Princess,
Please keep in mind that although we had some common symptoms (antalgia because of disk herniation, rotations as you describe), we can’t be sure that your body responds the same way as mine did. In fact, i had intense sciatica pain, while you had not. You had surgery, i had not. So, this is only my story. Nothing more.
So, at my worst point, i had “twisted pelvis” too, or whatever that is called. I was told that this is always the case: The muscles from the side of the herniation go into spasm. The rest of the spine has to lean on the other side in order to keep you balanced. Sometimes, the rest of the spine leans on the same side, which depends on where exactly your herniation is. So, when your torso leans to one side, the pelvis **has** to rotate to compensate. This rotation is the rule, not the exception. The pain at that point was like hell. I had pain EVERYWHERE, i couldn’t locate it. In fact, some doctors at that time offered me spine fusion because they were claiming that discectomy would only help sciatica pain and not lower back pain (while others were telling me that those who suggested fusion were idiots, as usual).
My mind was telling me that the real reason was the herniation, but they wouldn’t guarantee that the lower back pain would go way. So, that was another reason why i didn’t rush into surgery. I said, wtf, i am not going under knife if the lower back pain can remain forever. Because (PERSONAL ASSUMPTION) the surgery itself may interrupt a natural smooth realignment process of the muscles. So, what happens when you cut them? pierce them? mess them up? I had surgery in the past, for other reasons, and what i learned from that experience was that it is a bad idea to mess with something when it is on its peak. Esp when you are under pain and inflammation. Unless you absolutely absolutely absolutely know what is going on (END OF PERSONAL ASSUMPTION). I have to say that today: ALL THIS “VAGUE” PAIN IS 100% GONE (YEEE!). I mean 100%. Not 99%. Gone, completely, zero, no pain. So all this pain was the result of muscle spasms and system shock. So i believe your physio was correct on that. I also had sciatica and lower back pain. Lower back pain is gone now, and the sciatica is gone, apart from some rare tingles across the left nerve.
Some other stuff to note: i didn’t see improvement within three months. I saw minor improvement at approx 6 months. At 12 months the pain was much less, but i was in pain nevertheless and my spine was not completely aligned. The big improvement was at about 15-18 months. Maybe a year and a half later. I had knee pain too. Both knees will be out of position for a while. Its common sense. Torso leaning right, pelvis rotated left, now you have leg length differences. One of them will bear more weight. So, please, protect it. Really, its as simple as it gets. You will have all the symptoms people with scoliosis have for a while. Thats normal. Protect your neck too. I had neck pain for a while too (but not much).
Now, the muscles do shrink, its true. It took approx 2 years to be able to rotate my spine painless 360 degrees. I am serious. I managed to jog painless at approx 2y. The recovery is not a fast process. It was as slow as you can imagine.
Now, some stuff i concluded from my xp (which may be completely wrong):
Rule #1: When your spine is at the super painful scoliosis stage:
1) YOU MUST NOT WALK. It is common sense. everything is out of place. How can walking help? Your disks are seriously crushed by assymetric forces. You can only cause more damage. If you wake up one morning and you have antalgia (or whatever this is called), PLEASE STAY AT HOME. DONT RUSH TO DOCTOR. Dont walk, dont move. Call if you like, but please, dont start walking.
2) YOU MUST NOT SIT. FORGET IT. You can’t. 90 degrees on a messed up spine. Try to image what happens on the discs. So, I didn’t sit for a year. I am serious. No chair for a year. And even know, i try to not sit for more than 4h without break. I type in bed. Surf in bed. I stand, i walk, but chair, it is only for eating and working when you can’t work in some other way. Even now, when i dont feel pain at all.
3) YOU MUST NOT DRIVE. (doh, obvious, most probably you cant anyway)
4) YOU MUST NOT LET ANYONE PUT HIS HANDS ON YOUR SPINE AND “ADJUST IT”. Everyone who tried to help me (all of whom which were famous “professionals” with expensive web sites full of promises) made the things WORST. If you see a big fat herniation, then you have your answer. He can’t heal it. end of story.
Rule #2:
If you decide not to go under surgery, you must STOP ALL PAIN KILLERS. I stopped them all. Through them away. All. Just like that.
Reason of my decision: Pain killers hide the pain. If you want to heal, you need feedback from your body. If you hide the pain and try to live a normal life, you will fack up more things in your body, and you lose the opportunity to understand what is going on inside you. You have to take that feedback and learn from it.
The thing that helped most (seriously, please don’t laugh):
1. Sleeping with a pillow between your legs. Okay, people say that it does work. I start doing it, and I was thinking: “wtf am i doing, this is placebo”. BUT, within approx 2-3 months, i managed to understand the difference. At first you just put the pillow, a HUGE PILLOW, not a SMALL PILLOW, between your legs and feel like a clown. BUT, if you use the pillow a lot, slowly you will find the body position that decompresses the discs at the max. I know it, because I can now find the position easily on my body and feel the decompression. And it was not easy. It took me about 2 months to find the optimal position. And i know that during the first month i was sleeping in a non optimal way. But I believe that the healing process happens mostly during the night, so, find your optimal position, to give your body the chance to take the maximum out of your healing time.
2. WALKING. Nothing else. Just SLOW walking. Find a friend and start walking *slowly*, with no stress about “your spine”. Don’t think about how to “walk properly”, don’t think about your belly and your breath, just get quality sport shoes (ofc no heels) and walk naturally and **slowly** as your body flows. Take your time.
Thats all i did, after trying physio, swimming, alexanders, mckenzie, pilates and manual therapy. My recovery started after i stopped them all (actually you could try mckenzie exercises, which helped me a little bit too)
And, oh my, my first walks were terrible. All muscles were complaining. I was VERY stressed, because i didn’t know whether I would ever recover. People were writing on the net that it goes away, some others that it may become permanent. Some others that you need a superdoctor to give you the super secret exercises or else you are doomed forever.
Doh, i dont know. I know i don’t feel any pain now. That’s for sure. And i just walked 12k today :-)