I am not a MD, or a lawyer. This information is from knowledge gained because people I know have had back problems. You should check with a MD or a lawyer to verify any specific information you think applies to you.
Were you on the job when you were injured, and were you working for someone, or self employed? You might be covered by some type of workers comp in some cases. This would be an additional source of monetary help for you if it applies to you.
You might only have tissue damage, in which case physical therapy will be very helpful.
If a disk in you spine was damaged the question would be what type of damage and how severely.
There are several ways a spine can be damaged. A disk can end up with a bulge. This is usually correctable with a simple surgery using scopes and the incisions are only large enough to require a few band-aids. The relief of pain is about 80 percent within hours of the surgery, usually as soon as the surgery is done, and the other 20 percent can usually be achieved with special physical therapy, exercises, keeping ones weight down, and proper diet. Until all of that overcomes any remaining pain you could use pills.
If you have cracks in a disk, your body will grow small blood vessels into the cracks in an attempt to aid circulation and provide healing. Unfortunately along with these new blood vessels your body also grows new nerves. Nerves do not belong in the high stress environment in cracks in disks. This will cause pain, in some cases severe pain. You could even black out. Because your body grows these new nerves into the cracks there is a time delay between the initial injury and when the pain reaches its maximum. This delay can be quite long. This kind of damage can sometimes be surgically corrected with the IDET procedure, or fusion depending on the extent of the damage. The recovery time and percent of relief of pain varies per case.
Regarding pain pills, there are two classes of pain pills. Your liver, assuming it is healthy, can handle a limited amount of pain pills in both of these classes at the same time. If you are maxed out in the amount of medication in one class and are still in pain your doctor can prescribe medications in the other class to help relieve the pain. The key is to never take more than the allowed amount of medication in any one class of pills so you do not damage your liver. If the pills you doctor prescribes do not handle the pain, get the doctor to prescribe a different med. Do not take more than allowed for a given amount of time.
You Physiatrist will have you sign a agreement that they are the ONLY doctor who will prescribe pain pills for you. If you ever have anything medical happen to you, you will have to call there office and get there permission before you get any other pain med prescription(s) filled. Your Physiatrist will also do random drug test on you without prior warning, usually when you visit them . If you use any illegal drug they will probably no longer prescribe for you. You should also not be abusing alcohol as this may damage you liver when combined with pain pills. Your Physiatrist may include test for alcohol use when they random test you. On initial visit if you normally drink any alcohol, even only one beer, ask you Physiatrist if you are allowed to consume alcohol, and if so how much while you are on any pain meds. In general you will not be using any alcohol to relieve pain. You will be relying on pain meds. The up side to this is your liver will be better of for it. The down side to it is pain pills also slow down your digestive system, and upset you stomach and gut. So drink plenty of water. If you are going to take two of any pain pill space them apart at least 1/2 hour or better yet one hour or more. Your stomach and gut will bother you a lot less if you space the pills. You will require adding SenicotS and probably 1/2 or 1 Milk-of-magnesia pill once a day, to keep you from having problems.
An injured back is not like a broken arm. It will not get better on its own. It is kind of like going to the doctor with a broken arm and the doctor says here are some pain pills. You say ok but how about fixing the arm. The doctor says come back in a few months and you will get a new prescription for more pain pills.
Nowadays there exist a way to combine the X-ray, cat-scan and MRI images to produce a final image that clearly shows what is going in with someone's spine. Few doctors know of or use this method. Dr.Jeffrey Saal and Dr.Joel Saal who invented the IDET procedure and perform them in California have a technician who can combine those images to produce the better image.
Back surgery, if it is required must be carefully researched to insure that the surgery is appropriate for the injury, and that the doctor is capable.
Good Luck.
