Rhonda,
How bad your Mom's pain and what it has limited her to doing?
I had a ruptured disc in the L1 S1 area three years ago this August. It hurt pretty bad, to the point I'd cry from it. I have a huge threshold for pain BTW. Then I got the epi and it did work. Lasted for about a year but then the pain came back.
When it came back it made the first round seem like a cake walk. I tried everything, exercises, walking, hot baths etc............nothing worked. I had two more epi's during this time late last year with no relief. It was to the point, I literally had to crawl to get from point a to point b.
I finally saw a spinal surgeon, and had the surgery last December. It was a minimally invasive out patient surgery. Here is some info on what I had done.
Microdiscectomy (Microdecompression) Spine Surgery
I was up and feeling great after waking up, the pain was totally gone. I was not allowed to lift more than 8 pounds for a few weeks, and was limited in doing to much up until February.
I hope she doesn't need surgery, but if she does don't be afraid of this type of back surgery.
Good luck,