Just wanted to cathartically spill out my story.

My wife suggested I write to this community to help me cope with my condition. I have two herniated discs, L4L5 and L5S1, and have increasingly worsening back pain for the past 18 months. I've been through the MRI/PT/epidural-injection/facet-joint-injection/chiropractor cycle.

This past February, I blew out the L5S1 really bad, had soul-crushing pain and numbness down my right leg all the way down to the last three outside toes when walking, standing, or sitting. I got a microdiscectomy, wherein they cut out the part of the disc that was pinching my S1 nerve. The pain and numbness down my right leg has gotten better (I'd guesstimate it at 75% back to normal; it's still a struggle to do 10 consecutive calf raises on that leg).

As I recovered from the S1 pinch and microdiscectomy, I still had back pain, and now I'm at the point where I want to stand more during the day, but I've come to discover that if I stand up for more than 10 minutes (with a footstool or without) then I start to get pain and numbness down my left glute down to the two inside toes on that left leg.

My next orthopedic appointment is in August, I've been walking 10k steps a day, and doing a number of stretches and low impact exercises (pelvic tilt, calf raises, bird dogs, clamshells, etc) everyday. I don't know what the future will bring, but I know that I'm going to keep doing the stretches and exercises despite the setbacks and daily struggles.

Hang in there, everyone.