[CA_TacMedic]

I recently did something just as innocuous...I slipped walking up stairs and stumbled down two steps at work. Felt like I pulled something in my hip / pelvis. Worked all day with mild pain and some sciatic pain as well. Went home for my weekend and during the first night of sleep I awoke in the morning and could not get out of bed. Lots of motrin, robaxin without relief for the first day. Upped to percocet and soma on day 2 with mild relief and could at least get up, but with pain exacerbated with any movement. Trip to the doc, had an MRI and dx with spinal stenosis and a pinched nerve at L4/L5. Some pain relief with narcotic pain meds and muscle relaxers, but I still have most of the classic sciatic symptoms...pain, numbness and tingling through my right buttocks, radiating down my right leg to big toe. I am 39 years old and have no hx of prior back problems. A nerve study (EMG) showed no nerve damage as of yet, but the symptoms persist. I have 5 weeks of physical therapy scheduled and my back doctor said I cannot do chiropractic care at all. I have now been off work for 60 days...workers comp in CA is slow to get treatments approved. I am not thrilled about this as I have never suffered an injury like this. I actually want to be healthy and return to work. I am not sure what treatments are available to me that will actually work. I hope that physical therapy will have positive results. I do not like narcotic pain meds and even more than that I do not do well being physically limited. Sitting /sleeping definitely are the worst for this injury. A good soak in the hot tub so far has been the best. I would be curious to hear from any other guys out there with a similar diagnosis and what you final treatment and outcome were. Reading online has not been very positive, so any good news would be well received. Thanks in advance and I apologize for the hijack of your thread....