Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] After some back pain from a recent fall, I had an x-ray, and the associate to the Physician s Assistant who was working with me called to say there was a compressed disk showing that seemed to be something from an earlier injury. She didn t advise anything further or tell me it was something I should keep check on, or that I should seek further medical help. I feel sure she was indeed relating the comment given to her by her superior, but I don t have any idea of what I should do now. I didn t have presence of mind enough to ask questions at the time, obviously, but I did look the condition up on Internet. I do need some clarification on the direction I should take now. Does a herniated disk mean something is critically wrong, or could be in the future, or that the fall could have affected the earlier injury ?
[|AI|]  Hello.  Actually there are a fair number of people with a herniated disc that don't even know they have one.  If the herniated part of the disc begins to compress a nerve root that can cause articular symptoms like numbness or pain or both shooting down a leg.  In general there's no need for surgery with a herniated disc since the symptoms usually respond to physical therapy and if necessary, epidural injections.