u/masha_bog

I'm 35, generally healthy, and reasonably active. Before all of this, I walked a lot—around 10,000 steps a day on average. I also did full-body workouts one to three times a week and enjoyed dancing and fitness classes, though I was never an intense athlete.

The acute inflammatory phase resolved for me within about three weeks, and after that I started improving week by week.

Now I’m at the end of week 7, and I’m no longer in pain—just some residual sciatica sensations remain.

At the beginning, I couldn’t stay in an upright position for more than five minutes, and the pain was around 6/10. Lying down, however, wasn’t painful at all.

The support of my family and friends helped me a lot, as well as the fact that I didn’t have to work during this period and could fully focus on recovery. I distracted myself with TV shows and stayed in positions where I didn’t feel any pain.

I moved as much as I could, but only up to the point where I felt I might be doing harm to myself. For me, it was especially important to stay in touch with my own body and sensations. Never do anything that feels harmful to you. If you have a sense that something isn’t right for your body, then that feeling is usually valid. It doesn’t matter if it was recommended by the best doctor or a physical therapist—if it doesn’t feel right for you, it may simply not be the right approach for your body.

Personally, walking helped me a lot. By the end of week three, I started going outside 3–5 times a day. At first it was just for about 5 minutes, and then I gradually increased it based on how I felt—but never through pain.After each walk, I would immediately lie down and rest. The more activity I slowly introduced, the more my nervous system seemed to release the muscle spasms.

Another thing that I think helped me was an online program Core Balance Training. I’m not sure it would be for everyone, but after the free trial period I decided to continue with the subscription and keep doing it. It mainly focuses on core activation and strengthening exercises, and I personally find this kind of format works well for me. In the early stage of recovery, it was physically too difficult for me to travel anywhere for in-person physiotherapy.

As I started to feel better, I gradually reintroduced normal daily activities: cooking, cleaning, and a bit of sitting (in a way that felt comfortable for me, like sitting on the floor with crossed legs).

I also tried adding other exercises besides core work, but based on how I felt, it didn’t really help me. So instead, I focused on gradually increasing everyday movement, walking more, listening to pain as a guide, and taking regular breaks when I felt tired.

I usually try to follow a healthy diet, but during this period I paid extra attention to it. Here’s what I changed:

• Cut out sugar, white flour, alcohol, and smoking.
• Didn't take any medications (not during this recovery or before).
• Gave up coffee while I was recovering.
• Avoided processed meats (sausages, ham, deli meats, etc.).
• Ate plenty of vegetables, berries, leafy greens, fatty fish, beans, and lentils.
• Took turmeric, about ½ tablespoon of fresh ginger juice daily, and magnesium glycinate. My appetite wasn't great, so I probably wasn't getting enough magnesium from food alone.

I focused on eating as clean as possible, at least during the acute inflammation phase.

I'm originally from Ukraine, where herbal medicine—like in many Eastern European countries—is considered a normal part of healthcare rather than something unusual. So I decided to give that approach a try as well.

These are the herbal remedies I took. I'm sharing what I personally did, not making a recommendation for anyone else.

• 5 g each of burdock root, couch grass root, and dandelion root. Add the herbs to 500 ml of water, bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, then let it steep for 2 hours. Strain and drink three times a day, about 30 minutes before meals, for three months. A fresh batch needs to be prepared every day (I usually made it before bed and stored it in the fridge).
• At the same time, I prepared a tincture using marsh cinquefoil (sabelnik) root: 50 g of dried root soaked in 500 ml of vodka. I let it infuse in a dark place for 21 days, then strained it. I immediately started a second batch so there would be one ready when the first was finished.

I took it together with the decoction of the three roots, about ½ tablespoon, three times a day, 30 minutes before meals. After finishing the first batch, I took a one-week break and then continued the cycle.

I’m not sure how much it actually helped, but I applied ice to my lower back for 10–20 minutes several times a day, especially after walks or any activity. I still do it for peace of mind.

I didn’t keep the ice in one place the whole time—I moved it along the lower part of my spine every few minutes, always keeping it at a comfortable level.

What didn’t help me:

Reading scary stories on this forum. It made me feel very low, I became extremely anxious, and started believing that this would last for months. I truly feel sorry for everyone going through this, and I really hope you all recover soon.

Also, stretching and certain exercises—even though they are generally good—did not help me during the recovery phase.

I feel like joining an online program could be helpful, but there are so many of them that it's hard to know which one to choose.

I was around 5–6 weeks into my herniated disc injury. During that time, I could walk for several hours without any pain. In fact, walking would completely relieve my sciatic nerve pain. By the second half of the day, I often felt as if nothing was wrong.

However, after a trigger point release session targeting my glutes and QL (quadratus lumborum) muscle, I woke up the next day unable to stay upright without pain. It's been almost two weeks now, and the inflammation has only recently started to settle down. At this point, it feels like I probably shouldn't walk for more than 5 minutes at a time.

My manual therapist was quite new to the profession. Before that, I had completed a short course of physical therapy, and my PT never worked on my QL. In fact, I consistently felt better after those sessions.
I deeply regret trusting that inexperienced therapist so blindly.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

I’ve herniated my disc again (after 4 years of being completely pain-free). During the first 6 weeks, walking brought relief, and I only had pain in my glute during the first 5 hours after waking up. I’d even say it was more of an unpleasant sensation in the sciatic nerve rather than actual pain. Yes, sitting was uncomfortable and I felt like I shouldn’t do much of it yet. By the evening, I felt almost like nothing was wrong.

Then I made a few mistakes (worked on trigger points, sunbathed in a bikini while having a flareup ). And now I’m having a flare-up again. For the first 30 minutes after waking up, there’s no pain. But then it comes back. If I stand or walk around the apartment a little, the pain returns again. “Walking it off” no longer works. On the contrary, I can tell that if I keep walking or standing while ignoring the pain, I’ll get worse.

Does the presence of morning pain and muscle stiffness mean this is actually a more favorable scenario?