I am so sorry to hear your son is going through this, it`s so hard to see them in any pain.
My son is 18 and he had back surgery in August.
He damaged his L4/5 disc coming off a Bucking Bronco of all things. He felt the pain down his leg almost immediately and we initially thought it was his hamstring. He was in pain and couldn`t extend his leg more than a couple of inches off the ground if he was in a sitting position. He was limping slightly too and that got steadily worse.
After his physiotherapist sent him for xrays then MRI they saw what was really wrong. We were so worried.
When we saw the Neurosurgeon we had been warned by others they may try and postpone doing surgery in favour of other treatments. However he looked my son straight in the eye and told him the only solution was surgery for him. We knew then it would happen and it was for the best.
I cried for a week straight. Couldn`t believe at 18 he was facing back surgery, so I totally understand your worry.
He was done on the afternoon of August 23rd (worst day ever just waiting) surgery took just over an hour and a half, was up walking that night by 9.30pm, got home the next day around 6pm and was out walking by the 26th. We took him out walking 3-4 times a day trying to extend the walk every time. After about 10 days he was walking a mile easily and we walked 5 miles a day before we knew it. He wasn`t in a great deal of pain anytime and after a few days he was in no pain at all. He was just very tired for a week.
After 3 weeks he started Physio again. That helped a lot. He only did that for 4 weeks before she said he didn`t need to go back. He was healing himself well as he was so young and he knew himself what exercises he had to do.
He started University a month after surgery and we are so thankful how well he has done. He still does stretches,swimming and walks and is slowly introducing sports again. He`s not overly sporty but enjoys the health aspect of activities.
His neurosurgeon said this op has a very high success rate, particularly in someone young and healthy and reiterated this when my son had his 3 month check up a couple of weeks ago. He was delighted how well he has done and was happy to discharge him so no further visits were required.
He is fine now. No pain and his tiny scar is about an inch long and is disappearing rapidly and he can extend his leg fully. Something he couldn`t do till he had surgery.
So I hope your son gets the help that he needs and if that is surgery I`m sure it will go well.
Best wishes to him......and to you