How I Come Back from a Debilitating Back Pain to be a Productive Programmer

First of all, I want to tell you that I'm not somebody with medical background. I'm just a regular software engineer who happened to suffer from mild herniated disc a few years ago, perhaps due to my profession which involved a lot of sitting on a regular basis.

About 3 years ago in 2015, I began feeling mild lower back pain everyday at the end of my work day. It wasn't painful enough that it impaired my life, but it was uncomfortable enough that I would sleep on a carpeted-floor every night thinking it would help. At that moment, I didn't know what it was. I just assumed I lacked exercises and stretches.

3 years fast-forward to early 2018, my lower-back got painful enough that I can no longer sit down for more than 15 minutes. After 10-15 minutes of sitting, the urge to get up was too much due to the pain. Here I began to go see different doctors. One semi-traditionalist Chinese doctor practicing bone-related therapy told me it was because I had a mild scoliosis. He observed that my back bend to the right side a little bit. I went for therapy with him for a few months without much improvement. At this time, it had been hard to continue my life as a programmer as I can't barely sit down. Even when laying down in bed -- something considered the best remedy for back-pain sufferer -- I still felt uncomfortable. Everyday had been a real struggle that I can only offer up to God.

One day, somebody suggested me to see a nerve-specialist doctor. I did, and after describing my symptoms: stinging pain that went from the leg up to the lower-back on sitting down and stiff lower-back muscles, she immediately told me to get MRI and X-Ray. Turned out that I had a mild herniated disc. The pain I experienced was a sciatica, a pain that has something to do with the sciatic nerve. In my disc herniation case, the sciatic nerve got pinched by the discs on my back, between L4-L5 and L5-S1 sections. Apparently this sciatic nerve is one of the largest nerve root in the body, spanning from the leg all the way up to the back. This perfectly explained why I felt stinging pain on my legs when sitting down. I had always been confused as to why my legs felt painful on sitting!

My nerve doctor told me that although my pinching is still mild, if it's not treated seriously, it can get pretty bad. One might not even be able to have a kid as impaired sciatic nerve could cause erectile dysfunction! Scary, scary.. She told me I had to go swimming back-stroke for 1-hour a day, everyday. It had to be back-stroke, no other forms. Breast-stroke is particularly prohibited because it'd put strain on the lower back. She said she didn't want me to go for a surgery because it's still mild and should be treatable organically. She also didn't want me to go to chiropractor or some similar means, because if it's not done properly, it could have significant consequences. And getting it done properly is a challenge as there could be different root causes for different people.

So I did what my doctor suggested. I diligently swim everyday for like 3 months. After that I felt a lot better. I could sit down for 30-60 minutes although I would still feel very painful afterwards. I had to lay down on the bed for about 1 hour after I finished a 45-60 minute session of a sitting session. Although the struggle was still there, I was very grateful. I could still imagine how impaired my life was before meeting the doctor.

At this point, I began experimenting. I tried watching many self-help videos on Youtube and tried googling around. I highly recommend Athlean-X Youtube channel. The guy who made the videos is a physiotherapist by profession, specializing in sport injuries. I wouldn't say that doing the exercises suggested in those self-help videos cured me, but some of them had definitely helped me alleviating the pain. Generally, I suggest being very cautious about experimenting with self-help videos, though. Try to read on the comments and try to critically study all the suggestions advised. Also try to consult with your doctor before experimenting with the move or exercise!

At this point, I'm still at that 30-60 minutes of maximum sitting. And I still had to lay down on the bed afterwards too as the after-sitting pain was unmanageable otherwise. I still swam regularly about 2-3 times a week, but I felt it hadn't been as helpful anymore. Not happy with my progress, I began to Google around about weight-related exercise that might help with sciatica, and I came across lateral pull-down. A particular video warned me that doing it with a bad form and posture could make the sciatica worsen instead of helping. On the flip side, doing it properly can be very helpful. The guy on the video explained that the key is to do it properly: when exercising, the back had to be 'locked' in a proper posture all the time. The weight shouldn't be too much that the back had to 'overbend' in order to manage it. I considered doing it, because I had pain on my right side while my left side was generally much better. I figured that perhaps my pain was due to the discs 'bending' to the right side, which was confirmed by the MRI scan. In my own theory, lateral pull down would be useful because it would balance out the discs that were bend to the right. I thought that back-stroke swimming hadn't been anymore useful because my discs would need more pressure to balance themselves out. After all, swimming can only exert limited amount of force, right..?

I started hitting the gym 3-5 times a week for the past 2 months. There are three moves that I've always put in the routine: Mckenzie exercise, plank, and lateral pull down. Mckenzie exericse is one of the most commonly known exercises to alleviate sciatica. Plank is a core-strengthening exercise. Lower-back issue is commonly associated with the lack of core strength -- the muscles whose job is to support the lower back aren't strong enough to do the job, hence the back bone is affected, and therefore a back pain! And lateral pull down is to "fix the unbalanced discs" I theorized earlier. And you know what? I am now able to sit down for 2 hours straight without much significant pain! I feel a slight discomfort when sitting, but it is totally manageable. I also do not longer need to lay down on the bed after every sitting session. I can thank enough all the people who have shared the information to help me getting where I am now. I think I am now ready to come back to a full-time programming job :)

P.S. Again, by all mean, I'm not a medical professional nor trained in the area. I am only sharing this to spread out what I feel has been helping me out. If you ever decide to try out what I do, please first consult with your physicians.