Luke -- this may be something I write about in the future, but on my way out of the door from the Army, my back started hurting with a little bit of numbness in my left leg. The only job I could find was packing boxes in a warehouse. It got worse. After a week, I went to the VA (which is a nightmare itself) and eventually got some pain meds just to make it through work. I was eventually up to ~12 vicodins per day due to abusing them and just being miserable.

The VA would have continued throwing pills at me or telling me to do physical therapy, which was terrible.

I eventually fought hard enough to get an MRI after dealing with this pain and addiction for seven months to find out I had a moderate-to-severe herniation in my L5-S1. This was causing the numbness in my left leg, and obviously the back pain.

I tried chiropractors. Did nothing, other than spend more money. In speaking with a nurse at a civilian (read: non-VA clinic) to get a steroid shot (which helped for a day or so), she told me about a spinal surgeon in Illinois that developed a special surgery called a microdiscectomy. Basically, they shaved the portion of the disc that was pushing into my nerve bundle to relieve pressure.

Went to sleep in pain... 30m later, woke up and walked out of the hospital with no pain in a few hours.

Microdiscectomies don't work for everyone and require a specific type of herniation, but could be worth a look if the pain continues. I wouldn't wish back pain on anyone. Hell on earth, especially when you mix vicodin and copious amounts of Icehouse beer.