I was moving in mid September 2012 and while lifting a box felt immediate pain in lower back, finally went to doctor at the beginning of October and had a MRI done that showed I had a herniated disc (L5-S1). I had an epidural injection the following week and that only made it worse. I was having pain in lower back, left butt cheek down left leg along with numbness and tingling down the same leg. I ended up having a left L5-S1 hemilaminotomy and microdiskectomy on 10/24/12. Everything was feeling better regarding the numbness and pain for a couple weeks except for surgery pain of course. Then I started having pain again in the lumbar area again and just have dealt with for the lat 3 months. But then about a month ago I noticed the pain in left butt, hip and leg again and numbness down left leg. My pain specialist wanted me to go back to my neuro surgeon and he ordered a MRI again. I had it today and have the cd but no report yet. They will send that on Monday to surgeon. I opened up the cd and compared the original MRI and this one and it looks to me that the same disc is herniated again. I just can t wait until Monday to get an answer. From what I have told you and I can gladly send you the cd results of the MRI if you would like to view yourself but I want to know if I m right so I can plan what might be the next step and if surgery and what kind might be needed at this point. If you can help that would be greatly appreciated. I am going nuts and don t want to rely on what people who aren t doctors are telling me. Thanks in advance.