Question
Hello,

I am a 24 year old female in great health. No smoking, rarely drinking, and relatively a healthy eater. My health concern is with the bulging disc in my L4/5 area that is mild but is compressing and displacing my L5 left nerve root. I have bilateral pain, always of equal proportions that cause burning down my legs until my lower mid leg, numbness to my toes, and occassionally tingling. Rarely do I actually have pain in my lower back. Occassionally a have a burning feeling in small locations that vary in my back. I have had this problem for almost 4 months and it has completely affected my way of life. I cannot sit without discomfort (and eventually pain) and so I am prevented from doing things I really enjoy. For the past two months I have been seeing a DOC that uses applied kinesiology. I feel stronger but I am still far from 100%. I am able to walk once a day for 40 minutes and I do ball exercises. I am wondering what is the time span to heal from this injury? I will get better, right? It has really been difficult to live with this and I am just wondering if I am doing things that will get me better asap. I would appreciate your response. Thank you!

Answer

Hanna Somatic Educatio Hello, Jol.

The time span to heal from this condition is about two weeks -- using the approach I recommend.

For background, please see this link:
http://somatics.com/back_pain_terms.htm

and look up "bulging/herniated disc" on that page.

Your condition sounds like sciatica.  Please see this entry:
http://somatics.com/sciaticasymptoms-piriformissyndrome.htm

For background on the approach, please see
http://somatics.com/chronic_back_pain.htm

To get started, visit this YouTube link and follow along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSMnexgtYgI

One more thing: if you have tight hamstrings and/or psoas muscles, please see this entry:
http://lawrencegoldsomatics.blogspot.com/2011/04/understanding-sacro-iliac-joint