Posted on 04/10/2002 4:09:19 PM PDT by FReepaholic
Thank you very much.
I'm 45 years old. I picked up a box wrong at work about 8 months ago. That's when it started. I didn't have the leg pain for many months. Went chiropractic and that worked great but seemed to plateau out so the workers comp people sent me to physical therapy.
That took me the "final mile". I was feeling great but then about a month ago began to feel some leg pain. The orthopedic guy sent me to get a MRI and sees the bulge in the disc. I was feeling great until this past Sunday. Since then I can hardly get out of bed. Didn't do any lifting or anyting. It just came on.
Thanks again for your prayers.
Tony
Hi Clara Lou. Just ran across this thread. I have L5 herniation. A big chunk is broken off and pressing against my nerve, causing you know what kind of pain. Some days are good, some not. But right now everyday requires meds. I am meeting with my doc tomorrow to discuss skipping the cortisone/pain management step and going right for the surgery. I just dont see the sense in cortisone, which is temporary, when all the signs point to surgery for my case (95% of pain is down the leg, piece is broken off, etc).
Glad to hear it worked for you. I'll see what my doc says tomorrow. How long before you could drive a car after the surgery?
What ever happened with your back? I have herniated l5, looking into my options now.
Good luck!
Had three sets of cortisone shots. Each helped for about two weeks.
Ended up having a micro-diskectomy. Surgeon said it was the worst herniated disk he'd ever seen.
The back is great now. Some soreness when a thunderstorm comes through.
Good luck.
My wife had five herniated disks resulting from a workplace accident.
Four of them may eventually heal naturally. We are following up on progress in that area.
One was destroyed and she had a spinal fusion in April last year. We got her through the worst three months of her life. It became a workman's comp issue, btw.
We had a WONDERFUL surgeon who spent hours counseling us and then proceeded to perform a surgical miracle on her back with the fusion between c5-c6.
It took a very, very long time for her to get on her feet.
Through the grace of God in his Mercy he has provided for us throughout this time. Comp insurance sure didn't. I was able to help her and comfort her through this period and then God restored her to me.
She has a very good chance of living a normal life within the obvious physical constraints that she cannot risk injury to her spine.
It was a very depressing experience for her even with support. The pain was difficult to manage. Now it is manageable with Tylenol.
I recommend that if you don't have immediate family near you that you get near them before you consider any sort of surgery. It is extremely debilitating. You will not be able to use the bathroom or wash on your own.
My wife felt useless but she has been an angel to me in my darkest hours. I was privileged to be able to help her. She's very happy and getting back to more or less normal activities levels now. Our relationship is a joy that carries me through every day.
I hope you will be able to find the same support during the times ahead. You can tell it was obviously very emotional for me, and I didn't even have the procedure.
Hey Martin, I hadn't really told you about this before. As much as I love Brasil, I adore my wife even more. She's really improved and I will see that she has a full life, God willing.
Thanks for the update. I have done some PT, gotten the MRI, done the antiinflammatories (which work pretty good.) Next step is supposed to be the cortisone shots, but based on my research and the specifics of my case, I think I want to just move on to the surgery now. Glad to know you're feeling better. Disc injuries are no fun. Thanks again for the reply.
Whenever I have muscle or joint problems, I head to physical therapy. You couldn't drag my butt to a chiropractor again ever.
What she said BIG TIME!
Lifesaving advice unless you enjoy pain. Don't see ANYONE but a neurosurgeon when it comes to your spine or anything touching it.
My case was similar to yours
The pain is truly awful.
There were days at work when I would go into a conference room at lunch and lay on a ziploc bag of ice just to make it thru.
I felt good going to a specialist (neurologist) who used surgery only as a last resort.
It was very obvious on my MRI where the disc protrusion was into the nerve bundle - I didn't need a doctor to read it!
I got the shots and busted my butt on the exercises even though it hurt a ton.
(one plus for me was it was in the summer, I took 2 weeks off work and did water exercises in our pool)
Basically after a month I was (luckily) in good shape and have remained so for 4 years since 99% pain free.
My Doctor was Rick Sasso (Indianapolis, IN) - a superb professional IMHO
http://www.spineuniverse.com/authorbio.php?authorID=59
Naturally it depends on the type of surgery.
I had a micro-diskectomy which is basically outpatient surgery. I was up walking around right after the surgery.
It's simply amazing what they can do.
My wife had the full fusion with the titanium cage to fuse the spine together.
It just crushed me to see her like that. She's up, about and smiling and next month will be a year.
Regardless of what you face, they can work wonders.
We found a lot of support forums on the internet for this too. They even are talking about new "replacement disks" that are approved by the DFA, although I don't know how good they are.
My pain [I believe it was from an L4 disc which the surgeon said was nanometers from rupturing] was so intense and unremitting, and the pain medication created so many other issues, that I decided to have surgery. Now I have no recurring pain, no disability, no meds, and no remaining side effects. I'm as good as I was before the problem arose. Thank God! [said with profound sincerity]
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