I am glad to hear that this was in the past. Back pain is genuinely awful, but for me, the trick is not to try and rush the recovery. I was fortunate that I met an Egyptian doctor who advised me to rest and try to gently move around. Before that, I did physio and pilates. He told me that the pain I was experiencing was primarily due to swelling, and rushing into physio aggravated the nerve. A whole ‘industry’ is ready to rush you into physiotherapy.