Health - sciatica, sliiped disk, lower back pain:NSAIDs can they really help as much as opiods

[bloodred1889]

hay all.
today swim was awoke at 5am with excruciating pain in her left leg and left side of her pelvis.
after 4 hours of waiting to see if the pain would stop, swim gave in and took painkillers, remadine. pain is currently getting better, but not much.

anyway swim did some looking up on wiki and found two interesting things:

A spinal disc herniation, incorrectly called a "slipped disc", is a medical condition affecting the spine, in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring (annulus fibrosus) of an intervertebral disc allows the soft, central portion (nucleus pulposus) to bulge out. This tear in the disc ring may result in the release of inflammatory chemical mediators which may directly cause severe pain, even in the absence of nerve root compression (see "chemical radiculitis" below). This is the rationale for the use of anti-inflammatory treatments for pain associated with disc herniation, protrusion, bulge, or disc tear.

and :

Sciatica is pain caused by general compression and/or irritation of one of five nerve roots that are branches of the sciatic nerve. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, and/or various parts of the leg and foot. In addition to pain, which is sometimes severe, there may be numbness, muscular weakness, and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg. Typically, the symptoms are only felt on one side of the body.

Although sciatica is a relatively common form of low back pain and leg pain, the true meaning of the term often is misunderstood. Sciatica is a set of symptoms rather than a diagnosis for what is irritating the root of the nerve, causing the pain. This point is important, because treatment for sciatica or sciatic symptoms often will be different, depending upon the underlying cause of the symptoms.

both of these sound similar to what swim feels alot of the time, and also has lower back pain, but thats all in swims other post.

anyway if swim does have one of these, will my doctor just give swim NSAIDs
becuase swim has had diclofenic and lodine, both didnt help atall really and swim got alot of unwanted side effects from them.

wiki states that treatment for both those conditions are commenly treated with NSAIDs.

so, can and will swim be able to be treated with opiods, as these have always worked better then NSAIDs in the past.
and is it commen to be treated with opiods, or will swim ALWAYS get turned away with NSAIDs unless she has somthing else wrong with her?

plus is there any cures for both of them? or will swim have to take medication for a long time to come?