I just had surgery on my l4 and l5 herniated discs after a year of impinged nerves. Highly recommend seeing if surgery is right for you, it was life changing for me.
In the beginning, physiotherapy got it to a stage where I was able to ride again and function normally (albeit with pain and stiffness) and painkillers helped in this phase.
After 5 or so years, I went to a doctor because the remaining pain (especially the occasional "hard pinch" of a nerve would almost take my legs out from under me) was getting to me. He advice was to me that surgery is pretty much always a worse option in cases like mine because scar tissue does eventually fade (as it does elsewhere on your body) and it probably takes a good 10 years for that to happen.
I did the injury at the end of 2010 and, it seems the doctor was spot on as in the last year or so my pain had almost entirely faded away.
Just my little piece of anecdata.
I’m fine with tingling forever as long as I can avoid that pain. It’s hard to describe nerve pain to people who haven’t had it. My ACL surgery was relatively painless compared to my sciatic leg pain.