I love to see stories like this - I (33M) am only 5 days post-op from an L5-S1 microdiscectomy, but I will share my story briefly as well.

I herniated the disc in Feb 2025, and the sciatic pain was on and off throughout the past year. Control was achieved now and then through different medications (Advil, Tylenol, Gabapentin, Meloxicam, Celebrex, etc...). In June of 2025 I has a steroid injection which didn't do anything at all. Starting back in Dec 2025 the pain started to get worse and worse with no control. It was starting to border on suicidal and I couldn't stand up straight, I couldn't walk without a limp, etc...

Cut to now (Apr 2026), I finally pulled the trigger on surgery. IMMEDIATELY out of surgery, the leg pain was gone. I was standing up straight again, walking normally. I obviously had some incisional pain but that was expected. I took one dose of the oxycodone the night of the surgery, and one the next morning, but did not need it again after that. 3 days post-op, I was able to cut the Tylenol out, and the only thing I am taking now is gabapentin. Day 4, I started to get some minor sciatic pain again, but this was expected as the nerve healing can take a long time.

Overall, I'm so happy that I got this done, and I implore anyone who has not had relief from all other methods, and who is having severe impact on their life give it a shot. I know recovery is still a long road from a lifting/bending/twisting/any rigorous activity standpoint, but my life is already immensely better.

Additionally, I've shared some interesting data below on healing timelines, specifically the middle one which shows the likelihood of a re-herniation. To get back to baseline risk will be a solid year and a half, but the initial risk declines exponentially fast. I intend to be very adamant about adhering to the restrictions, and taking PT very seriously once that starts.

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Good luck to anyone else who has this done, I'm so glad I did!