The Verdict is in

I have a herniated disc.  Somehow, I thought I was too young or too healthy for a herniated disc.  Don't ask me how I thought that was logical.  Good news is, it will heal itself over time.  Bad news is, it'll probably take a few years.  The doctor offered to do surgery.  He said all he will do is insert a small tube and remove the bulge that is pinching my sciatic nerve.  Eh, no thanks (at least for now).   So what we're going to do is take oral steroids for 6 days, and do physical therapy.  I am optimistic about this plan for two reasons.

One, I am 95% sure that these oral steroids were the same ones I took when my back first started hurting (2 years ago) and it made the pain go away for 1.5 years.  Second, I was speaking to a female soldier in the waiting room who has 100 different things wrong with her back and she said that she has had no pain since she started physical therapy 4 weeks ago.  I figure, if physical therapy can make her pain go away, I'm sure it will make my pain go away.

I have also not taken any pain meds for about 3 weeks and the pain is manageable.  I'm certainly not going to be doing gymnastics or running 5 miles, but I can at least do the things that I need to do.  Hopefully these steroids will decrease the pain though.  And if they do work, I might have them give me steroid injections which will be a bit stronger and last longer (if the oral steroids work, but I feel that I need something stronger).

So there you have it, a herniated disc.  20 years old and I have the spine of a 50 year old.  I may always have back problems, but at least pain doesn't have to be a permanent fixture in my life.

There is hope!