This missing bit is that many people are pain free with the same scans as you have. Surgery does help people, but it’s clear that the signals we use to say surgery is needed are very noisy and not as accurate as the surgeons would have you think.

IIRC, besides being pain caused by physical problems, it can also be pain caused by nerve issues (slightly different), and pain caused by your brain (very different, could be multiple causes there).

If surgery doesn't help, and/or like the other commenter mentioned, people with similar physical characteristics don't have pain, then it's time to explore the other two.

I'm sorry you're suffering. There are several regenerative approaches getting ever closer which will be able to help your body re-grow cartilage. Hopefully they'll be FDA approved sooner than later.

Physical therapy helps. Check this out https://youtu.be/n9CDhcVTAdc and https://youtu.be/k1luKAS_Xcg (I only started paying attention after my emergency back surgery)

I have been trying many different types and combinations of stretches and various prolonged physical therapies (in-office and not) for many years... unfortunately nothing has ever helped, not even the McGill Big 3.

Sitting and laying is fine, but walking I can manage maybe 10 minutes max before it starts to hurt, and only gets worse quickly from there. Then I must rest for at least as long as I was walking to get another 10 or so minutes.

Sometimes manually stretching my spine out can help reset that time limit (like lay down with knees up and push down on my thighs to stretch it, it usually pops), but it's only temporary.

If I'm walking on uneven terrain then my muscles go into wild inflammation mode and are hard as rocks... on top of the spinal/nerve pain.

My situation is similar to you. Additionally I can't take NSAIDs. I've been doing RF ablation sessions every 3-4 months (along with steroid shot occasionally.) After a year it's much improved on the pain side but as you know, it's like there's a limited amount of activity you can do and once you go over it, you're stealing from tomorrow, the next day and so on (which means rest on those days.)

Inversion table for 15min a morning also helps just to unload the spine. You can try to do the start of an abdominal crunch to build stomach muscle there while unloaded.

Have you ever tried serious strength training of your posterior chain? That fixed me up although my back wasn't as bad as yours. I feel that if the muscles are weak they fail to support the spine in an appropriate way.

Try a ring dinger

Soon you will be able to put more stuff in your discs. It’s coming https://regeltec.com/hydrafil/