It sounds to me as though you have been given good advise, but do not be in too much of a hurry. While there is some indication of pain / strange sensation in your leg / foot , there is a reason.
Just in case, I will mention that it is my earnest advice to NOT to have any form injections etc. or probes or devices such as catheters, heated or not, put into the disc. A very experienced spinal surgeon mentioned to me the other day that there is always scarring following these procedures (hindering subsequent surgery) and the attempts at “cooking” the disc (to shrink and stabelise it) have been very harmful in the long term for many people.
Don’t hurry back, letting this become chronic will not help your career.
Where possible the middle route is the best way. Very mild traction in your local hospital is often good, but avoid any form of manipulation other than the McKenzie, unless it is approved by a surgeon. It is astounding how so-called skilled people will launch into vigorous procedures without any knowledge of the individual injury. So, very gentle traction and exercise during a long healing period first. Weeks not days. Slow increase in use and avoid any twisting under load, and lifting anything heavier that a tech-log. Swimming is good. If all trends show an improvement, however slow, there is light at the end of the tunnel
There are still two imperative points. There must be a steady improvement on stomach and back muscle tone. And absolute vigilance about not letting the damaged area become inflamed. Flying is not the problem if you are in a well engineered seat, (tightening stomach muscles every time you lean forward will help) it is more likely that you will irritate it by long drives. The vibration is sharper edged than turbulence, and given that disc pressures are at their greatest when seated, the vibrations cause peaks of pressure that may do harm.
As an aside, there has been some research at Birmingham and in the US, on treatment of long term pain with the same antibiotic that is uses to treat teen-aged spots! This followed finding this bug in some L5 annular tears. The feedback however has not been very encouraging, as it is believed that the absence of normal blood supplies makes the delivery difficult. There is a huge amount of info on the web on this and other facets (’scuse the pun ) of lower back pain.