Disc Bulge & Sciatica Canberra.

What the evidence says.

Two facts change how people feel about this diagnosis. First, disc bulges are common in people with no pain at all, over half of adults in their fifties, so the bulge on your scan is not automatically the villain. Second, most disc related sciatica improves substantially within months, and the majority of herniations visibly regress on follow up imaging. Exercise based care matches surgery for most cases at one year, with surgery reserved for progressive neurological deficit or intractable pain.

How I treat it.

Early on the job is calming a very irritable system: finding your directions of relief, dosing movement that eases leg symptoms rather than provoking them, and keeping you moving without fear while biology does its slow work. As the leg settles, we rebuild, hips, trunk, gradually reintroduced bending and lifting, because a spine that has been through sciatica needs capacity, not permanent caution.

I monitor the things that matter, strength, sensation, reflex changes, and if your trajectory says specialist, I will organise that referral early rather than late.

What we aim for.

• Leg symptoms retreating up the limb, the classic sign of recovery
• Walking, sitting and sleeping tolerances climbing week on week
• A full return to bending and lifting, trained rather than avoided
• Surgery avoided where evidence says it can be, expedited where it cannot