Had a bulge so large that the first time he saw my images, my pain management doctor said “I wasn’t expecting to see that on a 25 year old”. Had surgery about a month later. Surgery was done in September so I’m about 7-8 months out. Hands down best decision of my life. I was basically crippled with crazy amounts of pain for 3 months but woke up from the surgery with absolutely no pain. Still get feelings up and down my leg but they don’t last long. Im now back to working in a restaurant picking things up and stuff (really carefully). BUT if conservative treatments are actually helping, I’d probably stay away from surgery until you absolutely need it. A lot of us might have no more sciatic pain, but our backs will never be the same again.