herniated or bulging discs...........

charlie_the_tuna

charlie_the_tuna

God
any you guys ever had this condition?? i'm dealing with this now and have been for going on 6 weeks now. the pain is unbelievable. I cant even tie my own dam shoes. I feel like a helpless child. so far I've lost a month of work because of it. I went for a shot in the spine that was supposed to help but did nothing. I get spasms at night that almost bring tears to my eyes. I just read an article talking about physical therapy being bad for herniated discs.
anybody have this problem? how long did it last? the doctors I've seen both say it will get better. I cant take this anymore. when I get out of be in the morning i'm pretty much crippled for the first hour or so. I've never had back problems in my life. I don't even know how this happened.
 
Feel for ya Charlie. I know a couple people with back problems and it sure does sound like it sucks. Can't give you any other advice, wish I could.
 
My dad had the same thing you have CTT, and yes, it does get better over time, but the pain is bad and it's not something that's ever going to completely go away. Inversion therapy helped my dad (Hanging from his heels) but I don't know if it will help in your case. Seems not everyone benefits from it. What did your Doc say?
 
blew my back out five years ago, it really sucks. Until you deal with chronic, consistent pain, you can't understand it. If you've got a herniated disc, you need to stay on your back and give it rest. I ate ibuprfin till it burned up my stomach, took previcid to ease my stomach and got backed up, too laxitives to free my self up. Hurt like hell taking a dump with back pain. Its a viscous cycle. Physical therapy helped me a lot, I had a good therapist the first time around. he concentrated on SI alignment. It kept coming back though and I ended up with cortisone shots, I did those for over a year, they didn't help much. Had a different physical therapist this time and it made things worse. The exercises they had me doing were making it much worse. I tried to tell that ***** it was making it worse, but she told me i was wrong and didn't know what I was talking about(she was a hard body though). I stopped going to that place By this time both my legs would go numb while walking. Went back doing what my fist PT told me to do and kept using my inversion table. The next time around It came back with a vengeance wile i was putting a water pump in a mercruser. I ended up taking a ride in the ambulance. Long story about dealing with the emergency room people, If I could have got my hands on the doctor, he would have been in a hospital bed beside me when I got thur. They finally diagnosed me with stenosis, from what I could interpret, my spinal cord was too large for the spinal column. They went in and routed out the inside of my spinal column. Since them its been much better. I have an inversion table I use from time to time, I need to do my exercises regularly and I need to loose weight. In my opinion, shots are a short term solution to get the swelling down. Get a proper diagnosis and see what surgery options are. Check around with different doctors if you're not happy with whats going on. Do your exercises and loose weight(yea, I need to do the same)
 
I never had back problems before. yeah, I need to lose weight. i'm not making excuses but i'm a year and a half off quitting smoking after 35 years. especially now, taking the weight off is gonna be a bear. I don't do nothin' but sit around and eat all dam day. I've heard the inversion table is a way to go. when this first happened they sent me to physical therapy and I could barely walk to my car when I was done. i'm gonna stay away from that for now and try to find a cheap inversion table. no longer taking any pills as I don't want to ruin my kidneys. this is incredible. never been this helpless/useless. the cortisone shot did absolutely nothing but set me back $500. bucks. i'm just gonna give it time, hang from my feet and strengthen my core, when I feel human again. I was just looking for some kind of time frame. 6 weeks is longer than I've had anything before.
 
I have had back problems for 15+ years....
Untreated because frankly I'm terrified to let ANYONE mess with my spine!

I believe what I have it herniated discs but I'm not certain.... In addition I fell on a boat ramp two years ago and hurt my neck bad, again, untreated....

Can't ride motorcycle more than 20 minutes now without taking a large dose of Advil and still excruciating.

Bought an inversion table last summer... Used it a few times but I found that upon turning back upright at first it was 30 seconds and became 8-10 minutes before I could get off of it...
The pain was almost unimaginable. Really scary..

I don't know exactly what was happening but it felt as if my spinal cord was getting pinched when I started switching back to supporting weight...

I strongly urge you to be careful w an inversion table.... I wouldn't go straight to steep inversion... Maybe start w 15 deg or so for a while and gradually work up.

I know eventually i won't be able to take the pain and will have to seek help but dangit I don't trust doctors.

Hopefully your story will be shorter and happier than mine.
 
I don't care for doctors. not that I don't trust them, I think they do the best they can, I just don't like hearing bad news. if I can get an inversion table I heard that even like 25 degrees will do some good. sh!t, I aint gonna do anything full boat at this point. wanna take it nice and easy and slowly heal this crap. first doctor I went to was in a rush. came in, told me I had a bulging disc and ran right out the door. that was it. then I looked at the report because I went to another guy and it turns out I had like 4 or 5 bad discs. haven't a clue how this happened. just keeping my fingers crossed. i'll keep you guys posted.
 
I had 3 bulged discs back in 2007. I spent the next 2 years doing twice a week visits to a chiropractor, alternating hot and cold packs on my spine, and sitting on one of those big exercise balls. The hot/cold therapy and ball did more good than the chiropractor. Finally went to another chiropractor in VT, and he had me back together in 2 months. My back is good now for the most part, but if I lift something too heavy (150+ lbs) I'll get the sciatica going for a few days.

I feel for you. Hope you get well soon.
 
I've dealt with this for about 50 years. Until about 30 years ago, I would be down for several days to over a week at a time, several times a year. Then my wife was referred to an MD who was a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist when her back was giving her trouble - I went along and listened to the guy and did what he said and went for years without missing work and even the occasional fairly serious episode now is quickly cleared up.

I'll give you advice that I don't think can do you any harm and if it works for you like it does for me, it will be a big help.

Sometimes some advil is good for reducing inflamation, but ALWAYS have food in your stomach well before you take it. Don't take it long term - my doc says it's hard on you.

Now the stuff that has worked for me:
1) Ice the painful area to reduce inflamation. Freeze water in little paper cups and tear away the cup as the ice melts. Get wife or kids to do it (kids love to administer a little torture to dad). Try to hold out for a whole cup - it usually numbs up enough that you can stand it.
2) Don't sleep in a soft bed and always try to keep the arch in your back. When you sit down always use a lumbar support - a small rolled up pillow works for me - you can tell when it's in the right place.
3) This is the first thing to do whenever you feel low back pain - lay down on your stomach
and slowly do a pushup, keeping your pelvis on the floor. As you push up, try to relax into it - if your pelvis lifts up a little, stop pushing up and let your pelvis relax back down to the floor. This should concentrate the pain. Don't kill yourself but try to do 5 or 10 reps -you'll be able to go a little higher each rep and you'll probably feel relief from the first session. Ice if you
think it needs it and do it again in 30 minutes to an hour. This back bending is the one thing that has consistently fixed me up for lots of years. After healing up from this episode, you'll feel back pain again in the future, but if you'll do the back bends at the first sign, you'll probably head off a nasty time. The explanation I got is that bending forward and lifting things squishes the disks toward the back and this exercise squishes them back where they belong. Lots of people have bulging discs but until they bulge that tiny last little bit and contact the nerves in your spinal column, you never know it - but man, when it hits the nerve
you know it in a serious way.
4) There is a good, simple stretching exercise that that will help as soon as you can tolerate it (when your back is hurting, you tense up the muscles in the area and they get stiff and pull on your spine, making it worse). This stretch is also good to do daily to prevent the problem. The stretch: Lay on your back on the floor, leaving your left foot on the floor, lift your left knee a foot or so off the floor (this drags your foot toward you) then put that foot on the floor on the right side of your right leg. Keeping your left shoulder on the floor, grab your left knee with your right hand and pull it to the right and down toward the floor. As you do more reps and learn to relax into it, you'll get the knee close to the floor. Repeat with the other leg, do 5 or 10 reps and you'll feel it stretching your butt muscles. Those are some big muscles and they can pull on your back if they aren't stretched out.

Try the three things: ice, pelvis on the ground pushups and the butt stretch (also stretches across your back) when you can do it. I bet it will help and if it doesn't, it shouldn't hurt you
at all.

Good luck with it - I agree, that helpless feeling sucks.
 
scook said:
I've dealt with this for about 50 years. Until about 30 years ago, I would be down for several days to over a week at a time, several times a year. Then my wife was referred to an MD who was a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist when her back was giving her trouble - I went along and listened to the guy and did what he said and went for years without missing work and even the occasional fairly serious episode now is quickly cleared up.

I'll give you advice that I don't think can do you any harm and if it works for you like it does for me, it will be a big help.

Sometimes some advil is good for reducing inflamation, but ALWAYS have food in your stomach well before you take it. Don't take it long term - my doc says it's hard on you.

Now the stuff that has worked for me:
1) Ice the painful area to reduce inflamation. Freeze water in little paper cups and tear away the cup as the ice melts. Get wife or kids to do it (kids love to administer a little torture to dad). Try to hold out for a whole cup - it usually numbs up enough that you can stand it.
2) Don't sleep in a soft bed and always try to keep the arch in your back. When you sit down always use a lumbar support - a small rolled up pillow works for me - you can tell when it's in the right place.
3) This is the first thing to do whenever you feel low back pain - lay down on your stomach
and slowly do a pushup, keeping your pelvis on the floor. As you push up, try to relax into it - if your pelvis lifts up a little, stop pushing up and let your pelvis relax back down to the floor. This should concentrate the pain. Don't kill yourself but try to do 5 or 10 reps -you'll be able to go a little higher each rep and you'll probably feel relief from the first session. Ice if you
think it needs it and do it again in 30 minutes to an hour. This back bending is the one thing that has consistently fixed me up for lots of years. After healing up from this episode, you'll feel back pain again in the future, but if you'll do the back bends at the first sign, you'll probably head off a nasty time. The explanation I got is that bending forward and lifting things squishes the disks toward the back and this exercise squishes them back where they belong. Lots of people have bulging discs but until they bulge that tiny last little bit and contact the nerves in your spinal column, you never know it - but man, when it hits the nerve
you know it in a serious way.
4) There is a good, simple stretching exercise that that will help as soon as you can tolerate it (when your back is hurting, you tense up the muscles in the area and they get stiff and pull on your spine, making it worse). This stretch is also good to do daily to prevent the problem. The stretch: Lay on your back on the floor, leaving your left foot on the floor, lift your left knee a foot or so off the floor (this drags your foot toward you) then put that foot on the floor on the right side of your right leg. Keeping your left shoulder on the floor, grab your left knee with your right hand and pull it to the right and down toward the floor. As you do more reps and learn to relax into it, you'll get the knee close to the floor. Repeat with the other leg, do 5 or 10 reps and you'll feel it stretching your butt muscles. Those are some big muscles and they can pull on your back if they aren't stretched out.

Try the three things: ice, pelvis on the ground pushups and the butt stretch (also stretches across your back) when you can do it. I bet it will help and if it doesn't, it shouldn't hurt you
at all.

Good luck with it - I agree, that helpless feeling sucks.
Click to expand...

all good advise. One of the stretches I do is pulling your knee up to your chest and over, looks like you are doing the Heisman Trophy stance. Press ups(#3) can help get everything back in place, go slow and modify your position by how it feels. One of the best stretches I do is crossing my leg over on my knee while sitting, then bend over to reach my foot. I stretches the sciatic nerve out to relive some pain. When you go back to PT, ask about traction. Go very easy on the inversion table, I didn't start using mine till I was much better, I use it for maintenance. You are going to have to get the swelling down before anything is going to help, cold packs, ibuprofen and lay on your back on the the floor, get it a rest. Avoid jumping or running. Jumping out of boats was killing me, took a long time to break that habit. Go see a specialist, if you don't like what you hear, see another one. Like any profession, there are good doctors and crappy ones
 
scook, I've heard and read all about those press ups but just recently read an article that said they're not the best thing for me. a lot of what I hear leads towards an inversion table but i'm having a hard time convincing the wife to let me get one. they say it makes room between the vertebrae which lets the torn segments tuck themselves back in, taking pressure off the cord. trying to find a cheap one on CL.
 
wow. I didn't know they could be had for so cheap. I was looking at a particular one but I guess for the money I could go for one like this. thanks smoke. gonna hafta show this one to the boss.
 
Good luck... Hope it works better for you than me....

I'm staying off mine till I get around to having an MRI or whatever is needed to see what is actually wrong w me.... Maybe weeks or years or .... Lol
 
next time at PT, have them try traction, if traction is good for you the inversion table will help. But you have got to get swelling down before you try anything like that. Getting off the inversion table after stretching is what got me bad. Go see a back specialist
 
i'm thinking the swelling must be down after 6 weeks. i'm not going back to PT. I just tried to get on the floor to do some exercises and I couldn't get down. then I couldn't get up. this is bad. gonna try the inversion table at a very conservative angle.
 
the swelling will not be down if you are still aggravating it. Lay on your back for several hours without moving.I found my couch was more comfortable than my bed, I used pillows to keep from moving when I fell asleep
 
A bunch of comments, general and agreeing with a lot of what the other guys are saying:

I had a friend who was a PT and he would get me in, do traction (an automatic contraption that would alternately pull and release) then do massage. It felt great but didn't do much to get me back in the game. When I learned about the press ups, my life changed radically for the better.

If you have health insurance you should be able to see a specialist (not a neurologist - that was a waste of time - gave me muscle relaxers and said to stay imobile). A CT scan is the likely diagnostic tool, but you need a good doc reading it. If this is the first time you've had the problem and some severe trauma didn't bring it on it's pretty unlikely that you have any ruptured disks, so no fragments to worry about and trying the press ups, cautiously, shouldn't do you any harm, but getting pictures of the problem is absolutely he right idea.

I would ask around and try to find someone you know (or someone they know) who has had a good experience with a medical provider specialist.

I agree with Smoke - you don't want anyone cutting on your back unless you have a lot of unanimous opinions that it's really necessary. I have a friend who had something like Spare was mentioning - a bunch of stuff inside his spine that was pressing on the nerves and he got to where he had almost no use of his legs. In that situation, there's no choice but your sudden onset makes me doubt that's your problem.

I agree with Spare - if you're still in serious pain, the inflamation/swelling hasn't gone down. Try the ice, but mostly work on finding a competent specialist and trust your gut if you don't think they have it right -just reading the pictures doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. A few years ago, I really did myself in. I hadn't been stretching and did some hard exersize - it felt like an electrode in my back and it really hung on. I finally went for a CT scan and met with a surg3on

My PT friends are VERY scepticle of chiropractors - there are LOTS of quacks in the
business.

Don't give up on all PT's just because you got a jerk. My experience convinced me that most doctors and a lot of PT's don't understand spinal problems.
 
I had a really bad one several years ago and it hung on so long that I decided to consult a surgeon. When I met him, he said that looking at the CT scan he was thinking "clear the operating room and get this guy in here". Then he did some physical tests - had me try to lift my leg up,while he held it down and almost lifted him off his stool. No surgery needed - more press ups, ice and reasonable moving around to keep pumping fluids through the joints and it got better.

Two really hard things about where you are right now are that with that kind of pain, you can't imagine your back isn't broken in six places and it's an empty feeling not thinking there's anyone competent to figure it out and get you fixed up.

Do your homework to find a good doc and hang in there - you'll beat it.
 
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