Herniated Discs - Log

Minlak

custom titis
Decided to make a thread about it and I can just put updates as they happen etc in one place.
Four months or so ago I had a pretty big off and thought I had damaged my shoulder due to the pain in my arm / shoulder and numbness in my fingers. CT Scans and X-Rays showed no issues with shoulder and it was decided to heal up and see. About a month later still had some numbness and pain and also pain in the other arm and often had headaches. My doctor wasn't keen on doing another CT or MRI as I had 2 of them less than a month before and wanted me to wait til 90 days after the last one.
I went back about a month ago with
Numbness down left arm - two fingers have little to no feeling on left hand
Cant raise right arm as pain shoots down the back of the arm
Don't sleep more than a few hours before neck / top of the back pain wakes me
Frequent headaches
Some numbness / tingling / pain now in my left leg
I was thinking I would have multiple issues to deal with maybe Bursa Sacks and or torn something - Doctor did some basic movement tests and said well you would have weakness not just pain it it was blah blah blah so off for an MRI on my neck / cervical spine thingy.

Turns out I have 3 herniated discs putting pressure on the nerves etc and have to see a specialist which will most likely result in surgery as no amount of therapy or exercise will magically fix it.

See the specialist on 20th October now and will find out more then.

Will come back with updates etc when I have them.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Have considered that the doctor is just pushing a big pharma agenda on you? Try some ivermectin! It will flush the inflammation right out of you.







Herniated discs is the shittest shit. Good luck man!
 

moorey

call me Mia
I also have a herniated a disc. I’m lucky that most of my issues came/come from swelling. Been on Naproxen 1 week a month for the last 6 months, and it almost alleviates my issues…as well as my past issues with constant headaches. Not saying that’s your path, sounds a lot more chronic, I’m just sayin.
 

Minlak

custom titis
I also have a herniated a disc. I’m lucky that most of my issues came/come from swelling. Been on Naproxen 1 week a month for the last 6 months, and it almost alleviates my issues…as well as my past issues with constant headaches. Not saying that’s your path, sounds a lot more chronic, I’m just sayin.
Waiting on specialist to know for sure but physio is leaning towards surgery as solution.
 

moorey

call me Mia
Waiting on specialist to know for sure but physio is leaning towards surgery as solution.
It wasn’t off the table for me but I’m lucky it didn’t ever come to that…as long as I look after it for the next 60 years. I trust my GP of 25 years.
 

ausdb

Being who he is
Waiting on specialist to know for sure but physio is leaning towards surgery as solution.
Don't be afraid of getting a second opinion either, some neurosurgeons (and all surgeons for that matter) are just cutters and will operate at the drop of a hat and others take a bit more conservative approach. I'm not sure where you are in your life and how bad it is as far as what they plan to do but if they start talking fusions and not just discectomies you need to look at the long game as well as once you go down the fusion path it is only going to accelerate the degeneration of the vertebrae / discs on either side of the fusion and probably lead to more. Or at least that is what I am looking at at some point in the future.
 

Staunch

Eats Squid
Bit of a disclaimer to begin with, this is all general advice without specific assessment so take it with a grain of salt.

I'm biased due to my profession, however I'd give proper exercise-based rehab a really good go before getting sliced and diced (with someone who actually knows what they're doing).

The evidence behind the high rate of spontaneous regression of lumbar disc bulges is pretty significant, and while the amount of literature around cervical bulges in still small, the same appears to be true. With proper exercise-based rehab, this can be assisted and symptoms managed well in most cases. It's definitely not a magic fix in any way shape or form, however you can potentially make small, positive steps.

Worst case scenario, you have the same symptoms for a few more months, get slightly stronger, and then have surgery. Best case scenario, you begin to recover and avoid surgery.

Surgery isn't a guaranteed fix, it has its own inherent risk, and you can't undo it. It can be incredibly helpful, or it can be detrimental in the long term.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Bit of a disclaimer to begin with, this is all general advice without specific assessment so take it with a grain of salt.

I'm biased due to my profession, however I'd give proper exercise-based rehab a really good go before getting sliced and diced (with someone who actually knows what they're doing).

The evidence behind the high rate of spontaneous regression of lumbar disc bulges is pretty significant, and while the amount of literature around cervical bulges in still small, the same appears to be true. With proper exercise-based rehab, this can be assisted and symptoms managed well in most cases. It's definitely not a magic fix in any way shape or form, however you can potentially make small, positive steps.

Worst case scenario, you have the same symptoms for a few more months, get slightly stronger, and then have surgery. Best case scenario, you begin to recover and avoid surgery.

Surgery isn't a guaranteed fix, it has its own inherent risk, and you can't undo it. It can be incredibly helpful, or it can be detrimental in the long term.
Will it limit the range of your movement depending on where the fusion is in your spine ?
 

Staunch

Eats Squid
Will it limit the range of your movement depending on where the fusion is in your spine ?
Most definitely, however the severity of the limitation depends at what vertebral level/how many vertebrae are involved. As you descend caudally, the facet joints of each vertebrae begin to change in orientation, and therefore the amount of range in each plane of movement changes segmentally .
 

smasher29er

Likes Bikes
Bit of a disclaimer to begin with, this is all general advice without specific assessment so take it with a grain of salt.

I'm biased due to my profession, however I'd give proper exercise-based rehab a really good go before getting sliced and diced (with someone who actually knows what they're doing).

The evidence behind the high rate of spontaneous regression of lumbar disc bulges is pretty significant, and while the amount of literature around cervical bulges in still small, the same appears to be true. With proper exercise-based rehab, this can be assisted and symptoms managed well in most cases. It's definitely not a magic fix in any way shape or form, however you can potentially make small, positive steps.

Worst case scenario, you have the same symptoms for a few more months, get slightly stronger, and then have surgery. Best case scenario, you begin to recover and avoid surgery.

Surgery isn't a guaranteed fix, it has its own inherent risk, and you can't undo it. It can be incredibly helpful, or it can be detrimental in the long term.
Couldn't agree more
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Decided to make a thread about it and I can just put updates as they happen etc in one place.
Four months or so ago I had a pretty big off and thought I had damaged my shoulder due to the pain in my arm / shoulder and numbness in my fingers. CT Scans and X-Rays showed no issues with shoulder and it was decided to heal up and see. About a month later still had some numbness and pain and also pain in the other arm and often had headaches. My doctor wasn't keen on doing another CT or MRI as I had 2 of them less than a month before and wanted me to wait til 90 days after the last one.
I went back about a month ago with
Numbness down left arm - two fingers have little to no feeling on left hand
Cant raise right arm as pain shoots down the back of the arm
Don't sleep more than a few hours before neck / top of the back pain wakes me
Frequent headaches
Some numbness / tingling / pain now in my left leg
I was thinking I would have multiple issues to deal with maybe Bursa Sacks and or torn something - Doctor did some basic movement tests and said well you would have weakness not just pain it it was blah blah blah so off for an MRI on my neck / cervical spine thingy.

Turns out I have 3 herniated discs putting pressure on the nerves etc and have to see a specialist which will most likely result in surgery as no amount of therapy or exercise will magically fix it.

See the specialist on 20th October now and will find out more then.

Will come back with updates etc when I have them.
Goodluck mate. I really hope you find something that works for you.
 

Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
I hurt my back doing crossfit about 4 years ago (I do think is already had some issues but it was the straw that broke the camels back).
Two days after where I thought I'd over done my back I woke up and my back was so bad that I pretty much stayed in bed for two weeks.
It slowly improved but still wasn't great and I had sciatic pain right down to my foot. I went to chiropractors, remedial massage therapists, physios and none of them managed to make much of a dent in the pain.
One chiro said to get an MRI done as you can see soft tissue issue which you can't on an Xray or CT scan. Of course the GP wanted an Xray first and that didn't highlight anything, then he got me to the a CT scan done and that was also inconclusive too. Finally he referred me to get the MRI done and is was plain and obvious what was gong on there.
381160

As you can see above the disk was bulging and compressing the nerve (the white bit) Most of the discomfort was the sciatic nerve pain, so with the GPs advice I went to see a neuro surgeon and he recommended a microdiscectomy, where they go in and trim up the bulging disk.
The surgeon said that the procedure will fix the sciatic pain but is not that good for back pain in general. The surgery did get rid of sciatic pain immediately but I still have to look after my back and I do have some general back pain that I put up with.
 

rockmoose

his flabber is totally gastered
I ruptured my L3/L4 in about 2016, I think

Kept working through the pain for 6 months until I physically couldn't get out of bed. Got shuffled off to the physio, he took one look and said, that's fucked, I'm not touching that.

Pretty quickly through surgery, because the nerve damage had got so bad, they thought I was going to lose my right leg.

Have recovered OK, but the debilitation of surgery accelerated some other aspects of aging, which is a bit of a bummer.

The biggest drama through the whole thing has been Lyrica. That crap has permanently damaged me, and I would not recommend it to my worst enemy.

Some are lucky and have no major ill effects, many others get all sorts of drama. Pfizer can eat the biggest bag of dicks available for forcing that on the market, knowing full well the damage it causes.
 

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
I also have a herniated a disc. I’m lucky that most of my issues came/come from swelling. Been on Naproxen 1 week a month for the last 6 months, and it almost alleviates my issues…as well as my past issues with constant headaches. Not saying that’s your path, sounds a lot more chronic, I’m just sayin.
naproxen one week per month? do you get moody too? you may have been misdiagnosed :D
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
I ruptured my L3/L4 in about 2016, I think

Kept working through the pain for 6 months until I physically couldn't get out of bed. Got shuffled off to the physio, he took one look and said, that's fucked, I'm not touching that.

Pretty quickly through surgery, because the nerve damage had got so bad, they thought I was going to lose my right leg.

Have recovered OK, but the debilitation of surgery accelerated some other aspects of aging, which is a bit of a bummer.

The biggest drama through the whole thing has been Lyrica. That crap has permanently damaged me, and I would not recommend it to my worst enemy.

Some are lucky and have no major ill effects, many others get all sorts of drama. Pfizer can eat the biggest bag of dicks available for forcing that on the market, knowing full well the damage it causes.
Yeah, I opted for surgery over trying lyrica. Glad I did.
Such a rough drug. Stay away @Minlak!
 
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