I am not a doctor but the general consensus is to give 6 months of conservative treatment a chance before even considering surgery. Now to answer your question yes waiting can hurt if you wait too long I.e. you can get sciatic nerve damage, facet problems etc., but that is if you wait quite a long time usually (longer than 6 months most likely). There is no way to tell if your disc will heal on its own besides doing the conservative treatments and seeing what happens unfortunately.
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Lifelong history of back issues from a young age, spasms etc.
1995 - Weightlifting injury
1997 - Hip Injury
2009 - Trampoline injury (just bounced down on my butt)
2009-2011 Physiotherapy and medication, progress but no lasting pain relief
2010 - X-Ray DDD L5-S1, L4-L5, L4-L3
2010 - MRI Herniation L5-S1, Bulges L4-L5, L4-L3
2011 - Epidurals - No relief
2012 - Facet Injections - No relief
2012 - Discogram TBI - positive L3-S1
L3-S1 ADR M6-L w Clavel 11/28/2012
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