It just gets better and better...

I was thrown from a horse back in April(my fault, not the horses) and had immediate excruciating back pain. When I was able to catch my breath I stood up and walked about 8 steps before I had to lay back down from fear of passing out. This happened at my grandparents house and scared the crap out of my grandpa. He wanted to call 911 but I couldn't let that happen. I didn't want to be mae fun of by my colleagues! Lol. Anyway, I crawled into the car and he took me to a small local ER. The CT showed a compression/end plate fracture at L1. I was off work for 3 months and started PT three days after the injury. I followed my doctors advice to the T but didn't seem to get any better and he just wasn't listening to me. He released me for work but I still was having symptoms and didn't know what to do...

I went to a chiropractor and he ordered an MRI which showed a herniation and extrusion at the L5-S1 level with an annular tear. I have decreased reflexes on my right side and severe sciatic pain at times. I saw a pain management dr who did 2 epidural spinal injections with no relief.

A friend convinced me to see an orthopedic spine specialist who recommends a microdiscectomy. I scheduled the surgery but can find little information about returning to heavy lifting. Hopefully I will get more information at the Pre-OP appointment. The surgeon said I could go back to work after 4 weeks and I hope he is right because after that I wil lose my job.

I am very nervous about back surgery. I don't want to live in pain every day for the rest of my life but I also don't want to give up my career.

Anybody have any experience with this? Any advice?