Hello there, Due to an L4-L5 disc prolapse the cushioning discs between your spine are out of place. This leads to the discs are compressing against the nerves in your lower spine(lumbar spine). This irritates the nerve and causes shooting pains and spasms along the distribution of the nerve. Generally starting from the back, moving on to the back of the thigh and going to the heel. The treatment for this involves- 1) You sleeping on a hard surface. The mattress that you sleep on should be firm not soft or uneven. 2) Doing lower back strengthening exercises under physiotherapy 3) Accupressure/accupunture therapies are also of some help but go to a therapist only if you have talked to the patients he has treated first and they can see an improvement in their symptoms. Meds which are painkillers like vicodin or tramadol are a temporary fix as they only treat the symptom(pain) but do not treat the cause of pain. It would take you upto 2 months to start seeing positive results under physiotherapy but being regular is the only way you can keep off the pain. Now in my professional opinion both surgery and conservative measures have equal chances of success. And even though surgery can be done and seems to be an instant kind of solution it also requires rehabilitation and quite some time where you would be bed ridden and would require assistance for daily chores. Physiotherapy/chiropractice or accupressure is a more holistic approach to treatment and cures you in a longer timeframe but you will have a lesser phase of being bed ridden. Hope this helps, Please get back to me with any further queries. I would be glad to help you,