Has anybody else dealt with one? What did you do to make yourself feel better? How much did it effect your life? Just got diagnosed this week, though I think I have probably had it for a while. I fell off a friend’s horse back in Nov and broke my tail bone + and started having SI pain. Been through several rounds of chiropractor and therapy. Finally got the dr to order an MRI which is what found it. It’s “serious but not critical yet.” 
I have been referred to a spinal specialist, but won’t be seeing him until July.
Lots of herniated disks on this board. They are very painful for a few years and then they shrink back. Unfortunately, after they shrink back you are usually left with arthritis.
There is a lot that they can do now. A minimally invasive diskectomy surgery can be done to just clip off the part of the disk that is pressing on a nerve. But if there are reasons not to do a diskectomy, such as other problems with your back that would require a large surgery, then there are other things they can do such as epidural injections, nerve root blocks and radiofrequency ablation in which they damage the nerve so that it no longer transmits pain signals.
That’s it in a nutshell. There have been a lot of other threads on this topic and you should read them if you want more detailed information.
On and off for over a decade. Did PT, Chiro, injections, and spinal fusion just last Tuesday. Mine is L5_S1 and after years of flaring up and quieting down, the disk basically shriveled up and I was bone on bone.
Don’t push through it… take care of it unless you want super fun surgery that has you using a walker for the first few days… and I’m only 30, lol.
LOTS of posts about this condition on here. See if you can get into a decompression therapy- did wonders for my herniated L4-L5 and L5-S1 discs. As in, I can now walk upright and pain free in all aspects of life, including flatwork, galloping and jumping. I just minimise the amount of sitting trot I perform at the moment- only when absolutely necessary.
In the meantime, ice packs to reduce the inflammation, 20-30 minutes at a time, as often as needed through the day, 1/2 hour breaks in between sessions.
Hope that helps, and good Luck!!
Personal Champ- OUCH! 
Yes - sitting trot = hellspawn of the devil. Bad, bad, bad on a spine with shock-absorbtion problems.
Fanfayre - yea, but it’s actually not as bad as I thought. I can’t tolerate any painkillers (get violently ill), so have been doing it all on Tylenol. Came home 2 days after surgery on Thursday, actually haven’t taken any Tylenol today. I am working from home, walking around, actually dusted the house with a Swiffer, lol.
I have 2 herniated discs. When it happened, I opted to let them heal naturally.
It took a good seven months, but never had a problem since.
My experience was similar to Zenyatta. I did a disk about (ugh) 18 yrs ago when I 17 yrs old and trying to move my horse up to Prelim. We took off a touch long from a big table and he landed hard and started bucking. I thought I just jammed my back, but then I started to have problems LOL.
I remember medicine that made me feel funny and PT. I stopped both and decided to ignore the pain and not pick stuff up using my back. It got better.
