My DH suffered the exact same injury approx 4 months ago also - A bulging disc between L4 & L5... His job is very physical so he took a week off to rest it, dosed up on his prescribed anti inflammatories/pain killers and rested to no avail...
Then my darling Grandmother gave us a very popular book called "The Back Sufferers Bible" by Sarah Keys, it has exercises for very specific back injuries and after a week of doing these exercises, DH said it was those alone that made all the difference... It's well worth taking a look at! Nothing is a quick fix for them as much as we want it to be, it will be a long term healing process, wishing you all the best!!
Oh, forgot the most important thing "look after yourself" during all of this. It is so easy for it all to become about him. My DH got counselling to deal with everything that was happening to him, but I got nothing. I had no understanding about the changes in him or how to support him. It was a real strain on the relationship. He would often drink whilst taking the pain killers and completely withdraw. Sex became an issue. He would be bright and bubbly around others, but grumpy and quiet around me. I was confused, upset and angry. Years later he finally fessed up to things about himself that he was taught in rehab, pity he did not keep me informed while all this was happening. I know understood that sometimes the pain got so much for him, that he needed the odd night where he drank as it was the only way the pain went away. So it was something I could keep an eye on to make sure he was not doing it to often and I also realised that is was not about him withdrawing from me. He is much better with his pain these days, he rarely takes any pain meds and he was on 200mg of Tramadol at a time.
In the end I found that it is best for me to ignore his injury. I left it up to him, as an adult, to decide when he needed rest, when he could or could not lift something. I found it stressful to constantly think about his injury.
my dp had the same injury from work he was a removalist and the tailgate on the truck dropped and he took the full weight of a piano he was off work for a couple of months and had physio and hydio and finally 2 yrs later had a op to get the disc of the nerve so he could move and 4 yrs later he is still having pain from it only 2 days ago he was ready to go to the hospita at 3am cause of the pain he couldnt get out of bed
Alicia - thanks for the information on the book I will check that out for sure
Thanks also to the other girls for the extra information. It has been hard sometimes I have felt like I have two babies because there are some things that DH cant do like put his socks on but we have been together a very long time and know each other very well and it is an important part of our relationship to communicate which helps heaps. As long as he talks about the pain I guess and ways to manage it then we will be able to help each other.
Really thanks heaps I do appreciate it. Sorry to hear about all your sore backs too
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