My story (mustang)

Hi All
Firstly I want to say what a fabulous site. I now don't feel alone. It's good to know others have been through what I have.

Here is my story.

I was on holiday and got a massage at one of the Turkish baths. The guy said, you have a serious back problem you should go see about it. I ignored it.
months went buy and I started to have really bad sciatic pain. I decided ow was the time for the doctors. I was given pain medication and told if it doesn't go away in a couple of months come back and see us. I was never warned of the red flag symptoms.
i went back a couple of months later where I was then referred to a neuro surgeon, (due to my work giving me private medical care). I saw the neurosurgeon and he did tests on my legs. I was unable to lift my left leg. He referred me for an MRI.MRI showed a herniated disc. I was then referred to the pain management clinic, where to cut a long story short I had  3 lots of nerve blocks. 
This didn't help
I continued trying to live a normal life..this was very hard as the pain was unbearable. I went to work one day and on walking home to the train station my leg became numb..my feet were in agony. I struggled to walk and held back the tears as was in such a public place.
i got home grabbed the pain meds and went to bed. I had a terrible sleep, couldn't get comfy, took more pain meds and. Waited anxiously for the doctors to open. Got an appointment that afternoon. By that time I was incontinent and my saddle area was numb. The doctor examined me and didn't perform a retail exam as thought I was in too much pain. She called the hospital wanting me to be seen as an emergency. The docs weren't really happy about seeing me as by this time it was 5pm on a Friday night. After a bit of arguing between docs, I had a rectal exam performed by my GP and was then referred to hospital.
At hospital, more tests, another rectal exam and pin prickly tests, I was admitted. At this point advised no MRI would be available until Monday. I was then transferred ward 3 times over the weekend, so supposedly couldn't find me for my MRI on the Monday. So it was done the next day.
That afternoon I was told I was being transferred to another hospital which specialises in back operations. I was taken by ambulance, doped up with morphine ready ad prepared for my op that day. I was then disappointed again to be told my operation was the next day. 5 days after the onset of the red flag symptoms.
Anyway op was done on L4/l5 S1. I was discharged and sent home. I thought now was recovery time but my symptoms got worse, incontinence came back, I struggled to get out of bed. I was doped up to the eyeballs on pain meds. 8 months this continued and advised it was post op recovery. I was then sent for a further MRI to be advised in June that I now have discitis. I have now been on antibiotics since June and don't feel any better.
The icing on the cake now is I have to now prove I'm ill at an ESA medical. Cauda equina and discitis, along with self catheterisation and now I need to tell a stranger all about it, to see if I qualify for sickness benefit.