I have just come back from the hospital for the results from my scan, I have a 10mm prolapsed disc at L5,and there is also narrowing on the spinal canal with is not helping (stenosis), I have two options epidural injection or surgery, I'm going for the epidural injection to see if that works first and if not it will mean surgery.
I'm surprised they've given you a choice, to be honest - that's a pretty significant prolapse, and if it gets worse you could lose a fair amount of function/feeling in your legs (this has happened to me - I have L5/S1 herniation and have limited feeling in my left leg, and since my car accident in January I've had loss of feeling on the right side too)
However, a mate of mine recently had an epidural injection for pretty much the same problem (L5 herniation and impingement on the nerve) and it seems to have done him a lot of good in the sense that he's gone from being practically immobile to being able to ride a bike again, albeit for short distances to begin with. Time will tell whether or not it actually solves his particular problem, though. If memory serves, he had it done as an outpatient and described it as being 'a bit uncomfortable to begin with' but was up and doing without pain within 24hrs.
