I am one of the lucky ones as I have an orthopedic spine specialist who told me that the last resort will be to operate. He gave me an epidural shot for nerve compression due to disc degeneration impacting my L4/5 and ultimately pressing on the nerve. He is very generous with PT prescriptions and is willing to give me additional epidurals, if needed. Thank goodness because after reading peoples experience with spine fusion - I agree - I would rather live with moderate chronic pain.

I will always need to stretch, work out per PT instructions, and the PT will massage my back to release tension when needed. Pilates has helped but honestly, the type of stretching and strengthening exercises the PT gave me helps a lot more than Pilates. I will take aspirin and just push through with some good days and some bad days.