hi thank-you for providing the brief history of you. A thorough clinical examination is advised along with MRI of lumbar spine. As your symptoms guides towards the pinched nerve in the lumbar spine due to disc pathology, it could be anything like - protrusion, herniation, prolapse etc. The best treatment for disc pathology is to understand the MRI, the pathobiomechanics of the spine and the muscle strength available. As disc is a jelly like substance which takes its time to shrunk due to oxidation reaction and the pinching of the nerve can be relived. Also, the pathology of the disc occurs due to weakness of the muscles leading to reducing the size of the inter vertebral spaces. Usually in my clinical practice I take cases of disc injury for a 12 weeks program. Along with the thorough understanding of the muscular factor and the Neurological symptoms. Many of the patients I have seen till date have been better with physical therapy. None of them had a recurrence and none had undergone for surgery as well. Also there is a practice line of action for treating this kind of injury. Step 1 - Rest + Drug therapy Step 2 - Physical therapy (12 weeks) if the above 2 steps fail then Step 3 - Cortisone injection Step 4 - Physical therapy (16 Weeks) If all the above fails then Step 5 - Surgery Step 6 - Physical therapy 30 (Weeks) As this is the line of action we follow to assure the best outcome scores. Usually patients is restricted to step 1 & Step 2 only. Very rarely I have come across patients from Step 3 to Step 6. In case you need more information and assistance i will be happy to help you out with your injury. Regards Jay Indravadan Patel