I would definitely want to go to the doctor first and see what is actually wrong, although the most probable cause is what the others said, a bulging disc. My spine is a mess, so all I can do is tell you what has helped me, and that's mostly a repeat of some of the things mentioned already. If you're overweight, try to lose it as quickly as possible, that puts a huge strain on your spine. Alternating hot and cold can help, along with some TENS unit electrical stimulation. Muscle stretches while in the shower with the water as hot as I can stand it help a lot. The physical therapy people can work wonders for getting pressure off of nerves. I've been in agony multiple times nearly to the point of suicide but the PT folks were able to get that pressure off of the nerves and get them soothed to a bearable point where I could relax and heal. Anti inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxers like Robaxin help too. You can pretty much forget about getting any sort of opiod pain relievers these days thanks to all the drug abusers, so NSAIDS and acetominophen are about all you can do. Big doses of ibuprofen had my stomach bleeding so the doc switched me to meloxicam which helps the pain and inflammation just as much without near as much gastro disruption. I was taking large amounts of Prilosec when I was on the ibuprofen, now I need none. The physical therapists can work on your core muscle strength around the spine taking some pressure off of the spinal column, relieving some of the bulging disc trouble if it hasn't gotten too far yet. After a ruptured disc and ever increasing leg pain and motor nerve problems, I had L5-S1 fused back in 2009. I thought that I was going to die both before and then after the surgery but after around nine weeks the pain started fading and I recovered very well eventually. Most people don't have that much trouble with the after surgery part; I had let the damage go far too long and it was super inflammed and took a while to settle down and stop hurting so much. Anything that you can do to reduce the inflammation, relieve the excess loading and strengthen the muscles around the spine can do wonders in avoiding surgery. Sometimes it's unavoidable but you don't want to go there unless you absolutely must. Getting cut on isn't much fun.
