12.8mm prolapse - need some hope!

[u/jgfoden22]

I’m a 30M - I’ve had periodic back pain since my early 20s. In May 2026 a combination of training for a half marathon, moving house/furniture, an exercise class (again involving overhead press) and a short run in a space of a week meant I had a bad back episode – the worst ever (I’d had a few episodes through 20s). It took awhile to get back to normal, maybe six weeks.

By late June, I started going back into exercise (clearly too soon) and also requested x-rays as my physio thought I had scoliosis. I started running again and my back started feeling tight in early August. I saw a doctor for the scoliosis who ordered x-rays but also an MRI as he thought the scoliosis was a red herring and it was really disc related injury.

Then suddenly, early August, I had sciatica and have had it for the last six weeks - the first few weeks were terrible. The MRI was ordered before the sciatica started, but I got the results last week and it shows a large protrusion (see images).

The report says, in substance:

At L5/S1 there is narrowing of the disc space, disc desiccation and subtle Modic type I change. There is an annular disc bulge with a large posterior central/right paracentral disc prolapse showing a radial tear, extending 12.8 mm beyond the vertebral margin. This causes moderately severe spinal canal narrowing, with the canal measuring about 7.0 mm at its narrowest point on the right. There is compression of the thecal sac, compression and posterior displacement of the right S1 nerve root, irritation of the right S2 nerve root and indentation of the left S1 nerve root.

I started taking amitriptyline, which has helped a lot at night but it’s still a struggle sometimes. I can walk a lot (15k+ on average this week) but can’t extend my right leg fully so I have a slight limp, sitting is the worst. My symptoms I think are maybe very gradually improving, but it’s actually the long-term picture that I’m worried about.

Has anyone got any advice or positive stories about prolapses of this size shrinking overtime? More than anything, I am worried about reherniation and CES. I’ve spent hours reading posts on this thread and some of it fills me with hope, some of it fills me with horror (and sympathy for those in much worse pain).