You have my sympathy since my L4/L5 disc also herniated 6 months ago. The spine doctor said there are basically three treatment choices: pain control plus physical therapy, pain control, physical therapy plus a spinal injection, and surgery. The common wisdom now is that all three choices have the same probability of success after two years. I chose pain control, physical therapy but no injection. I might be wrong here but I understand the spinal injection is primarily for pain control so I decided to not get an injection because I didn't want to mask the pain and reinjure myself. There is also a small risk of nerve damage from the injection itself. No matter what choice you make, you need the stretching and strenthening exercises prescribed by a physical therapist.