Recovery takes TIME

25F, was lurking on this sub alot when in the height of my pain. Now I feel its important to offer some hope.

I fell on my butt last September, i remember getting really mild low back pain before that and now i realize that maybe i was starting to bulge a disk from weightlifting. After the fall in September i got my wisdom teeth removed and was on vicodin, a couple days after the procedure I randomly got sciatic nerve pain (thought it would magically go away at the time). I lived with it for months and months not realizing that just living with it only makes things worse. Then i fell again on my hands and knees in march and was immediately in intense pain, it was difficult to even walk. Looking back i think that fall further pushed out my already damaged disk.

I started a physical job thinking, the walking will help me heal more, I'll be fine im not weak, im not broken. I started physical therapy thinking i could heal and work at the same time. But after working through a couple months of pain, and seeing minimal results from pt, i got an mri. Disc extrusion, spondylolisthesis, and stenosis in low back. I got accommodation at work and started being brutally honest with physical therapists about my symptoms after all the exercises they give me. I read Back Mechanic and started living by it every day.

Now that I'm about 2 months in to not re-injuring myself at work everyday, I'm shocked how amazing I feel most days. My walking has gone pain free from 10 minutes to over 20 minutes, i can actually do the exercises i get from pt without experiencing pain, I can sit and stand comfortably for longer, and I just FINALLY feel so so hopeful after feeling so lost. Its been over a year and I'm finally feeling better than I have throughout this whole process. Pain is finally under a 1/10 most days if i do everything right. A couple months ago I wouldve said 4 most days. Now don't get me wrong i still get little flares from doing the wrong thing but like most of us, i felt like i was probably broken forever but i always held out hope.

My biggest advice, figure out what hurts and modify. Dont make yourself walk further than your body tells you it wants to go. I spent months feeling like a failure for anything less than a 40 minute walk, my back would be tender and inflammed after. YOU NEED TO CUT BACK. Find a pt who listens to you and wants you back at 100% and please dont give up. I wouldn't say im close to being 100% what i was but id say im 90ish % pain free. When you start getting better, you wont believe how bad you actually were. I was in denial, now im shocked at how far ive come.

Maybe ill update again when im stretching again, back at ballet class, or even running again. If i stay on the trajectory im on currently, it definitely feels like im close to being there. Do yourself a favor and dont doomscroll on this sub. I made a point to stop looking at this sub everyday so i could stop forcing my brain to be over aware of my pain. Any questions or support needed feel free!