Why am i in extreme amount of pain? ortho said i'm not bad enough for surgery. dx: 3 lumbar bulging disc no impingement. orthopedic surgeon said just to go back to pain management. this condition/complaint has been going on for 3 years now and seems to

Pain : Pain is a complex sensation that reflects both physical and mental states. The most easy to understand pain is pain that comes from a known cause, for example a broken leg. It is often much harder to understand pain that does not appear to have an obvious source. Getting further away from the broken leg, examples include the aches and pains we feel with bad jet lag, the aches and pains of flu, the pain of migraine (which no one seems to doubt), and the pain of fibromyalgia (which a lot of people question). Pain that doesn't appear to have a source may be caused by an imbalance in the regulation of pain pathways in the spinal cord and in the brain, and is often linked to mood disorders like anxiety and depression. Often, this kind of pain can't be eliminated, but can be made more bearable by an approach that draws from many sources, including: self help (which includes improvements to general health -- like quitting smoking, diet and exercise), psychotherapy, manual therapy, and (when needed) medications.

Back : Back pain may be come from the disks, joints, muscles, ligaments, bones, etc. I often find people with severe back pain and degenerative disk disease have a lot of their pain originating from the facet joints. I have seen very good results with endoscopic rhizotomy. I would recommend seeing a spine surgeon who does endoscopic surgery. Please see my health guides for more information on facet arthropathy and endoscopic rhizotomy. Good luck!

Specialist: If you have been going to pain management, then you should have had tests, injections, etc for presumptive diagnoses such as disc disease, facet syndromes, etc. If the doctor was not a specialist dealing only with spinal disorders, then i would recommend a second opinion with a spine surgeon (maybe at a university setting if your area does not have such tertiary care surgeons available).