I went through the same thing. Unfortunately in my case the result was disc degeneration that ultimately required a spinal fusion.
IMO for serious back issues you need go to neurosurgeon, not an ortho, and get imaging done asap. I spent months screwing around with a mediocre PT acting on lousy instructions from a doctor. Frankly in the ortho practice, I felt like I was in a sales funnel with an end goal of big $ surgery vs getting healed. Different experience in the other practice.
I was incredibly fortunate with the treatment for my injury. I woke up in A&E with the worst hangover of my life, a shattered tibia that was held together with some external rods, and an inexplicable back pain that I mentioned to doctors as soon as I woke. They took me in for a CT scan, and seeing the images did an operation on my spine the same day - it was major trauma that had the potential to cause paralysis (so I managed to skip the queue!) Basically, they put in some rods that kept the L1-3 verts spaced apart and pinned the lot while it healed.
I was given the option to take it easy for 18 months and get the rods removed, or go for fusion. I took the prior decision and had the metalwork taken out around 3 years ago this month. The physiotherapy followed that whole fiasco. Today I'm at about 80-90% back to pre-injury back health, bar some scar tissue and flexibility issue.
Luckily I'm British. 3 initial surgeries, 3 months in a hospital bed, 1 year of physiotherapy, 2 surgeries to remove the metalwork in my leg and back, 6 months of physio following that, various follow up appointments with doctors and surgeons, and enough medication to tranquilize an elephant - I didn't have to pay a penny. God bless the NHS.
I didn't appreciate how awful health insurance is until this experience. I'm fortunate to have an awesome employer with generous leave and benefits.
When I was in recovery, hearing the personal stories of my fellow patients was heartbreaking. I was paying $20 copays while these folks were selling possessions to keep their homes. In one case, a guy had to shell out $5,000 for a back brace, and then fight workers compensation for reimbursement.
My only surprise was after surgery, I received a $350k invoice, because my insurer decided that my back injuries were due to a car accident I didn't have, which was tied to an ER admission for food poisoning 5 years prior. That was resolved in a few weeks.
IMO for serious back issues you need go to neurosurgeon, not an ortho, and get imaging done asap. I spent months screwing around with a mediocre PT acting on lousy instructions from a doctor. Frankly in the ortho practice, I felt like I was in a sales funnel with an end goal of big $ surgery vs getting healed. Different experience in the other practice.