[scook]

A bunch of comments, general and agreeing with a lot of what the other guys are saying:

I had a friend who was a PT and he would get me in, do traction (an automatic contraption that would alternately pull and release) then do massage. It felt great but didn't do much to get me back in the game. When I learned about the press ups, my life changed radically for the better.

If you have health insurance you should be able to see a specialist (not a neurologist - that was a waste of time - gave me muscle relaxers and said to stay imobile). A CT scan is the likely diagnostic tool, but you need a good doc reading it. If this is the first time you've had the problem and some severe trauma didn't bring it on it's pretty unlikely that you have any ruptured disks, so no fragments to worry about and trying the press ups, cautiously, shouldn't do you any harm, but getting pictures of the problem is absolutely he right idea.

I would ask around and try to find someone you know (or someone they know) who has had a good experience with a medical provider specialist.

I agree with Smoke - you don't want anyone cutting on your back unless you have a lot of unanimous opinions that it's really necessary. I have a friend who had something like Spare was mentioning - a bunch of stuff inside his spine that was pressing on the nerves and he got to where he had almost no use of his legs. In that situation, there's no choice but your sudden onset makes me doubt that's your problem.

I agree with Spare - if you're still in serious pain, the inflamation/swelling hasn't gone down. Try the ice, but mostly work on finding a competent specialist and trust your gut if you don't think they have it right -just reading the pictures doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. A few years ago, I really did myself in. I hadn't been stretching and did some hard exersize - it felt like an electrode in my back and it really hung on. I finally went for a CT scan and met with a surg3on

My PT friends are VERY scepticle of chiropractors - there are LOTS of quacks in the
business.

Don't give up on all PT's just because you got a jerk. My experience convinced me that most doctors and a lot of PT's don't understand spinal problems.