[Maria]

Generally here in the states the conservative route for an acute back prob is initally rest w/ice and or heat, some nonsteroidal antiinflammatory meds, and some PT if still feeling badly tho getting better. The initial PT eval is an assessment of the individual and their history then some passive stretching (done to the patient usually or assisted by the PT) and heat packs, ultrasound which will advance over the next few weeks to some specific exercises tho still usually starts out with the stretching and ends with a heat pack/rest.

If PT fails or one feels worse during PT it's considered "failed" and is stopped. So it's very common here to have PT as part of the initial treatment for something like an annular tear as long as the degree isn't so bad that one is in severe pain horrific pain going into the initial appt.

It's very common for disc bulges to be exaccerbated by PT. Sometimes it's overzealous and sometimes not~ just seems like one wrong move tho is probably that whatever is going on has just reached a level of "one more thing" to set it off.

I'm glad you got your problem addressed tho be careful as your annular tear can still lead to incredibly painful episodes or periods or it could just be "there" and not really bother you that much. That's sort of what my L3 annular tear did. However I suspect that my L4 and L5S1 disc had tears that progressed on further to bulges that were terribly problematic.

Over the years I just learned myself what exaccerbates my probs and what doesn't, what level of exercise and type I can do and what I can't. I make sure that PT's are very careful with my back tho even when trying to work on other areas like helping my right knee recover from 2 surgeries my low back probs were greatly exaccerbated. Just happened.

Good luck. If you've not checked out that chirogeek webpage please do so as that's got so much good information there re annular tears, disc bulges and other back probs it really gives one a good idea of what is going on.

Hope you continue to recover and feel much better! Keep us posted!