2 months ago I made a post here because I was terrified and hopeless.

Background post: https://www.reddit.com/r/backpain/s/TIWEFN7sx3

I had an L4-L5 bulge and an L5-S1 herniation with left-sided sciatica. I was convinced my life as I knew it was over. I roller skate multiple times a week and played pickleball, and I genuinely thought those parts of my life might be gone forever.

Today I graduated from physical therapy. My PT reassessed me today, and my disability score went from 42% when I started to 12% today.

I honestly never thought I'd be typing those words. I'm not writing this because I think everyone will recover the same way. Every injury is different. But when I was at my worst, I desperately searched this sub for recovery stories. I hope this helps someone who's in that place right now.

Where I am today

I'd say I'm about 90% recovered. I'm back to living my life.

Over the last several weeks I've been:

• Roller skating for 2–3 hour sessions
• Playing pickleball for several hours
• Riding my bike
• Strength training
• Working full time
• Sleeping normally
• Not constantly thinking about my back

The only things I really notice now are:

• fatigue after a very active day
• some morning stiffness that goes away once I get moving

The nerve pain that dominated my life is gone. The fear of my body is mostly gone too. This imo is the biggest victory.

What helped me the most

If I had to rank what made the biggest difference for me, it would be:

1. Physical therapy/recovery/rest
2. Walking every day (even when it was to the end of the block)
3. Refusing to adopt a "my back is ruined" mindset
4. Pain Reprocessing Therapy
5. The WHEALTH YouTube podcasts
6. Learning how to relax my entire body instead of guarding all the time
7. Red light / near-infrared therapy (I used it as part of my recovery routine)
8. Time and consistency
9. Gradually returning to activity instead of waiting until I felt "100%"

One exercise that surprisingly helped calm my nervous system was simply lying on my back with my knees bent, breathing slowly, and intentionally relaxing every muscle in my body for about three minutes.

The biggest lesson I learned

Not every sensation means you're getting worse. This took me months to understand. Eventually I learned the difference between:

• nerve pain
• muscular fatigue
• stiffness
• soreness from getting stronger

That completely changed my recovery. Sometimes my glute would ache after PT, my calf would feel tired/sore, my muscles twitched. Early on I thought every one of those sensations meant I had reherniated but I didn't.

My biggest mistakes

I'll be honest because I think this matters. Drinking alcohol consistently slowed my recovery. Every time I slept poorly or drank more than I should have, I noticed it. I also expected recovery to be linear and it wasn't. I'd have a great week, then a couple rough days, then another breakthrough. Looking back, that was normal.

Something I didn't expect

As I got better, my injury actually exposed movement problems I'd probably had for years.

Instead of just "healing my back," PT helped me discover things like:

• left/right strength differences
• pelvic stability issues
• glute weakness
• knee compensation
• posture habits

Now that's what I'm working on and I thankfully don't feel broken anymore. I feel like I'm becoming a stronger athlete than I was before.

About surgery (I was against this route 100%)

Early on I met with a neurosurgeon because I wanted to understand all of my options. That consultation actually gave me peace of mind. Since I wasn't developing progressive weakness or other surgical red flags, I decided to give conservative treatment my full effort first. I'm grateful I did and I know that won't be the right path for everyone, but it ended up being the right path for me.

If you're reading this in the middle of the worst part...

I know how scary it feels and I remember wondering if I'd ever skate again, if I'd ever bend to put my shoes on, play with my bunnies again or if I'd ever stop analyzing every sensation in my leg and glute.

Today my biggest challenge isn't surviving my injury. It's figuring out how to build strength and fix movement patterns that probably existed long before I got hurt. That's a problem I never imagined I'd be lucky enough to have.

If you're in the early stages, keep showing up. Recovery isn't always fast and it definitely isn't linear. But sometimes you look back after a few months and realize you've gone from wondering if life will ever be normal again...to being discharged from PT and planning your next workout.

If my story helps even one person feel a little less hopeless, then sharing it was worth it.

If anyone has questions about what my PT progression looked like, my activity progression back to skating/pickleball, or what mentally helped me the most, I'm happy to answer. I wouldn't have gotten through without reading other people's experiences, so I'd love to pay that forward.

2 months ago I made a post here because I was terrified and hopeless.

Background post: https://www.reddit.com/r/backpain/s/TIWEFN7sx3

I had an L4-L5 bulge and an L5-S1 herniation with left-sided sciatica. I was convinced my life as I knew it was over. I roller skate multiple times a week and played pickleball, and I genuinely thought those parts of my life might be gone forever.

Today I graduated from physical therapy. My PT reassessed me today, and my disability score went from 42% when I started to 12% today.

I honestly never thought I'd be typing those words. I'm not writing this because I think everyone will recover the same way. Every injury is different. But when I was at my worst, I desperately searched this sub for recovery stories. I hope this helps someone who's in that place right now.

Where I am today

I'd say I'm about 90% recovered. I'm back to living my life.

Over the last several weeks I've been:

• Roller skating for 2–3 hour sessions
• Playing pickleball for several hours
• Riding my bike
• Strength training
• Working full time
• Sleeping normally
• Not constantly thinking about my back

The only things I really notice now are:

• fatigue after a very active day
• some morning stiffness that goes away once I get moving

The nerve pain that dominated my life is gone. The fear of my body is mostly gone too. This imo is the biggest victory.

What helped me the most

If I had to rank what made the biggest difference for me, it would be:

1. Physical therapy/recovery/rest
2. Walking every day (even when it was to the end of the block)
3. Refusing to adopt a "my back is ruined" mindset
4. Pain Reprocessing Therapy
5. The WHEALTH YouTube podcasts
6. Learning how to relax my entire body instead of guarding all the time
7. Red light / near-infrared therapy (I used it as part of my recovery routine)
8. Time and consistency
9. Gradually returning to activity instead of waiting until I felt "100%"

One exercise that surprisingly helped calm my nervous system was simply lying on my back with my knees bent, breathing slowly, and intentionally relaxing every muscle in my body for about three minutes.

The biggest lesson I learned

Not every sensation means you're getting worse. This took me months to understand. Eventually I learned the difference between:

• nerve pain
• muscular fatigue
• stiffness
• soreness from getting stronger

That completely changed my recovery. Sometimes my glute would ache after PT, my calf would feel tired/sore, my muscles twitched. Early on I thought every one of those sensations meant I had reherniated but I didn't.

My biggest mistakes

I'll be honest because I think this matters. Drinking alcohol consistently slowed my recovery. Every time I slept poorly or drank more than I should have, I noticed it. I also expected recovery to be linear and it wasn't. I'd have a great week, then a couple rough days, then another breakthrough. Looking back, that was normal.

Something I didn't expect

As I got better, my injury actually exposed movement problems I'd probably had for years.

Instead of just "healing my back," PT helped me discover things like:

• left/right strength differences
• pelvic stability issues
• glute weakness
• knee compensation
• posture habits

Now that's what I'm working on and I thankfully don't feel broken anymore. I feel like I'm becoming a stronger athlete than I was before.

About surgery (I was against this route 100%)

Early on I met with a neurosurgeon because I wanted to understand all of my options. That consultation actually gave me peace of mind. Since I wasn't developing progressive weakness or other surgical red flags, I decided to give conservative treatment my full effort first. I'm grateful I did and I know that won't be the right path for everyone, but it ended up being the right path for me.

If you're reading this in the middle of the worst part...

I know how scary it feels and I remember wondering if I'd ever skate again, if I'd ever bend to put my shoes on, play with my bunnies again or if I'd ever stop analyzing every sensation in my leg and glute.

Today my biggest challenge isn't surviving my injury. It's figuring out how to build strength and fix movement patterns that probably existed long before I got hurt. That's a problem I never imagined I'd be lucky enough to have.

If you're in the early stages, keep showing up. Recovery isn't always fast and it definitely isn't linear. But sometimes you look back after a few months and realize you've gone from wondering if life will ever be normal again...to being discharged from PT and planning your next workout.

If my story helps even one person feel a little less hopeless, then sharing it was worth it.

If anyone has questions about what my PT progression looked like, my activity progression back to skating/pickleball, or what mentally helped me the most, I'm happy to answer. I wouldn't have gotten through without reading other people's experiences, so I'd love to pay that forward.

Lurker but thankful for this community. A few weeks ago I genuinely thought I was done for. Gone were the days of putting on socks, tying shoes, sitting in a chair or on the couch, driving, playing with my bunnies on the floor let alone no skating or no pickleball again.

Background:

40F, active, avid Chicago roller skater and pickle baller. Injury sometime in early Feb. 10mm herniation at L5S1 + bulge at L4-L5. MRI done 3/10/26. Consulted with neurosurgeon despite being adamantly against surgery. Chiro told me my herniation was a “cow and very bad” and told me NOT to move or walk🖕

(Used AI to consolidate my notes but this is my true experience).

Symptoms:

- glute pain that wouldn’t quit/crack/release

- could not to prone press up at all

- couldn’t bend (thought my jeans were too tight…the things you tell yourself)

- tingling, burning and weakness down left leg and calf

- numbness in my pinky toe to the middle toe

- sitting and driving felt injuring

- gait was off and slow

- couldn’t sit for more than a few mins

Getting out of bed felt daunting. Walking felt daunting. My body didn’t feel like mine and I needed a grabber tool.

So I became obsessed:

👉 I tracked EVERYTHING daily (sleep, steps, symptoms, listed movements that made pain worse, triggers)

While the injury happened abruptly, this had built up over habits during my life. Spine hygiene FTW.

📈 WHERE I’M AT TODAY

- Tingling is almost gone (only slight + positional on stomach)

- Pinky toe numbness nearly resolved

- Pain moved from foot/leg → back (centralized)

- Walking feels mostly normal

- Skated again 3x (30 min sessions)

- Glutes finally firing correctly

- Back feels stronger, not fragile

- Not 100%… but I’m mobile again and not rushing into skating or pickleball

🔑 WHAT ACTUALLY HELPED

1. Walking (but not too much) - Graduated to 4k–7k steps/day = sweet spot

Splitting walks > long walks

➡️ Too much = flare. Too little = stiff

2. PT + core/glute work (biggest driver) - PT was one of the biggest turning points for confidence and comfort in my body.

What helped most:

- somatic exercises

- mindset and reassuring myself my body can heal and has been strong for 40 years and this is one moment in time

- modified dead bugs

- modified bird dogs

- glute bridges (no cranking)

- graduated to banded work (side to sides, walks, clam shells)

- movement focus was control, not intensity

- QL release

- cat/cows

➡️ helped reduce guarding and improve mobility

3. Fixing how I walked

Big realization:

👉 I wasn’t using my glute properly

Once I focused on:

- hip-driven steps

- not pushing off my toes

4. Pain reprocessing + nervous system work (underrated) - This changed everything.

I stopped fearing every sensation:

- used breathing + “this is safe”

- learned discomfort ≠ damage

- “Whealth” podcasts helped a lot here too—they gave me a completely different perspective on pain and reinforced confidence in my own body/story

5. Red light therapy (helpful for recovery)

Used near-infrared on:

- glute

- low back

- calves

It didn’t fix everything, but reduced soreness and helped me relax into recovery

6. Simple reset: lying on my back + breathing (game changer)

One of the simplest things helped the most:

- lying on my back

- knees bent, feet flat

- focusing on relaxing every single muscle

- slow breathing for ~3 minutes

➡️ this consistently calmed symptoms, reduced tension, helped my body “reset” and twitch

⚠️ THINGS I TRIED THAT DIDN’T HELP (FOR ME)

❌ Spinal decompression

I tried it 4x because I was desperate for relief but it wasn’t the move for my body.

But for me:

- it aggravated my nerve

- increased pulling sensations

🚨 WHAT CONSISTENTLY MADE IT WORSE

❌ Alcohol

Every time:

- worse sleep

- more inflammation

- more symptoms

❌ Long sitting / driving - 30+ min drives: ➡️ guaranteed glute + calf flare

❌ Overdoing steps - 8k–12k days: ➡️ calf burning + next day fatigue

❌ “Good day = go hard” - Got me more than once.

🧠 WEIRD SYMPTOMS THAT WERE ACTUALLY “NORMAL”:

- Calf burning = fatigue, not damage

- Twitching = muscles waking back up

- Back/hip cracking = mobility returning

- Ache during PT = sensitive, not injured

- Fear of bending = nervous system, not structure

🧠 THE MOST POWERFUL PART: MINDSET

This might have been the biggest factor of all. Mindset is super powerful.

I made a conscious decision:

👉 I wasn’t going to spiral into fear for more than 30 min

👉 I wasn’t going to rush into surgery out of panic to see what my body was capable of

Instead:

- My sciatic nerve became my psychic (body was attempting to speak to me, I needed to start listening to her)

- I stayed consistent even if it’s just a short walk

- I listened to my body and avoided pain meds where possible and incorporated CBD/CBG

- I focused on progress, not perfection

- I embraced the ability to walk SLOW like a moving meditation

- I opened up to the idea of “new normal”

- I got butt cushions for the car, sat on blocks for 🐰 time

These changed how I moved, recovered, and responded to symptoms.

Biggest lesson: Recovery isn’t linear—but your patterns don’t lie

Lastly, if you’re in the middle of this: You’re not broken. You can learn and adapt. I’m proof of that despite being very shaky at times.

Ask me anything.