re: Physical Therapist helpful?

Yes. I'm a PT. As far as outpatient PT you want to make sure you're going to a clinic with a good manual therapist who will spend some time with you. I'd also look for a McKenzie technique certified therapist in the area( should be able to find with a Google search).

If you're at all inclined to treat yourself buy treat your own back by robin mckenzie on amazon. Should be about 10 bucks and does an amazing job of explaining some very simple general techniques that just about anyone can understand.

One thing I would avoid in Louisiana is a clinic that basically has one overseeing PT and an army of techs. These clinics can kind of be very mill like. I've only worked in Louisiana on contract for a few months at a time in the decade I've been licensed but that seems to be an issue in a lot of bigger clinics from what I've gathered.