back went out leading to severe butt pain

[physiobob]

During this acute phase, which sometimes results in brutal butt spasms that come on in the wee hours of the morning, I had an s1 nerve root block and it instantly reduced the pinching/stabbing pain considerably.

I think that gave you your answer. Maybe if this is not being alleviated for any useful period of time a microdiscectomy might be in order. Sounds like something is physically pressing on that nerve and you need it to stop doing so.

That said time is a good healer as many in the non-western world live full normal lives without surgical intervention. There can be some interesting postural changes though

[wkriski]

Thanks Bob,

Unfortunately 'they' won't do surgery based on the mri I had and also many people seem to develop scarring so it still touches the nerve. I read about laser surgery but have seen some horror stories from some of the places in the US but it seems that slicing away some of the disc would make sense.

I wish time would fix this problem, over the past few years it's been pretty constant.