Herniated or bulged?

Back in march i was trying to slide a 300 lb vanity at work and almost instantly felt pain in my neck and mid back. The next day I couldn't even get out of bed. Well since I'm dealing with workers comp it took them until May to do x-rays and mri. The xray was on my neck and it showed I had a condition the dr called Military neck. She said its common with severe neck strain but if left un treated could cause bulging discs and even fibromialga. The mri showed what she said was a herniated disc at t8-t9 and a possible bugle at t-1. Well they sent me to another dr (workers comp dr) and he said all i had was a slight bulge at t8-t9 and i needed to be more active . That my back was the back of a normal 43 yr old women. Wow! what a difference in medical advice. So I'm living with this sever pain in the middle of my back, feels like my back is going to break and it comes around my rib cage and top of my stomach area. Pins and needles and numbness. My right shoulder blade hurts I'm not sure if this is related. And my neck I just can not get it comfortable. I have such a hard time bending over and sleeping. Nothing is helping. So I'm left with a ? I ask myself everyday is it herniated or just bulged? I wouldn't think if I was in this much pain that it would be just a bulge?