i've had what you have for almost 50 years. for a good year i was dead in the water. i did physical therapy and slowly the strength came back in the leg. i did go on to enjoy skiing, rollerblading , swimming and bike riding when i was injured there were no mris and ct scans. nor were there fancy decompression machines. if you dont have arthritis in the spine do go for the decompression it may do the trick.
be real aggressive on pt and stretching. find exercises that enable you to get in positions that dont hurt.
there was one exercise that really helped me. in fact just after two days of working my butt off with it the pain was almost gone. i got on my back and stuck my legs straight up and then slowly spread the legs out and brought them in. it strengthens the midsection and sucked those discs back in.
your big toe and calf trouble are indicative of pressure from the L4 L5 disc. if L3 were involved you would have more pain in the knee area.
in time for me [30 yrs] everything finally went. from L1 to S1. now i'm crippled. i did try surgery when i was unable to walk but it was too late.
but i did get 30 decent years after being like you are now.
get a few opinions from the neurosurgeons and try what i mentioned and best of luck.....pete