Case Summary  |  Sciatica and possible herniated disc

I was mowing the yard when I pulled the mower back with my left hand while twisting slightly. I felt something go out in my back, and had immediate lower back pain. It hurt to bend over or twist. My first method of treatment was over the counter painkillers and visiting the chiropractor. The chiropractor helped me walk straight again (I was walking strangely), and helped the back pain. A massage therapist helped me restore some range of motion in my left leg, which was also hurting. My doctor diagnosed me with sciatica and gave me some corticosteroids. While the initial treatments did help, after a while I started getting worse again, with the pain slowly moving down my leg from the thigh to the calf to my ankle and foot. My doctor said I may have a herniated disc, so an x-ray was performed which showed nothing unusual. I had an MRI two days ago, and am awaiting results of that. When I woke up four days ago, I was hurting much worse than before. I had to remain in bed because standing and sitting hurt so badly (prior to this sitting did not hurt). My doctor prescribed some lortab for the pain, and I have slowly been getting better, although I still remain in bed most of the day.

I have been resting in bed for the past 4 days as well as taking Celebrex and lortab. I have been using heat on my leg and ice on my back. All of this has helped to manage the pain so I can sleep as well as tolerate standing and sitting for short periods of time.