I herniated a disc in early December. For about 3 weeks everything was excruciating. The very worst was getting out of bed and driving. Just torture. In early January, I saw an ortho doc who prescribed an oral steroid for 1 week and PT. The pain basically went away while I was on the steriod. I did PT for about 6 weeks and slowly improved. Now it's been about three months since the initial injury. I've been 98% pain free for about a month. I've started working out again, albeit at light weights/high reps and doing more PT and core exercises than I'd like to do. (and still no back to squats and deadlifts -- not sure if I'll ever do them again) Definitely exhaust your options for steriods and PT before you consider surgery. Also, there is a school of thought that says chronic back pain can be closely linked to your subjective expectations. I.e., if you are pessimistic and fear a chronic or catastrophic injury, then your injury is more likely to be chronic and catastrophic. But if you believe that you'll be fine and keep moving, you're more likely to have a short-term injury. I don't know if there is any truth to it, but I basically tried to be optimistic and keep moving, and my results have been good so far. Might be coincidence, but there's certainly no harm in having a positive mindset. Good luck.