Hi - thanks for your response....

It happened about 2yrs ago when i moved house - i was too impatient to wait for help and was carrying sets of drawers up stairs and i twisted my back. I had the most horrendous back pain for 2 days and as quickly as it came, it went away again. Since then i have horrible lower left leg pain.

I agree with your comments re the surgeon - he was very flippant despite my obvious distress at the thought of no help.

I have no other underlying medical conditions and i was of the opinion that the gabapentin was a painkiller and the amitryptilene was prescribed as a muscle relaxant to help me sleep at night.

I have been for intense physio (with a McKenzie trained physio), acupuncture & osteopath none of which have helped. I also purchased the McKenzie book in the hope that i might be able to control the issue at home.

The results of my Wikipedia reference-linkMRI scan showed that:

L4/5 Disc dehydration
Posterior Bulging
Disc Prolapse
No evidence of nerve root compression

I am the point that i cant take this anymore....do you think its worthwhile getting a 2nd opinion from another surgeon?

Thanks for all your help