The doc has taught me two medical terms for my back.. It's the sciatica and Prolapsed invertebral disc... Yea.. It is so painful that I can't stand or sit properly... I look like Notre Dame the whole day...

Sciatica ( Wiki)

Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression and/or irritation of one of five nerve roots that give rise to the sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve itself. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, and/or various parts of the leg and foot. In addition to pain, which is sometimes severe, there may be numbness, muscular weakness, and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg. Typically, the symptoms are only felt on one side of the body.

Although sciatica is a relatively common form of low back pain and leg pain, the true meaning of the term is often misunderstood. Sciatica is a set of symptoms rather than a diagnosis for what is irritating the root of the nerve, causing the pain. This point is important, because treatment for sciatica or sciatic symptoms will often be different, depending upon the underlying cause of the symptoms.

Although sciatica is common, a 2008 review of clinical trials said there are no good treatments for it.


Prolapsed Intervertebral disc

The intervertebral discs are circular pads of tissue that separate the bones of the back (vertebrae). These discs consist of a jelly-like centre encapsulated in a fibrous coating and act as shock absorbers between the vertebrae to soften the pressure forces in the back especially when someone is running, bending and lifting.

A prolapse of a disc (often called a slipped disc) happens when so much pressure is put on the disc that the gelatinous centre bursts out of the coating. This protrusion may then press on one of the nerves leaving the spinal cord and running just behind the disc, causing the nerve to become numb or to send pain messages to the brain.

The most common place for a prolapsed disc to occur is in the lumbar (lower back) region although it may occur in the cervical region (neck) or, less commonly, in other places down the spine.