Ouch my aching back! Part 2

Well, I've followed all my doctor's advise. I started doing physio therapy once a week, then every other week. I stuck to doing my exercises everyday but after a month when the pain continued to be persistent. I started to slip with the exercises. I was up to almost an hour of stretches a day and it was now hard to find the time or desire to do them.

I called the doctor again to look into getting an MRI, he suggested I hold of a while longer and perhaps try osteopathy instead. He arranged for me to meet an osteopath the following week. I went and once again my hopes were high. The osteopath took a look at my xray results and concluded that they were actually normal and the problem was with my sacroiliac joint and that my hips were out of alignment therefore putting pressure on my sciatic nerve, causing the pain. Hooray! She said she'd have me fixed after 2 sessions.

The two sessions came and lots of money went, and I was still in pain. Called the doctor back again...please let me get an MRI so I know what the problem is!!! I had an MRI appointment the very next friday. The MRI confirmed the first diagnosis of a bulged disc (or herniated, slipped, whatever you wanna call it) in my back at the S1/L5 vertebrae. Not only did it show a bulge but it showed a very large bulge, that phsyio therapy, osteopaths or time is very unlikely to help!

I have to say once again I am so frustrated with doctors and health care systems. If I would have gotten the MRI 3 months ago when I originally asked then I would have been on my way to fixing my problem a long time ago.

Fixing however is the tricky part. There is a surgery that can be done called a microdiscectomy, it is simply a keyhole surgery and done as an outpatient procedure. So far the research I've read has said that if a disc is to heal its self it will do so in 6 weeks, which I am well over. However, its also not advisable to have the surgery if the problem has been active for over 3-6 months, which I am just over 3 months. If I do decide to go the surgery route, I then have another challenge on my hands; I can do it through the public system, which there is a 2 year waiting list (that's helpful) or I can do the surgery through the private system for only €7000. There is a fund called the National Treatment Purchase Fund that offers to pay for the procedure if I've been on the public waiting list for over 3 months. I'm just not sure how well this fund works and have never heard of anyone who has used it...so I've to do a bit of research there. But even if I were to wait the 3 months to avail of the fund, I would be well over the suggested 6 month mark of getting surgery.

So that's the story. Here are some pretty pictures of the inside of my body:
Side view

Top view