Looking at some minor(hopefully ) back surgery.

Yes it will fix the problem. I had disc issues about eight years ago and got the surgery done and am I glad I did.

Dealing with the leg and back pain and and foot numbness and the various non-surgical treatments (and the pain) and exercises and steroids (and the pain) and quack chiropractic escapades led me down the path to surgery. I am much better after having it done. It was walk in, two hours of prep and surgery, and roll me out to the car that afternoon.

Be very gentle the first 24 hours because the surgery area may still be numb from the anesthesia, and you'll feel like you can do 100 jumping jacks. You probably can, but you'll do damage. Also, remember that--post surgery--your back is not like is was when you were 20. So go very easy on it and give it several months to a year to heal before you start snowboarding again.

Great advice as usual from Peegoo. I had two co-flex implants done to my lower back a year from November. Easy peasy operation was mine. About like a root canal . Not pleasant but tolerable. I'd suffered badly the two years prior. Had to do all the rehab exercises and shots which helped a tiny bit. Finally got the go ahead for the surgery and it was a game changer for me,best thing I've ever done for myself.Not all stories end as well so your mileage may vary,but in my case I would have attempted surgery myself so great was the pain. I was better immediately,but really it was a full year before I felt 100%.Best of luck whatever you decide!

hey budg, mojo to your procedure and healing.

last year, I had symptoms similar to yours, on both hips and side-thighs.
After all the dancing around, I changed orthopedists, and he said surgery is
needed.

my problem was the c3-c4 disks had spurs or something that were putting
pressure on the nerves. He thought he could do a 'decompression', where
he removed bone from the rear of the disks. a simple surgery, maybe 3-4
weeks recovery. As it turns out, there was too much instability after he
did this, and ended up doing a fusion of the the two vertebrae while he
had me opened up. (he warned me there was a 1 in 4 chance of this.
Lucky me). But at least the job was done right the first time.

So I was walking the halls with no hip pain in 4 hours, and went home, but now
looking at two months of limited twisting, bending or lifting. No lifting over
ten pounds (had to get a smaller wine glass). Living in terror that I would
do something dumb to mess up the healing. Ten weeks later, back is fine,
except for some occasional pain when I overdo my chores, and PT is strengthening
everything.

Hopefully you'll be looking at even an easier path to recovery

My wife had a herniation cleaned up endoscopically, the least invasive surgery you can have. Other than not being able to submerge the wound for 2 weeks (she was allowed to shower as long as it was covered with a waterproof bandage) she had no side effects and instant relief.

Unfortunately, that procedure as a high incidence of reinjury and she did suffer one, and had it done again. Been good since then.

I’ll get mine taken care of one day, maybe. Got a lots of other things I want fixed before that.

The doctor said no restrictions other than submerging and lifting. We went to Disney World two days after the first surgery and she felt like a million bucks. 

We also went the day after the second surgery. Here’s the button we made her wear. 

good luck!

The only thing I could possibly offer on this is to try the physical therapy route because it so often gets skipped, but it looks like that has been tried and the best solution has been determined to be otherwise. Good on you for that - seen lots of guys try the chiropractor, heavy duty pain pills and give up after that and seek surgery, or worse, just stick to pain pills and the chiropractors.

Who does your nails, Mike? Do tell