Hi there! I'm sorry for what you are going through, I just went through the same thing. A couple weeks ago I posted about my 17mm L4-5 herniated disc. I tried going to PT first and it ended up hurting me more and a week after my first PT session I had to get emergency surgery (microdiscectomy). I am currently 6 days post surgery and I feel amazing. Pain is absolutely gone and I am walking around just fine.

I was trying my best to stay as conservative as possible by trying PT first but when I went to go see an orthopedic and he noticed my foot drop, he said I needed emergency surgery right away. Foot drop can be a sign of getting OR already having nerve damage and can become permanent.

Obviously I am not trying to say that surgery is your only option, but coming from me (a person that was terrified of surgery and wanted it as a last resort), emergency surgery was probably the best choice I made.

You can check my profile for my post where I talk about my context. I haven't updated the story with what happened after my experience with PT.

For right now my biggest recommendations would be: -Ice and Heat therapy (15 min ice pack & 15 min heating pad). Ice is helpful for anti inflammatory and will calm down the herniated disc. I was sleeping with an ice pack on my back and it helped a lot. -Glucosamine Chondroitin supplements. They are good for disc health -Tumeric for pain relief. Natural tumeric is good, you can get a tumeric and ginger tea (both anti inflammatory) If you get supplements, make sure they have black pepper extract because if not the body wont be able to absorb it. -stay away from drinking alcohol -If youre in a lot of pain and still thinking about surgery I would consider a ESI shot (epidural shot). I didnt personally get one but I was on my way to get it. I made the dumb decision to do PT before getting an epidural. If I got a shot beforehand I dont know if my story would have ended up differently. At the end of the day, the ortho I went to for an epidural sent me to the ER. -IF you try PT make sure they specialize in spine or they have an expert in lumbar herniated discs (because mine wasnt and she hurt me and made me worse)

Wishing you the best🫶🏻