If you completely blow out a disc or discs you'll know it.. happened to me, felt like someone was pouring warm water down the back of my legs (that was from the fluid in the disc that had blown out onto the nerves).. As for the pain, unable to move. was crippled up on the floor for hours until the wife got home and her and my son got me on a blanket and used that to pull me across the house to the bedroom to get to bed. Unable to sleep, move, go to the bathroom, hurt to even breath etc.. was bed ridden for months until the surgery. This last time was the second time this had happened and the second back surgery.
If your functioning like a normal person, but with some pain. it will probably subside and get better with rest. If the pain is debilitating you to the point where you can't move, drive a car, function as a normal person, and have to have narcotic pain meds just to attempt to get out of bed. . then you've got a possibly serious bad back problem.
when you blow out something major,, like a disc that blows out backwards and gets lodged against your spinal chord,, you'll know your in serious shit. . but I've had upper back issues that were extremely painful, that I knew it was not major just by the way it felt,, it hurt like hell but was nothing like blowing out a disc. . for that I went to a chiropractor and found out I slipped a few rib heads out of place,, easy fix and the pain was gone.
as for blown disc pain,, there is absolutely no fix and no way to escape the pain.
