likely in next few years. I got lucky because C-spine is much easier to operate than lumbar. They go in from front (neck) and do not need to touch the spinal cord. For lumbar, they have to.

One cool thing I learned about is the existence of IONM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraoperative_neurophysiologi...

I felt pretty comfortable knowing that things would flash red and beep if anyone got close to my spine during the surgery.

Close friend of mine with multiple lumbar herniations swears by stretching regimen like frequent yoga. Maybe that can help in the meantime. Good luck!

Thanks for the info!