Hip pain post microdiscectomy

I had my microdiscectomy on L4/5 on september 25th 2010...the surgery went well, and my leg symptoms have mostly gone (some residue shooting pains which I have put down to the damaged nerves healing). About 2 weeks ago I decided to come off all pain meds because I am worried about aggravating a stomach problem I had at the beginning of the year. The pain that I had was tolerable as long as I rested enough and didn't do any lifting etc. However, over the past 10 days I have been experiencing quite severe pains going towards my left hip (the same side as the original leg symptoms), I can sometimes relieve the pain slightly by raising my knee to my chest which makes my hip crack and that has some temporary effect, but I am not always successful in making it crack (I only managed to crack my hip since I had the surgery).

I am really unsure what is causing this, as at its worst it really limits my movement, Is this just nerves healing, can it be another trapped nerve? The weather has been extremely icy and cold, so could that be contributing to the pain? I plan to speak to my doctor in the new year, but I am unemployed and really struggling for money, I need to be healthy enough to find a job and can't have this hanging over my head! Has anyone else experienced something similar? What would you suggest?