Lumbar disc woes!

I've been reading the other lumbar spine threads, and by now I sort of get the idea that each lumbar disc patient is "an experiment of one", but I guess I need some moral support!

I'm 52, female, have done an ironman a year since 2004, and was training for a double century when I blew out a disc climbing a steep hill on a wet bike in March.  Had bilateral leg pain, MRI with left L5-S1 smallish herniation, bulging non-torn disc at L4-5, non-bulging L3-4 disc but with small annular tear at that level.  Five days oral steroids had horrible side effects(muscles turned to butter!) but seemed to turn it around, had bike refit (twice, they modified it as I got better), core PT, stuck to swimming, gradually back to biking, and in fact successfully did my bike double century in May!

With follow-up by sports PT, gradually returned to walk/run plan and was able to get up to 80 minutes of 4 minutes on/1minute off, then had bad flare-up.  Stopped running, switched to walking fast -- but the latter seems just as intolerable, and in fact just walking around vertical seems to be what does it.  Now pain is in the right, not left leg, so I'm scared I exctended the herniation or else blew out one of the upper levels.  Scheduled to see the doc tomorrow -- I want an epidural this time instead of taking the pills!  Not sure how soon it is safe to resume core exercises -- just yesterday the back pain was so bad I nearly felt like throwing up.  I started ibuprofen in high dose (800 three times a day) then, till I can see the doc tomorrow, and it seems to have helped.  Even swimming and aquajogging cause muscle burnning and twitching (later that night) since this flare-up, and forget about riding or even walking far -- scared to even try.

All this considered, I REALLY don't want surgery!  Especially since 3 of my discs are marginal, they'd probably want to do a fusion.  I am in the medical field, and I see all those failed back surgical patients and don't want to be one!  Has anybody out there made a decent recovery from MULTIPLE bad discs without the knife?  (And I'm willing to give up running and speed walk the run legs of races, if it means no operation!)  The president of my cycling club is a competetive double century rider, despite a disc herniation 3 years ago, and he's been very supportive.  But I think he just had one blowout, and now it looks like I've had two!

Interestingly, after just 24 hours of high dose Motrin, I already feel a lot better.  Suppose I feel great after an epidural -- how long does one wait to try riding again?