you dont need a diagnosis to teat, but you need the cause or an idea what the problem is or might be. nobody was talking about discectomy as for as i remember. we just collecting thoughts to find out what that pat. problems might be. and i saw several older people with disc herniation most of them treated conservatively. and if a degenerative hip joint is the reason for pain, i would also treat her conservatively as long as possible. but here my experience is that surgery comes up one day to save pat. living standard and keep them mobile. that can also hapen with herniated discs.
cheers