I've been there and you can heal from it. Ice, every 20 minutes. Even though it's uncomfortable, it's important. Anti-inflamatories - advil etc. Also 2 teaspoons turmeric 3x per day beat up into juice or something (a natural anti-inflamatory that works quite well).
It takes time to heal a herniated disk. There's a great protocol out there from a sports trainer (and ex-marine) named Pete Egoscue. The book is called "Pain Free" it deals with alignment / re-aligning years of slow postural degradation; you might THINK you have good posture etc, but perhaps not. Worth going to one of their clinics etc if you're nearby. Website =
www.egoscue.com
Think about following an anti-inflamatory diet for a few months; it can make a HUGE difference.
After a week or so of ice, and laying down, think about gentle swimming as rehab / floating as rehab - it takes the strain off the muscles, allows them to get out of spasm.
There's a decent book out there called "Heal Your Own Back" it has some great "emergency" excercizes for responding to an injury. Those gentle counter bends work immediately.
I went from being unable to do anything (i was in huge pain, couldn't sit, couldn't bend more than 10 degrees) to complete healing, and back to a very physical life including a lot of yoga and martial arts (and heavy lifting and hauling firewood and etc)
Get those 2 books immediately, surgery, often reccomended usually only offers TEMPORARY relief - a few years later the weak spot will move further up or down the spine, and you'll be right where you are again today. Lots of studies showing this. Of course this is an automobile forum and I am not a surgeon; but again, my experience was complete healing from a condition that I was advised to get surgery on immediately (ie go straight from MRI into surgery. I said no)
If you want more information, feel free to PM me.