How I Went From Living on Painkillers to Alleviating My Herniated Disc (2024)

New year's resolution, I wanted to work out a lot and after a year of not working out. I started doing all these Youtube exercises (lots of jumping up and down) without proper warm up. Oh yeah, I also got this standing desk and I thought I'd be a tough guy and try to stand all day in my barefeet because you know, cavemen walked around all day back in the days, and I'm tough like Goggins blah blah blah. Yup, treated my lower back poorly and around Jan 20, 2024 -- started having piercing nerve pain in my glutes, thighs, hamstrings, calves (but not my ankles).

I couldn't stand for more than a few minutes before having to lie down again. I had bulging disc in 2010 so I wasn't new to back pain, but this was next level. I didn't want to take any meds cause Advil is bad for some gastro issues I have (Advil is blood thinning), so I started taking about 600mg of Tylenol a day.

Luckily, I work from home so I started to work 8-9 hours a day on my back with my laptop on my belly. God bless all of you who have to go to work with sciatica like symptoms. I'm sure you're hopped on painkillers, but I can't imagine that. I have no doubt that, one of the key reasons I could recover in 2 months is because I was able to mostly work from the floor, lying down on my back, as I have a computer oriented job. If not, who knows how long it would have taken. STILL. I think I learned a few things to share with you.

1. Theragun -- I have a theragun and I drilled the hell out of every place that seemed to hurt. Yup, that messed me up.

2. Foam roller / rumble roller - I also rolled out my lower back, thighs, hamstrings, calves like crazy. The thing is -- when I had a bulging disc in 2010, this actually helped me. But i didn't know ... things are different with sciatica.

3. Painkillers -- My doctor assured me there was nothing more he could do for my pain. He just kept prescribing me a bunch of painkillers. As I said above, they are bad for me and all they can do is mask the pain, not treating the pain at its source.

4. Stretches: I did tons of stretches, even learned “flossing” on YouTube, and each time it made my pain even worse. I could barely move after. Glute stretches, Mackenzie, you name it—I tried it, and it only increased the pain.

5. Cheap cloth belt:These belts have no built-in technology, no scientific reserchs behind. I kept wearing it for a week without taking a day off but...

About 2-3 weeks into the pain, I got desperate and I started going on Reddit forum to look up a few things and saw how much pain everyone was in.

Damn. I never really valued health before (I'm 39 years old). But after experiencing this, I truly realized money doesn't mean nothing if you have debilitating back pain. Cause you can't do anything. (trying not to curse here in case young teenagers read this but then again, young teenagers already curse right?)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my wife was in her first trimester of pregnancy and needed me, but I could do nothing. That made me feel real bad. Anyways, that's not why you're reading this.

So did I say no stretches worked for me? this is about 2-3 weeks. My nerve pain was just too high, any movement around there just caused immense pain. By this time, Tylenol was not enough, so i had moved on to about 800-1000mg of Advil a day.

Anyways, ironically, earlier this year, I had donated my inversion table that I never used (it was for my wife), so I bought another one. So I used (and still use) the inversion table.

Here's the interesting thing about inversion table:

There's like no real guide to using an inversion table. I started at 20-30 degrees. I felt better. Then I got overzealous and went to 60 degrees and started using it 2-3x a day. Felt a little better. Sometimes a bit worse. Sometimes, I would use it too much. I experimented with going full inversion. 45 degrees. 60 degrees. 30 degrees. I couldn't figure out the consistency. And about 4 weeks in. I wasn't getting better fast enough.

After a month in, I felt utterly dejected. and then one of my friends told me that an acquaintance I knew in high school was now a famous back chiropractor! So I cold called the person, asked him if he remembered me (he did!) and I told him my symptoms and he got me an MRI. I got the MRI, and yup, HERNIATED DISC. And the doc told me the disc was touching the nerve a LOTTT!!!

He launched into an explanation of the underlying cause of my HERNIATED DISC.

The words out of his mouth stunned me:

Herniated disc occurs when the soft center of a spinal disc pushes through a crack in the disc's tougher outer ring. Painkillers are not helping! Certain prescription medications might help with the pain, but they’re not addressing the root cause.

Here’s why: Medications do nothing to prevent the compression of your nerves, they merely dull the pain.

As the expert explained…

It’s like if your car was making a lot of squeaky noises because you are out of oil – and you just turned up the speakers so you don’t hear it.

All you are doing is ignoring the true issue at hand.

Pain and tingling are warning signs your body is sending you…

...Before it's too late, you should stop neglecting them!

Pain and tingling can actually mean good news!

As the nerve becomes compressed, it causes sharp pain or tingling. And when the condition worsens, it can lead to numbness and loss of function.

So if you are still feeling pain and tingling, it means that some of your nerves are still responding.

Why does this matter?

Well, the National Institute of Health states:

"As long as the underlying nerve is still alive, nerves can recover and regenerate. So you may still be able to alleviate the symptoms of sciatica, herniated disc, as long as the nerves are not permanently damaged!"

There’s ONE way to help reverse herniated disc. The key is to increase blood flow to the vertebrae and nerves in the lower back area.

Delivering more oxygen to your muscles and nerves can significantly improve the symptoms of herniated disc…

But how do you do it?

Traditional medicine might suggest increasing circulation through exercise.

But exercise can be tough when you're in pain.

So... what's the answer?

That's when I first heard about this innovative solution – Wolf Massager

Wolfnotch, a small startup launched in 2022, uses cutting-edge technology to address foot pain caused by Herniated disc & Lower back pain.

This technology combines strategically double air pressure, EMS and Fiber Heat Therapy in key areas of the back. It delivers targeted relief deep into the muscles. This combination releases tension and improves blood flow, allowing your body to heal naturally.

Here’s the science:

Just like every other part of our body, our muscles and nerves need proper circulation to function well. When they don’t get enough oxygen, they start to stiffen and cause pain, especially in areas like the lower back and hip.

Age, injury, and lifestyle can restrict this flow of blood, leading to herniated disc and back pain.

The Wolf Massager is designed to increase circulation and relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve, providing lasting relief.

From the first use, I felt relief like I hadn’t felt in years.

The first words out of my mouth were, “I can’t believe this actually works!”

While temporary treatments like painkillers only mask the pain, they don’t address the root cause.The Wolf Massager does.

I kept using the Wolf Massager for 15 minutes per day.Sometimes, I'd do too much of it but I got better listening to my body. I still made sure to not put any dynamic impact on my lower back. I still couldn't walk that much without having nerve pain, but I noticed I could walk for longer and longer.

At a certain point, I decided to start walking / hiking with my wife again. Maybe this was like 5-6 weeks in cuz I knew I was becoming too weak and I needed to strengthen again.

After about 6 weeks, I was able to drive like 5-10 minutes again. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in all this that I experimented with really cold baths, epsom salt baths, and whatever else ... and it didn't help. I even did that Chinese cupping, and that didn't doo much. I tried acupuncture mats (those spiky mats) ... but nope. And I still have some pain today (maybe I rowed too much) but the pain is like 2-3/10