nerve testing

Hi all I am new to the forum so here goes I am a 32 yr old single working mother. I work in an EXTREMELY busy HIGH volume restuarant as a server. I am on my feet A LOT! For the past 5 years I have been in EXTREME pain in my lower back area, and recently was able to pick up my company's health insurance. Well I started out with a MRI which revealed 4 bulging discs and my very bottom disc herniated. I recently started going to a PM dr who is very nice but he also says I am much too young to be in this much pain(Don't I know that!!) Anyways He wants me to have the surgery to correct the herniation BUT I  A) cannot afford the loss of work B)cannot find reliable care for my kids while I recover and C)am just TOO SCARED to let them operate on my bak as I have heard you are never the same again! So My PMD scheduled a nerve test next week...what does this entail? anyone had one? Also he says we can try to do some epidureals, anyone had those? He also prescribed me loratab 10s which make me so sick to my stomach its reaaly hard to take them and I NEED THEM!!!! Anyone had this problem???Any ideas/thoughts on my situation would be GREATLY appreciated!

[Kalvin]

There are 2 kinds of nerve tests,a nerve conduction velocity test (NCV) is an electrical test that is used to determine the adequacy of the conduction of the nerve impulse as it courses down a nerve. In other words, they measure how long it takes a nerve impulse to get from point A to point B, and by doing this they can tell if theres something wrong with the nerve. The test is usually done with surface patch electrodes.

EMG's are done to find the cause of weakness, paralysis,  muscle twitching and problems in a muscle or the nerves supplying a muscle. The test is done similarly to an NVC.

Epidural steroid injections are a common treatment option for many forms of low back pain and leg pain. The effects tend to be temporary providing relief from pain for one week up to one year; they can also lessen your pain to the point that you can go to Physical Therapy and start an exercise and stretching program, which is very helpful with back pain.

You need to explore all of the various conservative treatments, like PT, Injections and others before you consider surgery. If you do decided to have surgery, make sure that you get at least 2 opinions, 3 is better.

Good Luck