I was having a lot of problems with my ankle and my martial arts instructor's personal PT did a workshop which showed me what was wrong. Later on I screwed up my opposite hip hopping around like someone younger, and the exercises from the second PT fixed most of my remaining issues.

A lot of joint pain and some back pain is posture related. If you stop walking and standing like an idiot a lot of these problems go away. Particularly with the spine, muscle guarding can seize up a muscle so hard that it overcorrects and pulls things out of position in the opposite direction.

Be warned though that the cumulative pain your PT might inflict on you during exercise might rival the pain of the surgery your doctor prescribed. But you won't have scars, more money in your pocket, and a set of exercises that you can try to remember when you relapse in five to ten years.

I recently (few months, maybe) posted how I went to 3x orthopedic surgeons, who all ran tests, and all recommendations were "you need surgery on this shoulder".

Six months later, the pain started receding, 2 years later, absolutely zero pain.

For non-emergency things, it's usually better to just take a wait and see attitude.