They really do sink in and I understand your point.
Disc bulges are very common and mine is not terrible. Most bulges are asymptomatic anyway, and it’s highly unlikely that the pain I’m dealing with (which is gone, by the way. hips and lower back hurt no more.) is probably not caused by the disc. There’s no way to know if lifting weights caused this, and the weights I lift are light anyway, and you said that my form was OK. They all do make sense, and I appreciate you taking your time to help me out with this. I would be as terrified as I was the day it started hurting if I couldn’t talk to you.
However, two days ago a sense of tingling and very, very mild waves of pain started occuring in my left leg, around my knee, shin, calf and ankle after the pain at hips and lower back disappeared. Isn’t that a textbook symptom of disc injuries? Especially after the MRI showing that I do indeed have some sort of disc abnormality.
These symptoms are vague and nonspecific. I’ve had the same symptoms from sitting on my wallet for too long before.
Even if these vague symptoms are somehow related to the disc finding (which is unlikely without nerve root compression), it doesn’t change what we should do about the issue.
If you leg were paralyzed, we’d be having a different conversation. But you’re still able to squat, which is the most reassuring thing of all here. Your symptoms are going to fluctuate, and the more attention you pay to them, the more they’re going to freak you out.
One thing that has really helped me put pain in perspective that might help frame this discussion for you, GorkemSahin, is the idea that pain is a necessary and unavoidable emergent property of being alive. It doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is wrong. I believe that you would serve yourself well to deliberately change the way you think about your own pain.
Throughout this thread, I’ve gotten the sense that you’re coming from a perspective in which pain is something that is an evil, and must mean that you are “broken,” but this is a self-defeating way to think about pain.
I believe that one of the primary things that Dr. Baraki is trying to impress on you is the fact that catastrophizing every pain you experience is not only not helpful, but also probably the primary reason you continue to be plagued by pain. So stop worrying about it and keep moving.
I get the idea, but what bothers me is that thinking that way could loosen us too much. The same thing would apply to someone who herniated their discs by lifting incorrectly and is in pain. You could say “Hey bud, it’s OK, it’s a sign of being alive. Keep on lifting.” But what if he hurt himself by lifting incorrectly, and will further damage himself by lifting incorrectly? A coach would solve this whole problem, but it’s unavaliable in my case.