L5/S1 here too, 2 MRIs, 51 years old.
Neurosurgeon wanted to cut me the following week.
This was on my second visit to him, to evaluate the new MRI (8 months after the first one).
I walked out of that office and haven't been back since. I still take Aleve on a bad day, but I'm mostly drug free. I was up to 4-6 Aleve/day, then Lyrica performed its miracle. That relief (on that for 18 months or so) got me more flexible so I could actually exercize without agony. Now, if I DON'T stretch/crunch/hang/roll I'll get stiff and achey.
Follow the
Egosque method, do yoga/stretches, etc. His 2 CD set is good, but the intermediate kicks my ass 10 minutes into it. Seems the more I move, the better life is.
I installed a pullup bar in my garage.
It is low enough that I can take the weight off by bending my knees.
That keeps me from arching my back into the pain range.
I do hanging crunches and modified pullups (use the momentum from a hanging crunch to pull my chin up over the bar in a smooth motion), then I lower myself as slow as comfortable and extend my legs back to feet on floor. A typical day I do 2 or 3 sets of 4-6 reps. Some days I do way more, some days I do none and suffer. I put it just inside the doorway so that I walk under it and do a few.
Occasionally, I'll hang from my knees (after a skin the cat) and do upside down crunch and holds. I cheat a little by holding my ankles, but that gives me more stretch control.
Across the street is a playground with a concrete picnic table. Its wide enough that my outstretched hands can grip the sides at mid-torso level. I do leg lifts and crunches on that, throwing in some twists to get the kinks out. Neighbors think I'm cukoo.
Last time I hurt myself, I carried an 18lb. bag of dogfood and a gallon of milk from the driveway into the house. Shouldn't have twisted as I lifted. Another time I invited agony for days by .....reaching forward, turning a doorknob and opening a door..... of all things.
I recently added one of these rollers to my regime:
http://www.nefitco.com/foam_rollers.html
It gets knots out of muscles you didn't even know you had.