This is a section I am adding in 2021 because so many people are looking here and everywhere for answers.  I am not a doctor.  I'm speaking as a lawyer who has talked to hundreds of motor vehicle accident patients with back problems.   This is not the take of a medical doctor.
You should do what your doctor tells you to do.  The problem is that doctors rarely tell you to undergo surgery and, when they do, it often contradicts what another equally qualified spinal surgeon tells us. But the more common answer is that back surgery is a challenge, it can fail, and only you know the pain you are going through and only you can balance that pain against the risk.  This is not a lot of guidance.