I am not a doctor but I am in a tangential occupation. As others have expressed as much expertise as you can do. Get second and third opinions. I can tell you we see far more unsuccessful back surgeries than successful. There is a lot going on back there and what may seem like one thing could be something else.
The problem with pain and extremities is your spine is it’s like a electric train track one piece could be causing the pain for the entire track. So you think you are fixing L5-L6 but that is just a symptom of a T vertebrae where the real problem is.
One other piece of advise and I do not get why doctors aren’t explaining this to patients but the more narcs you take the more pain you are going to have. It does the inverse after 30 days or so. Realistically most people should not need narcs for more than 7-14 days The problem is when you stop taking them your body is still going to hurt because it needs exercise, etc once you past the 14 day mark you are entering into dependence stage. And then at the 30 day mark a persons pain feels worse. So the doctor ups the prescription and they begin the endless cycle our country is in today.
Keep in mind that narcs are measures as a morphine equivalent. A doctor charts how much morphine equillevent a person is on. Most people over 90 days are taking more morpheme equivalent than their body can process
Narcotics and opioids were created for stage 5 cancer patients so they would not have to go to the doctor every day to get morphine. They were originally intended to relieve pain in the 30-90 days up to death.
So be careful with the drugs you are taking and honestly if one of a doctor we used did that just volunteer’s so many drugs, we would instruct their patients they probably want to find a new doctor
An initial supply per EBM for a non fracture non emergency is generally 3 days. The doctor is supposed to evaluate the patient after that to see how they are doing.
Again I am not a doctor I come from the side that deals with evidence based guidelines such as ODG and ACOEM guideline which are based on years of testing and scientific principles