I've known three people that had back surgery. One of them ended up in a wheelchair, and the other two are much worse off and can barely walk. All three were lower back, i think. I am very suspicious of back surgery myself, but of course I knwo nothing about your problem, and that's just my two cents from personal testimony. Have you searched the Web for info?
If your leg and foot was progressivly getting more numb, and you were stumbling more and more when walking....and you couldn't do much of anything. Oh, say like standing for 10 minutes, or sitting for 10 minutes...little things like that.....
You'd be ready for a doctor to cut on you and make an attempt to make it stop getting worse. And, the CHANCE that it would get better sounds great. I know. That was me. It's all gone away with his skilled surgery. I had no choice. Most don't with ruptured extruding disks. That pressure on the sciatic kills it. You have to do something fast before it's permanent. I've seen people put it off and they pay because once that nerve is permantly damaged, you are screwed.