L4/L5/S1 here for me... been 22+ years since I screwed mine up. Was dealing cards up here at Turning Stone, reached and twisted the wrong way and "POP". Was hunched over, unable to stand upright. Left the table on November 13th, 1995 and never returned. Two years later, went back to school for Construction Management, got my two Associates Degrees (Management and Technology), and started working for an ex-GF's family friend. Settled my case with the Casino in 2000, bought in as a partner in Jan '01. Being doing residential remodeling since.
Tweaked my back again 3 years ago, spasms and jolts going down my legs into my feet. Saw a specialist, told me my L4/L5/S1 didn't have any discs left between them, they'd started to self-fuse together a few years prior, and that having surgery on what had already self-repaired would involve cutting the vertebrae in half, taking them out and opening my sciatic canal from the squished "oval" to the "circle" it should be, then epoxying everything together, with steel rods for support.
Ummmmm...... no. As long as the pain was manageable, no way in Hell would I go through that. Apparently my pain threshold has gotten increasingly higher, because I don't even feel my lower back issues any more. If I feel stiff, a couple visits to my chiropractor and I'm fine for at least a few weeks. I guess I'm extremely lucky that that's all it takes for me, I have the utmost empathy for
@Cattivo and
@Galante 's wife.
As far as the pain in my feet, I found out shortly after tweaking my back that I was diabetic, and that the majority of my pain was related to that. Pain hasn't been nearly as intense since having my gastric bypass surgery, 85% of the people that have the surgery that have diabetes, the diabetes disappears. Hoping it goes away as I lose more and more weight. Also hoping my arthritis subsides, I actually can't wait to get back to work - only been 10 days, and I'm itching to get something accomplished. Don't know how I'm going to manage 7 more weeks - I'd crawl out of my skin if I was out for months on end.