I figured now is a good time for me to chime in with my experience with a bulging spinal disc.
Almost 7 years ago I started experiencing sciatic pain and tingling in my left leg out of the blue. I got an MRI which confirmed a disc issue. It was never super painful, and only impacted my gait at its worst. I could always manage to loosen up my legs enough with walking to where I could then go running or do just about anything physical I wanted. The pain might be really bad a day or two later from soreness, but nothing I oculi the handle.
I eventually did some PT (meh), but had my most luck seeing a chiropractor who did some adjustments along with stretches that were more effective than what I did in physical therapy. I also did 2 spinal epidurals around this time, and after not too long my pain went away entirely, and I eventually even stopped seeing the chiropractor monthly.
Earlier this year, and a few kids later, the pain in my leg returned, but this time also with some pain in the lower back itself which was new. I dragged my feet on getting back into my chiropractor's office and started going in for adjustments. Well, two weeks ago after getting both acupuncture and a pretty intense massage the week prior, my back was in its worst shape ever. I could barely make it off the couch. After suffering for a few days tying to schedule something with my PCP, I eventually just went to the ER. They put me on a 5-day oral steroid program which actually helped a ton. I was bake to get referals and everything else sorted out eventually and get an epidural injection scheduled. Unfortunately, before then the oral steroids ran out and I then found I needed to be off even ibuprofen before getting the injection which added a delay. The upside was that the doctor felt confident that if the oral steroids helped that much, the injection should help even more.
I had the first injection on Monday, and honestly was hoping for more relief by now. He said it would likely be 2 days before it kicked in, but I've heard others say it can take even longer. While my pain level is down significantly, I had a lot of numbness in my left calf and toes, with the result of that being I can only walk around for a few minutes before my leg begins to feel sore and achy. At this point in time I'm just more tired of spending so much time laying down, and don't know if I should continue to rest, or trying and be more active. I have another injection scheduled in 12 days. Good times.