L4/L5 Herniated Disk - looking for advice

[u/sreylas843]

Any fellas in here dealt with a herniated disk, specifically at or around the L4/L5 area? Pain started Saturday morning 8/23 when I woke up at the station before shift change and progressively got worse throughout the day to the point I couldn’t sit, stand or lay and could barely walk. Decided to go to a small urgent care/ER that night and had an xray done which showed nothing, they gave me a steroid injection and muscle relaxer injection and prescribed me Methylprednisolone and Orphenadrine. No relief whatsoever from the injections or the meds. Woke up the next day (Sunday), same amount of pain and symptoms. Went to a chiropractor that afternoon, did some twists and pops and told me to up my water intake and keep icing it. No relief. Monday (8/25) I decide to go to an actual ER for CT scan or MRI just to at least get some answers. Did the CT scan which showed the herniated disk. Gave me a dose of Vicodin and a lidocaine patch which didn’t touch the pain. Physical therapist came into the room afterwards and did some stuff, actually felt a bit better after that. Getting up from sitting or laying still hurt but walking was actually less painful. Hospital switched me from methylprednisolone to prednisone and continue taking orphenadrine, but neither seem to help.

Fast forward to today, pain comes and goes but when it comes it’s rough. I start physical therapy this afternoon and hoping for some progress from that. But just posting to see if anyone here as some insight or advice on what worked for them. Just looking for some light at the end of the tunnel.

P.S. take care of your backs.

[u/Vad4444]

That sucks. I dealt with same thing 1.5 years ago but my back never hurt. My left leg and foot hurt from the nerve pain. Felt like I was walking on a broken foot. Took a long time for a proper diagnosis. Did everything I could to fix it. 2 shots, prednisone, gabapentin, chiropractor, physical therapy, acupuncture. You name it. All while still trying to do the job. After a year I finally gave in and had a microdiscectomy. The surgery at least helped getting my foot back to working properly but I still had a lot of nerve pain. I got fat and depressed. Then I found yoga body 21 day happy back challenge. Changed my diet to an anti-inflammatory diet. Also did the Dr McGill big 3 everyday. Those things helped overtime. I’d say I’m 80% back to normal now. It was a long shitty road. Hope any of this helps