My freshman year of college I was in a theater production that was a swashbuckler and I was supposed to slide from the balcony to the stage. My hand slipped and I fell which caused me to start having problems between my shoulder blades ever since. I also put on a lot of weight which caused numbness across my lower back just above the hips.

Had gastric sleeve surgery in Nov and have lost 75 lbs.

Anyways the last Saturday in April I threw my back out putting up a trampoline for our kids. Didn’t think much of it until it hadn’t gotten any better after a week. Pain got so bad I ended up in the ED and IV pain meds barely took the edge off before they sent me home.

Got X-rays and finally got into the spine specialist last Tue. He said I have a herniated L2-L3 or possibly L3-L4. I have lost feeling in my outer left thigh and have a burning sensation / pain to the touch as well. It hurts to walk or do anything but lay on my right side.

My frustration is I’ve been like this for 4 weeks now and did my first McKenzie Physical Therapy session which didn’t help at all. Called Dr back to get MRI scheduled and was met with the whole insurance wants you to do 6 weeks of PT before they will cover the MRI.

It’s frustrating because this has put my entire life on hold including starting a new job because I can’t stand for more than 5 min before the pain becomes too much. And they want me to stay like this for 6 weeks before I can get the MRI to definitively show the pinched nerve root?!?! I desperately need relief. The pain is constant and poorly controlled.

Sorry, just needed to vent cause I don’t know what else to do.