Herniated/Ruptured Disc?

[HardDrive]

Get the MRI done and find out whats going.

Surgical options are dead last. I have a badly ruptured disk from a skiing accident. Gave me problems until I finally got an MRI. Doctors had bull*****ed me for years that it was a muscular problem. Bastards simply did not want to order and expensive test.

I did physical (do) therapy. I no longer go to the sessions, but still do the exercises.

1) Stretch

2) Strengthen your trunk muscles

3) Don't do high impact sports like playing basket ball

I am nearly 2 years with no flare ups, and I would say I owe it all to physical therapy.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by HardDrive
Get the MRI done and find out whats going. Bastards simply did not want to order and expensive test.

HD brings up an interesting point. Many times the doctors do not want to order an MRI and the insurance companies do not want to pay for this.

Two years ago I spend the bux to get a full body MRI after a two friends died after problems that a MRI would have shown. It cost $600 and no insurance. I now have a CD with the photos on it and my doctor has the full set of prints. Result was no problems and a very good report on my cardio-vascular system, which at age 50 is something we all wonder about.

If insurance is not going to pay for it, do it yourself. Its worth it.

Joe A

[IROC]

For some further info, I'm 41, 6' 3" and about 215 lbs and in good physical condition (work out about 5 days a week - weights and cardio). In fact, this injury came about by exercising (leg presses). For sure I could work more on my abs, but overall I'm in pretty good shape.

The injury is in the lower back - I'm figuring around L4. It's in a spot that I have injured off and on for the past 25 years. I first hurt it playing outside (landed badly jumping off a big hill) as a kid and have re-injured it about 5 times in the past 25 years. Typically the pain is really bad at first and then subsides after a day or so and I take it easy for a month and I'm all good. This time, the pain was *much* worse and now 5 days later I'm struggling to sit here and type this. I couldn't even walk the first day.

I'm kicking myself because after the last real bad incident (about 6 years ago) I started a routine of stretching, etc. and my back felt better than ever...so...I quit doing the stretching exercises. One of those decisions that didn't pan out like I hoped.

If nothing else, I think I've done something a little more serious this time and am going to see what the doctor says about it. I'm going to resist surgery unless they can convince me that it is my only option.

Thanks for all of the responses. Lots of good information.

Mike

[Jims5543]

I hurt my back on the hack squat machine. I rotated my hips being lazy on a warm up set and pop my back went.

I rushed straight to my chiropracter and he x-rayed me and it showed nothing but it was something. Years later I get this MRI and find the bulging disk.

Get an MRI and say goodbye to Leg Presses, squats and any other activity that will put weight on your spine.

[IROC]

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
Get an MRI and say goodbye to Leg Presses, squats and any other activity that will put weight on your spine.

Yep, doing the leg presses, I got a little lazy and was allowing my lower back to "curl" a bit more that I should have. At the time it felt fine, but later that evening I noticed the tell-tale "tightness" in my lower back signaling that something was wrong. It didn't hit me until the next morning.

My wife does one of these "8 Minute Abs" tapes nearly every day. Time for me to join her, I'm afraid.

Mike

[Jims5543]

I have also considered beginners Yoga, even though I think its gay.

[89911]

Have someone put you one a Medrol dose pack pronto. No, its not the cure, but it will get rid of the inflammation and lessen the pain immensely

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by IROC
My wife does one of these "8 Minute Abs" tapes nearly every day. Time for me to join her, I'm afraid. Mike

Mike, joining her with some 8 minute abs might help your pain and make both of you feel better! Therapy for both of you!

BTW, 89911 brings up a very good point. The meds I am taking do nothing directly for the pain. They simply decrease the imflamation, which lessens the pressure on the nerve bundle, which then stops the pain. I hate taking pain meds and refuse unless there is just no other way to make it thorough the day. Since Celebrex (and the others for a while) I have taken less than 10 pain pills in the last 7 years, so its working.

As we get older we learn that we cannot do the same things with our bodies that we did when we were 20. Your size and weight are not excessive ( I am 6'1" and 230, so a bit heavier than you but neither of us are obese) so thats on your side. Just lessen some of the more stressful sports or excercises you do and enjoy life.

JoeA

[Don Plumley]

Similar thing happened to my wife 6 years ago. Always had low-grade lower back pain, but no complaints (she's a saint). One night she had a bad cough, and ended upon the floor in pain.

Doc-in-a-box RX'd muscle relaxants, saw a Chiro friend -- then I noticed she was subtly dragging a foot. Yipes! Got an MRI, she extruded the Nucleus Pulposus (the jelly inside the jelly donut of the disc) into her spinal canal (L5-S1) and it was impinging on her spinal cord.

Plan of attack: Contacted my MD friends for referrals. Interviewed four surgeons -- one of whom we told, "You will not be asked to operate. Just review the case and let us know, if this were your daughter, would you operate." We found the technical expert that everyone knew, begged/pleaded to get into his office for an eval, and this is what he said: "It's a pretty routine procedure, almost any ortho could do the job." So I asked why he should do it. "I do only spinal surgery, do this specific procedure about 10 times a month, and this is the worst one I've seen in 12 months." Deal closed.

Beth had successful surgery, non-remarkable recovery, and is 100% physically able and pain free.

Not all surgery goes bad. But for this kind of procedure, find the technical specialist -- not just a general ortho cutter.

Good luck.

[IROC]

Thanks for the info, Don. My pain has subsided quite a bit (I am actually able to function somewhat normally today). I am past the worst part of it, but am going today to get it checked out. I want to find out what the problem really is and hopefully keep this from happening again.

Mike

[Joeaksa]

Mike,

Been a couple of weeks. Hows things going and what did you find out?

Hope its better...

Joe A

[IROC]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
Mike,

Been a couple of weeks. Hows things going and what did you find out?

Hope its better...

Joe A

Coincidentally, I go back to the doctor today for a two-week check-up. The initial prognosis (via xray) was that I have some degeneration of the L5 - S1 (?) disk, but there was no indication of rupture or herniation. Appeared to be a muscular-ligament problem. This actually what I suspected, but the pain with this particular episode was far worse than I had ever experienced before, so I was worried. Not being able to walk for a couple of days was a real eye-opener.

I appear to have dodged a huge bullet. The doctor mentioned the possibility of an MRI today, but I think I am out of the woods.

Thanks again for everyone's repsonses - helped me a lot.

Mike

[Jims5543]

Spring for the MRI and find out for sure what is going on, just because you feel better does not mean its over. Trust me on this one. That MRI will be good money spent. To do it over I would have had a full body MRI done for future diagnosis if needed.

[Nathans_Dad]

Yeesh, please let's not start talking about full body scanning...does nothing but line the pockets of the companies who offer it...

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
Spring for the MRI and find out for sure what is going on, just because you feel better does not mean its over. Trust me on this one. That MRI will be good money spent. To do it over I would have had a full body MRI done for future diagnosis if needed.

Totally agree. I paid the $600 to have a full body MRI done 2 years ago and it is a big "piece of mind" for me.

As well you might ask your GP doctor if he has any discount coupons. I saw one on the office wall and it saved me $200 on the full body MRI.

JoeA

[pbs911]

I'm kicking myself because after the last real bad incident (about 6 years ago) I started a routine of stretching, etc. and my back felt better than ever...so...I quit doing the stretching exercises. One of those decisions that didn't pan out like I hoped.

I herniated three discs about 20 years ago. I have a flair up about every two years. Very painful and I am completely incompacitated for at least 4 days at each occurance.

Prior to the last flair up I have been exercising very regularily. Cardio, low-back friendly weights, canoe paddling, and lots of stretching. Nonetheless, the lower back flared up about 4 miles out in the open ocean. It was not a pleasure cruise paddling back.

IME, proper exerices and stretching does not prevent the injury from reoccuring. It will, however, lessen the recovery time for future flair ups. It seemslike once a disc is injured, herniations are parts of life you just have to live with. You don't know where or when the next one will occur, but it will.


There is lots of good advise here. But, as Moses said, you need to get your specific probalm addressed. I am not one who enjoys seeing doctors. Virtually the only time I will willingly see a doctor is when the back goes out.

Ibuprion, ice, heat and bed rest work for me. Oh, and a little Vicodine goes a long way too.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
Yeesh, please let's not start talking about full body scanning...does nothing but line the pockets of the companies who offer it...

Can I please give you the email address of two friends families of mine who died from issues that would have been picked up by a full body MRI?

One is in Houston, 49 year old guy who died, leaving a 39 year old wife and 4 year old daughter. One minute he was fine, the next dead. Aneurysm in his chest that burst and killed him.

Second friend had a aneurysm in the brain and again he lost his life. A MRI would have shown it...

For me the money is a small price to know what is going on inside my feeble old body. Agree that for some its not correct but will eat Rahmen noodles for a month or two to afford it.

JoeA

[Nathans_Dad]

Joe, the issue is not how much you pay for that MRI. The issue is that for every one person they catch with something that is real, they send hundreds running to the medical system for workup which costs much much more than $400. Ever notice how the Lifescan type companies offer no followup or workup for what they find? Their response is "Go see your doctor." People who are getting these scans are getting expensive workups that expose themselves to medical risks for what we call "incidentalomas". Fact is, most people will have a small nodule in their lungs or whatnot as they age. These things are not cancer but people end up going through biopsies because their Lifescan found a "tumor".

Just another reason why our medical costs are high...

And I am sorry about your friends, however when you are talking about population based screening for diseases, you don't deal in anecdotal incidents...

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhealth/Articles/a2003-08-01-bodyscan.html

"Save a life—your own!"

So proclaims an ad for high-tech "full-body" scans at a clinic in New York City, one of hundreds of imaging centers popping up in shopping malls and office buildings around the country.

The sales pitch is enticing, prompting more and more of the health-conscious to sign themselves up for powerful X-rays that can reveal cancer, heart disease and other potential killers before symptoms appear.

But whether such intensive testing of healthy individuals with no sign of disease is necessary—or even wise—is strongly disputed by medical experts.

Some doctors endorse full-body CT (computed tomography) scans because they can find trouble spots early, when they are most treatable. "We can save lives," says Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., whose Dallas Cooper Clinic was one of the first to offer the scans. "With the full-body CT scan, we can pick up heart disease and cancer at their earliest stages."

But much of the medical establishment—including the American Cancer Society, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and American College of Radiology, among others—does not endorse scans, full-body or otherwise, for people without symptoms. They say the tests often find harmless irregularities that lead to unnecessary, expensive, sometimes invasive procedures.

The scans pick up meaningless abnormalities, such as scars from long-healed infections, cysts and tangles of blood vessels in the liver, especially in those over 50, says Robert J. Stanley, M.D., past president of the American Roentgen Ray Society. "In a large percentage of the cases, these things are not worthy of being evaluated further."

[aways]

I fell on my rear end playing soccer about 10 yrs ago, and hurt my back. I was in bed for several days, and it hurt for about a month. I didn't go to a doctor because I was in England on an extended visit. Just last year, as part of xray for an unrelated condition, I discovered that I had broken my back (crush fracture) back then. For now, put ice on your back, take pleanty of ibuprofin to reduce swelling (600mg), and see a doctor asap for chrissakes! It's not worth amateur hour medical advice when you could end up with a chronic condition.

[1973911s]

I rupture a disk about 8 years ago, did everything and it was still lodged in my spine. It was a killer, went under the knife, took 23 minutes, out it came.

It took two years to get back to normal, but worth it.

Michael