Well, my hip pain isnt from my hip, it is from my spine - OUCH

When and IF you need the surgery, start with the nuerosurgeon or spinal surgeon not the orthopedist. The spine is very tricky and a neurosurgeon or spinal sugeon knows what needs to be done. And yeah, I really hope you can avoid surgery but I would be prepared for it on the chance you need it. It's like any other surgery, they are all surgeons but not everyone is qualified to be a spinal surgeon.

At the time of my surgery, I was in Metro Detroit...my surgeon was one of the best at the University of Toledo. We lived 15 mins from Toledo on the MI side of the state line.

As to genetics, I have no clue why mine went bad as no one in my family, either side has back issues other than me. I got the whole nine yards: Mild Scoliosis, Arthritis of the Spine, Spinal Stenosis, 2 herniated disks.

Good luck to you.

Liz

http://www.spineinstituteny.com/the-physicians/spine-surgeon s/michael-neuwirth-md.html

http://www.hss.edu/physicians_oleary-patrick.asp

these are the 2 surgeons that I have used in the past for consultations when I had herniated discs and thankfully not bad enough for surgery although this time seems much worse.    The second one is the surgeon to most of the profession atheletes here in the NY area - many of my relatives have been operated on him and he is worlk renouned - if I could get either of them to operated on me I would be lucky.  They are both orthopedic surgeons but they are both heads of spinal centers with many other surgeons at there disposals including neurosurgeons and they alll operate as a team.  You need both specialties since they are operating on both your veratabrae, discs and your nerves.

Yes, I know not all surgeon are qualified surgeons and that is why I go to New York city which is an hour away

I didnt mention scoliosis because that is in my thorasaic spine not my lumbar spine - have tons of trouble in there and cervical also.  for whatever reason that we dont know at this tpoint, I am arthitic ridden all over my body.

I'm glad they are getting things sorted out.  I know chronic pain can where on you.

I had chronic pain with Sciatica - with the L5-S1 disc. They say 5% of people need surgery for it - and I was one of them.   What you explained as far as the pain, walker, etc was ME you were describing too.  I didn't have the other issues with my back, but towards the last few months of this I was joking about calling Dr Jack Kevorkian (back in THOSE days).  I really couldn't imagine having to live with that type of pain forever.   I went to a chiropractor that did all he could to help and then said I needed to see a surgeon.  I found that very commendable of him.  I had an Orthopedic surgeon and he was awesome!  He also did my shoulder when I had bursitis and an impingement. 

The thing with that is, as I'm sure you're well aware of, is the more the nerves get damaged, the longer they take to heal. They heal very slowly...  I had the surgery and felt almost instant relief, but once the nerves kicked back in it was almost like I had never had surgery.  It took almost a full year for the nerves to heal and get back to normal - but I've never had another problem with it and NO sciatica. 
I understand why you don't want surgery - on many different levels, but just keep in mind the longer you wait (and I DO hope it will go away on its own) the longer it takes to heal.  My mother had sciatica too and was taking chondroitin - I'm not sure if it "cured" her or if it was just her time, but hers did go away. 

Good luck - I'm glad you found a Dr to listen to you.  My PCP didn't... and i had to "wait and see" for a long time...