Just found out I have buldging from L2-S2

You don't mention what country you live in but I'm guessing you live in the US. Welcome to the world of chronic pain. President Trump has declared an opiate war and their way of combating it is to reduce the amount of opiates that we are allowed to receive for our chronic pain. Your doctor is protecting his license and himself from going to jail for prescribing you opiates. So I can't say that I blame him for referring you to a pain management clinic and that's really where you need to be. A pain management doctor may recommend injections in those areas to help with the pain. He will probably also require that you have some physical therapy done. But before you ever decide to take opiates for your pain make a pro and con list. 1 pro would be that it works to relieve some of your pain which allows you to function. Don't ever expect to be able to take enough meds to be completely pain-free. And a con would be that you could become addicted to it which by definition means that you crave more and more of it so that you can get the euphoric feeling that it creates. However I read a statistic stating that only 1% of chronic pain patients become addicted to their legally prescribed opiates. But what you do get is something we called dependentancy. That means you will go through withdrawals if you stop it without tapering. You need to do some research on taking opiates before you decide to do that. Fortunately there are other options to try first. Gabapentin is good for the pain going down your leg. If it doesn't helps there's another one you might try called pregabalin AKA Lyrica. It works in a very similar way. You also should be on muscle relaxers to help with the spasms in your back. Unfortunately most muscle relaxers will make you sleepy. I'm currently on something called methocarbamol. You might also want to see a neurologist that specializes in back. He will be able to tell you if your condition can be fixed with surgery or not. And please keep in mind that if he does say surgery could help back surgery has a very low success rate. I know this is a long post but I wanted to make sure you knew which way to go. Good luck and keep us posted.

Sorry to hear you’re in this situation, I’ve totally been there.

They are probably hesitant to prescribe pain meds because they think there’s a chance you will need them long term. Opioids are no longer recommended to treat chronic pain, only acute.  A pain management physician is better equipped to medically manage patients on long term opiates in order to reduce the risk of addiction.  Doesn’t help much in the short term though, I know.  

As far as the discs go, are they recommending any kind of treatment?

I also have herniatons at the same levels as you. L2-3 through L5-S1.  I’m 47 now and was first diagnosed when I was about your age. It was the mid nineties and opioids weren’t considered a problem so I pretty much had an constant scrip for Vicodin. I started noticing that it wasn’t working as well as it had been and that other parts of my body were staring to hurt.  Pretty much decided on my own that I shouldn’t be taking it that often and weaned myself off. 

The pain subsided, but then I would have occasional flares that would have me practically bedridden and crawling to the bathroom. I would still use Vicodin to get through the worst part, but luckily the pain would gradually go away. 

These cycles continued, and after a few in a row really close together I decided I had enough and went for a surgical consult. 

The surgeon (to whom I’m now grateful), told me I was not a surgical candidate because my condition was degenerative (I had also been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis and arthritis with my last MRI).  He said if he did the surgery, it would all eventually degenerate again and we’d be right back where we started. He then told me that everyone in life has a cross to bear and mine was my back.  I was furious!

I decided against going for additional surgical consults because as mad as I was, I knew deep down that he was right. 

I continued having episodes where my back would “go out”, but they were less frequent. 

Fast forward to 36 years old and I woke up with pain like I had never had before. Unbearable doesn’t begin to describe it. I knew something was wrong and got right in to see the doctor.  New MRI showed that one of the herniated discs had actually ruptured and there was disc material leaking in my spinal canal and pieces of disc that had broken off. I had a microdiscectomy, everything went well and I healed up fine.  Four years later, same thing happens.  Same disc, same surgery.  Recovery went well. 

Where it gets interesting is that the second time the pain was in my hip so they initially diagnosed it as hip bursitis. I decided to watch some YouTube videos on the topic and saw I guy in a white coat doing a manual, massage-like treatment on this guys hip in a classroom setting.  I was facinated, as I didn’t realize there was such a medical component to that kind of work. I enrolled in massage school which I started 4 months after my surgery. I went on to get advanced training in clincal manual therapy, pain science and cupping. 

I now have a clinic where I treat people with all kinds of painful conditions using a combination of cupping therapy and pain restructuring therapy.  It’s great because I’m my own guinea pig!  

My back may not 100%, but it’s pretty damn good!  I can’t believe how far it’s come with the cupping therapy and pain restructuring therapy!  I did roller derby for a few years and now I’m amateur boxer.  I have much to be grateful for, I’m  always reminded of that when I hear someone’s story. 

Good luck and definitely reach out with any questions! 

I sympathise you I really do.  I’m a 51 yr old female and I’ve had lower back pain and tingling calves for 5 months.  I had an MRI 3 months ago and they told me I had 2 bulges, L4/L5 and L5/S1.  I’ve had accupuncture, physio and Bowen therapy and still it drives me nuts.  I can’t stand or sit for long periods.  I was always fit and used to run a lot and do weights and now all I can do is go for a walk.  It is the most frustrating thing I’ve ever had to deal with and unless someone’s has suffered from backpain they don’t understand.  I was prescribed 10mg nortriptylene which I’ve now ramped up to 40mg daily to cope with the pain.  I take it in the morning otherwise it keeps me awake.  I also take codeine when the pain is really bad.   Amitriptelene is very good for back pain/nerve pain too but I couldn’t take it as the side effects were too much, I felt dizzy and exhausted all the time.  It definitely sounds like you need to get something to help with the pain.