Living with Chronic Back Pain

I started having mild back pain when I was in mid late twenties after having my first child. It was pretty controlled back then, and I had no problems doing a lot of things from walking, stretching, swimming, climbing, or cycling at that. In fact, I was able to do a lot of things that most people in their early twenties could do. When I was in my early thirties, I had my second child, and that's when things took a turn for the worst. I didn't realize it at first because I ignored the pain. I also didn't realize how severe my pain or how damaged my back was too. That was until I couldn't take the pain any more, and over the counter medications wasn't working and my family doctor found she needed to refer me to a specialist now. Physical therapy had worked for awhile but once it stopped, my pain returned again. I had finally gone for x rays and to my horror had discovered that I had degenerative disc disease in my lower back. At that time, it was mild, and was controlled with medication and therapy. Late last year, I began to notice numbness in my hip and right leg and ignored the signs for months. I told my mother one night and she freaked out, as my own mother had gone through the same experience as I was going through myself and immediateley advised me to seek my doctor or a chronic specialist. Once I did, I realized what was going on when the results of the tests came back.