Similar experiences to Thermo.
Through a combination of bad beds, bad habits, bad lifting technique, bad sofas, and stupid acts of bravado, I gaily ignored decades of warning pains until one day a disc went bluuurrrgh. Pain the like of which I never want to feel again. Lost feeling in toes; phantom pain in hamstring; borderline bladder control; all of the commonplace L4/L5 prolapsed disc symptoms.
Then came physio, pain killers, research, physio, traction, seminars on the spine, chiropractic consultant, physio, and mobility exercises. And after two months I was able to walk 100m without stopping.
Then I took up Tae Kwon Do, and got full mobility and strength back within 12 months, but it was immensely hard work.
I still occasionally do something stupidly twisty and put a facet joint in a stuck position. I now know how to avoid it, and also how to undo it, but I suspect this of being a congenital weakness that is the condition I stupidly ignored for years.
My physio's description meant the most - muscle tissue is particularly stupid, because having usefully spasmed to protect other tissue (e.g. nerve bundles) from damage, it gets starved of blood supply. And it responds to being starved by doing guess what? Uh-huh - spasming.
This is why the right combination of pain killers, sleep, and mobilising exercises are the key to resolving back injuries. Pain killers allow sleep; sleep allows relaxation; relaxed muscles allow more blood supply; exercise stimulates blood flow, healing, and lymph release.
Heat, or cold, or alternating between the two, also help calm down spasmed muscles. A bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel is both cold enough and anatomically supportive.
The other miracle trick (for some people) is to use a TENS machine. Getting pregnant is optional of course, but a TENS is brilliant at fooling the nervous system into thinking that the pain is coming from somewhere else. I wore mine day and night for about a month.
The best advice? Don't injure your back in the first place. I now have a weakness that will never go away, and is just waiting to strike, and I can't get critical injury insurance for anything back related.
IMHO, given that we're "told" that most UK males will injure their backs during their working life, it's criminal that we're not all required to pass an exam on the spinal column before being allowed to leave school. S*d algebra and trigonometry; b*gger the English grammar lessons; all of that is worthless if you can't think straight because of back pain. Frankly, albeit somewhat crudely, I'd rather force a 10lb foetus out of my non-existent hoo-hah than re-experience disc pressure on a nerve bundle.