Leif:

Keep the faith, man. I broke both my wrists in a car accident three
years ago. My left hand had three nasty fractures, and the right had
two. So many tendons and leaders were torn that my arms turn purple
from my knuckle on my palms to my elbows.

I am a full time woodworker, and make my living with my hands so you
can imagine how this was for me. And the prognosis was that I would
never be able to work "in the field" again. However, after about a
year and a half of hard headed, nasty self rehab, (no insurance you
see) I am back at it. There are good days, and there are some really
bad days, but I can saw boards again, and after a couple of years of no
turning, I am grinding away.

My wrists swell and hurt, but they work.

I blew out two disks in my back about 10 years ago, and the good
doctors told me 1) I would never walk without a cane unless I had an
operation to fuse the disks and 2) couldn't stay in construction.
Period. I went to three doctors, all specialists, and all the same
thing. Then I found another guy, someone that specialized in non
invasive healing for sports injuries (which mine wasn't) and he told me
that he thought he could get me better, but it would take a lot of
work. In three months time, I could walk almost standing straight up.
In six months I could stand up straight. At the end of a year's work,
I could work carefully, but hurt a lot. But I was happy to stand up
straight, and not look like Quasimodo.

So I still have back pain (like yesterday it was terrible) but I can
deal with it with a handful of ibuporfen, heating pads and stretching
exercises. The hardest thing for me to get over was the fact I was so
screwed up, and then I was in so much pain I didn't want to do anything
at all that would give me more. And the exercises and conditioning I
had to do for my back HURT. A LOT. I felt the way you did, that they
seem to make things worse, rather than better. I went to a therapist
for about six months three times a week, and I swear I was in more pain
when I left here than I started with. And it would just start to feel
a little better, and it was back to see nurse Diesel again. But hey...
after six months they cut the therapy to two times a week!

I only write this as encouragement, and indeed every back injury is
different. You may never heal. It may never get better. But for me,
I was lucky enough to finally get all the pieces put together to move
forward towards a workable solution. I am not healed, but I am in a
workable situation now. It is much more than I was led to believe
would ever happen, but it took a lot longer to get there with a lot
more effort than I would have ever believed. Someday I may have to
have some fusing done, but I'll deal with that when I absolutely have
no other way out.

So best of luck, keep looking for answers. As the champion of the LDD
method, you are the torch bearer for all things smelling springtime
fresh!

Robert