I just had a spinal fusion of me L3-S1, it has been about 3 months and I feel a whole lot better. I had the degenerative disks and spinal stenosis as well. I was in constant pain in my back and I tell ya brother it was a 10 all day long for 3 years I had to put up with it and couldn't work either.
Well finally I got a neurosurgeon that operated on me. She was a specialist in lamectomies. Ya it hurt for a few weeks but that was the scar the pain was relived 10 fold in my back.
I'm not telling you what to do, but shots,drugs,and PT never worked for me. Do what you think is best, but the techniques have improved greatly in the past 5 years for the surgery.