Question
In October, I began having lower back pain after much heavy lifting.  X-ray showed thinning of the lowest disc, and I am scheduled for a CT scan at the end of April.  In the beginning, it was painful to bend over (pull on socks, brush my teeth). The lower back pain is gone, but now, I have pain in my (R) buttock and down the outside of my (R) leg;  it's a burning pain, much much worse at night when I go to bed.  Turning over in bed is excruciating!  What should I be doing?

Answer
You probably do have a disc (herniation or bulge). An mri would be a test done (unless you have metal hardware , pacemaker inside your body) then you would get a CT scan. either test will just confirm that diagnosis, it will not fix the problem.
Your problem is that you have a pinched nerve in your lumbar (lower back) spine. You have a few options:
medical intervention: drugs (which do not fix the problem, they only mask the pain) ie: muscle relaxers, pain killers, anti-inflammatories.

Pain management: injections, steroids, epidural, etc... (same thing , they only mask the symptoms)

Physical therapy: is the study of muscles and soft tissue. this can help but tends to take a long time for recovery. if you are out of shape and not stretching and taking care of yourself this is a good choice only after you get through the acute pain and are feeling better. Physical therapy will not remove pressure off your pinched nerve.

Chiropractic: chiropractors remove nerve pressure by re-aligning the spine and deal with soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament) issues you are having. No other profession removes nerve interference from a drug free approach. they go to the source of the pinched nerve to release pressure off the nerve.
You must go a few times a week and give it 4-10 weeks to see improvement. If you have improved , but not a 100% then make sure your chiropractor checks your psoas muscle and you may want to consider using a chiro that utilizes Cold laser therapy to speed up your recovery.

hope that helps!

Dr. David Kulla
Synergy Welness
Chiropractor, New York City