Herniated Disc-Wake up call

mzzsanchezz32217

Hi everyone! I was hospitalized January 7th with a herniated disc on my L5 S1 and a compressed nerved. It caused me weakness, tingling and numbess in right leg. I started out only able to walk no more than 10minutes on the treadmill on a 1.2mph speed. Happy to say that after 8 weeks of PT and a lot of patience, I now walk 1 hr everyday at a 3.0-3.5mph speed! Tingling has completely gone away and numbness has definitely improved. I'm still on a road to recovery and surgery might still be unavoidable. One thing I know for sure, never taking my health for granted again! Gotta take care of myself first before I can take care of everyone else.

I'd love to hear your success story with a herniated disc. I need all the motivation i can get.

Happy Friday!

kittybenn

Wow, that is impressive. Very happy for you. My husband had two herniated discs, and I've never seen him in such pain. It was awful, and lasted for quite awhile. He had two doctors recommend surgery, and a third that recommended PT and exercises. He took that guy's advice and has been full recovered for about 15 years. Once in awhile he feels a twinge in his back and realizes he just needs to get back to his stretching and exercises. Best of luck to you!

adamgoleafs87

mzzsanchezz32217 wrote: »

Hi everyone! I was hospitalized January 7th with a herniated disc on my L5 S1 and a compressed nerved. It caused me weakness, tingling and numbess in right leg. I started out only able to walk no more than 10minutes on the treadmill on a 1.2mph speed. Happy to say that after 8 weeks of PT and a lot of patience, I now walk 1 hr everyday at a 3.0-3.5mph speed! Tingling has completely gone away and numbness has definitely improved. I'm still on a road to recovery and surgery might still be unavoidable. One thing I know for sure, never taking my health for granted again! Gotta take care of myself first before I can take care of everyone else.

I'd love to hear your success story with a herniated disc. I need all the motivation i can get.

Happy Friday!

I had L5-S1 decompression surgery for basically the same thing.

Unfortunately for me I still have pain however I am at the point where I understand I can push through the pain and if I commit fully to exercise and eating right my pain will diminish rapidly.

Spliner1969

I had a disc repaired L4-L5 about 10 years ago. All I can say is that IF you can avoid surgery do so. Start googling "yoga for back pain", there are a bunch of stretches that will help force the discs back into position over time. I now do them daily even though my back has healed, it keeps things where they need to be and keeps me from re-injuring it. As a side note, my first year here on MFP I was walking 1-2 hours at a time as fast as I could for exercise. Worked great, I burned a ton of calories, but managed to herniate L3-L4 and L5-S1 in the process. No hospitalization this time, they solved it with rest, LOTS of pain killers, and steroid shots (3 total that year to be exact). I was down for weeks, two times in a row from walking too far, too fast, too soon after it healed. So just be careful.

Years ago when I had the surgery the nerve was compressed so badly it went from pain down my right leg (the kinds that makes you want to cut your leg off to stop it) to no pain at all, and numbness below the waist. At that point I had emergency surgery to have part of the disc removed. That put me on a permanent 25lb weight lifting restriction that I wish I didn't have now.

Good luck, but just take it easy if you feel any pain returning. Do consider yoga/stretches for your back, and start working on your core now, you need to strengthen it as much as possible.

bpotts44

I have a S1 issue as well and have actually experienced paralysis from it. I have avoided surgery, but I had to give up running, kettlebell swings, weighted squats and deadlifts. I now pretty much have a simple exercise routine like you of walking with a little supplementation of strength training and physical therapy. I have been seeing a network chiropractor which has helped as well. You can lose weight like this as its 90% about diet. So don't lose hope!

bee_bee8

I herniated a disc over a decade ago (I wanna say L4-L5), when I was just a teenager. I got surgery at the time, and it doesn't bother me TOO much anymore but I still notice it occasionally. I have trouble with ab exercises mostly, those always seem to irritate it. It's unfortunate because building a strong core is a great way to remedy back problems. I'm always looking for ab workouts that aren't too hard on my back.

In terms of cardio, I've had great success with ellipticals and stationary bikes. Running, and even walking longer distances, hurts not just my back but also irritates my knees and ankles. I find stationary bikes are good to ease yourself back into a fitness routine; ellipticals are great IMO because the workout is low-impact and very efficient compared to walking/running.

Congratulations on your progress, you've come a long way already!

ew_david

I am not a success story; I'm having surgery on mine (L5 S1) in 3 weeks. Outside of labor, this is the most pain I have ever been in in my life. I've had 2 steroid injections that helped, but my relief was short lived. I did PT, saw a chiropractor, gave up lifting, and gave up a lot of the things I like to do. I've been working on core strength for a while now and that has helped a lot. I do a lot of planks, bird dogs, and side planks. I also do a lot of resistance band exercises to strengthen my hips and glutes: donkey kicks, hydrants, seated abductions, etc. It's going to suck to have to drop my fitness down to just walking while I recover, but being out of this pain is worth it to me.

Lizarking

Dr. Stuart McGill's "back mechanic" has me back under the barbell and stronger than ever.

chubby_checkers

I just started physical therapy for mine this week. I've had two steroid injections, but only one of them has helped. I'm at the point where I can walk fine, but for awhile, I was confined to my couch because I could only be on my feet for a minute or so at a time. Surgery may be in my future, but I'm hoping that the PT will help and I can delay that as long as possible.

jmp463

I had surgery for it. The pain went away that night. However since then I have developed arthritis in the spine - which my doctor told is common after surgery. Or can be. I have not been able to work out like I did before - and I have lots of days of really nagging pain. But nothing like I had before hand.

SoulRadiation

mzzsanchezz32217 wrote: »

Hi everyone! I was hospitalized January 7th with a herniated disc on my L5 S1 and a compressed nerved. It caused me weakness, tingling and numbess in right leg. I started out only able to walk no more than 10minutes on the treadmill on a 1.2mph speed. Happy to say that after 8 weeks of PT and a lot of patience, I now walk 1 hr everyday at a 3.0-3.5mph speed! Tingling has completely gone away and numbness has definitely improved. I'm still on a road to recovery and surgery might still be unavoidable. One thing I know for sure, never taking my health for granted again! Gotta take care of myself first before I can take care of everyone else.

I'd love to hear your success story with a herniated disc. I need all the motivation i can get.

Happy Friday!

Hey, I'm sorry to hear you're struggling with it. I herniated l5-s1 through sports and lifting weights, and had sciatica down my hamstring and into my calf for months. To quickly sum up...I had no improvement for maybe 6 months until I quit running, lifting, and sports...I did two fairly short rounds of prednisone (I think it was 14 days all together) as prescribed by my doctor, started taking max-level prescription strength ibuprofen...every day for three months, and religiously...religiously, did McKenzie method exercises like the cobra stretch...and would only walk for a tiny bit of exercise. Nothing else.

It eventually and completely went away. No pain during the day. No pain upon waking. I was able to return to sports and lifting weights. Unfortunately, I put on a lot of weight as depression and being used to a high calorie intake/output lifestyle became entangled with my injury...but, ultimately no shots and no surgery. I'm currently pain-free and lifting more than I previously did, and theoretically could return to the same sports and activity levels.

I think you can get better...but it's a horrible injury, and it's so slow to heal it makes you feel as if you might never get better. I truly feel sympathy for everybody suffering from this stuff...

Best of luck.

KelGen02

I too have herniated disk in my lower back (4) as well as 2 my neck... I have degenerative disk disease, have had it for about 10 years now... the disk in my neck were from riding a roller coaster with my youngest... fun fun fun =( Sadly the tingling and numbness is now my every day life as well as the pain... I used it as an excuse for my inactivity for many years and as well as all the weight I piled on. I have done PT on and off for years and it has helped with strengthening my core, but the reality is my spine is crumbling so I need to get off my fat *kitten* and do something about it. I am one of those crazy people who do not take pain meds so I think my tolerance for pain is really high or maybe I am just use to it and don't know what a day without pain feels like anymore LOL

Back in November, I kicked started a "Lifestyle Change" not because of my situation but because my husband came home with Cholesterol meds from his dr... yeah didn't change for myself but had no problem jumping on the healthier lifestyle train to get my husband healthy tho Anyways, with the disk pain I obviously started off very slow. I would walk on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes at 2.0 and for some that may be nothing but for someone with disk pain this was pure torture. I did that every day 6 days a week, hard to walk when your feet are numb and tingly but I pushed through it. Slowly I started to increase my time as well as my speed. As I started getting stronger I realized that I needed to stop being a donkey and got a referral to go back to PT. ( I stopped going because it hurt just too much, in other words too lazy) With PT and a change of diet I was now on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 2.8... a few more weeks go on and I decide I am going to take a zumba class, that turned into 2 zumba classes a week and 60 minutes on the treadmill at 3.3 4 times a week. fast forward 4 months, I am up to 3 zumba classes a week, I just added a pound class (this is challenging due to my limited abilities to bend over and hit the floor so I just modify) I also walk 1.5 miles at lunch each day and still get on that treadmill. I just finished another round of PT of trying to manipulate the disk off my nerves, so far so good, I still get numb in my right foot but the dr feels because I waited so long to do anything in my life I may have permanent nerve damage... I also have a small aneurysm in my artery to my brain that needs to be monitored but other than a little dizziness every so often I don't present any symptoms. It only took me 10+ years to love myself as much as I love my husband and my kids, but better late than never they say. I don't know how old you are but for me being 48 years old I knew that I needed to make these changes and push through to become healthy and fit or I would be disabled at some point. I am down 45lbs in 4 months, I went from a couch potato to working out 6 days a week. I can't lie and say my back doesn't hurt anymore because it hurts like a mother *kitten*... but what I have changed it how I let that pain affect my day to day life. I hurt when I am being lazy on the couch so whats the difference if it hurts while I am being active?? I still have about 40ish pounds to go but I am determined to get there!!! I am determined to live a long healthy life and run around with all of my future (hopefully not anytime soon) grandbabies and travel in my retirement years with my husband. Good luck to you!!!

Spliner1969

All these stories sound similar to mine. My Lumbar spine is doing much better now that I've been able to strengthen my core, but I have a C-Spine disc giving me pain in my right arm/shoulder/neck. I also have degenerative disc disease so there's no telling which one is next. Keeping hydrated, keeping up my yoga stretches, and continuing to build a stronger core has helped a ton though. Even the C-spine issue at the moment is starting to improve a little bit as I am working in some newer yoga stretches and routines for my neck. I also found Osteo Bilfex daily helps keep my joints from flaring up, and likely my back as well. I don't lift weights though, at least nothing over 25-30 lbs. It's all bodyweight exercise for me, plus walking, and a little light jogging. I think the biggest thing is knowing when to back off on an exercise if it's causing a flare up. Surgery now days can be done much easier than when I had it done. Mine was laproscopic so it wasn't horrible, but down time was about six weeks afterward. Now days they have you back (not lifting) to work/life in a day or sometimes same day. I won't say I will never have the surgery again, but it won't be my first choice. I'll always give yoga a try from now on first.

CynthiasChoice

After 9 months of excruciating pain which pain meds, PT and spinal injections could not alleviate, I finally agreed to a partial diskectomy L5/S1. I wish I had not waited so long for the surgery, because it took almost a year for the sciatic nerve to recover after such a long trauma. Now, a year and a half later, I still can feel pain in my hip if I think about it, but I usually ignore it. I just have to continue with the core work and avoid lifting and twisting wrong.

Three months after surgery, my surgeon told me, "You're not going to see any more improvement." He was wrong. The sciatic nerve takes forever to heal, and it usually heals from the extremity first toward the hip last.

I hope everything goes well for you!

markrgeary1

I had lumbar issues years ago. My empathy.
I have C-spine issues sometimes. I have no way to explain the pain, it's unpleasant.
I am of the belief that building muscle in the area helps. I lift to keep muscle.

mzzsanchezz32217

Thank you everyone. I don't have pain going down my leg anymore thank goodness! It's the worst pain ever! I just added planks I just hope one day I can go back to running and dancing. Those are what I miss the most. Good luck to everyone in our journey. To us being healthy!

gamommy

I'm right there with you - but my diagnoses is new. I have had back pain for years, but really noticed it the most after a cesarean in 2010. I thought it was nerve damage from the anesthesiologist. He inserted the spinal block too far and it caused this horrible pain to shoot down my left leg. Ever since then I experience leg numbness and pain. I finally went to the doctor about this year.

My MRI (had in February) results showed that I have degenerative disc disease, a bulging disc at L4-L5 and it says "Disc protrusion and facet disease at L5-S1 resulting in severe left foraminal stenosis with moderate compression of the exiting left L5 nerve root. There is also moderate right foraminal stenosis at this level with abutment of the exiting right L5 nerve root."...whatever all that means.

I go to my first appointment with the pain clinic on 4/18. I'm sincerely hoping they can set me up with a PT who can direct me to some great stretches that will help. My insurance doesn't cover chiropractic care, but hubby said I can go once a week if I want so I think I'm going to take him up on that.

Aside from what your doctor or pt has recommended for you, was there anything else you have found that has helped?

mzzsanchezz32217

@gamommy all this is scary and wish you the best in your recovery. I started taking vitamins, the nurse got me pretty bad while drawing blood so I ended up with a huge bruise that didn't start to heal until 4 weeks later when I started taking the vitamins. I increased my water intake and started adding turmeric to my foods even taking turmeric capsules. Looking up anti inflammatory foods. Juicing most mornings. Applying a heating pad on my back almost every night at bed time. And extra pillows at night. Definitely pay attention to your posture! I have a desk job so I'm looking for any excuse to be standing. I also bought a medicine ball chair I believe is what they're called.

holliebog

I had a herniated disk from college sports that required surgery. When it first happened I was bed-ridden for about two weeks and never healed beyond walking 20-30 minutes before the pain was too intolerable. Felt it in my back and all the way down my right leg. Was on three different medications and taking around 7-9 pills a day depending if it was a 'good' or 'bad' day. Tried about 8 months of PT, steroid injections, orally taken steroids, and meds before I opted for surgery. Went to chiropractor once and left feeling about 100 times worse. I'm pain free post-surgery about 90% of the time and can do almost everything I could do prior to my herniation. I did gain some weight during my herniation and have been started chipping away at it (down 15 pounds in the last month!). Just be patient with it and know that it gets better!! My healing process was unusually long ('fully' recovered about a little over a year after initial herniation) so don't get discouraged if it's a slow and frustrating process! Good luck!

Spliner1969

gamommy wrote: »

I go to my first appointment with the pain clinic on 4/18. I'm sincerely hoping they can set me up with a PT who can direct me to some great stretches that will help. My insurance doesn't cover chiropractic care, but hubby said I can go once a week if I want so I think I'm going to take him up on that.

Aside from what your doctor or pt has recommended for you, was there anything else you have found that has helped?

Be very very careful with chiropractors. Go to a highly recommended one that has been in successful practice for many years, otherwise you may regret it. They made my condition worse. There have been times in the past where chiropractors have helped me with spinal issues, but when I herniated my L4/L5 they tried to fix me and I ended up in the ER that very night with pain 10x as much as it was before I went to the chiropractor. Sometimes popping your back is a bad idea, and that's basically all they do. See a PT if you can instead. Just my opinion.

peabo2

mzzsanchezz32217 wrote: »

Hi everyone! I was hospitalized January 7th with a herniated disc on my L5 S1 and a compressed nerved. It caused me weakness, tingling and numbess in right leg. I started out only able to walk no more than 10minutes on the treadmill on a 1.2mph speed. Happy to say that after 8 weeks of PT and a lot of patience, I now walk 1 hr everyday at a 3.0-3.5mph speed! Tingling has completely gone away and numbness has definitely improved. I'm still on a road to recovery and surgery might still be unavoidable. One thing I know for sure, never taking my health for granted again! Gotta take care of myself first before I can take care of everyone else.

I'd love to hear your success story with a herniated disc. I need all the motivation i can get.

Happy Friday!

No fun! I feel for you. I herniated L5/S1 last September. I went from daily Crossfit to absolute zero overnight. When it started I thought my hamstrings were just tight and kept pushing through the pain until one deadly clean that left me totally crippled. I rested for a couple days and started to feel better-ish. I then went to a chiropractor on a friend's recommendation. This was a terrible idea. The chiro swore up and down that it was piriformis syndrome and that he could have me healed in 3 sessions. Long story short, he broke me. After that visit I was 10x worse and an MRI showed what was left of my disc shooting out into the spinal cavity. I was in constant pain, couldn't work, and surgery was unavoidable in my case. I did try and epidural first but that did absolutely nothing. I laid on my back and limped around the house for about a month until I could get in for a microdiscectomy. The surgery was successful and I woke up with no residual pain.... except for the pain of surgery. It was 3 full months of doing nothing but walking. I thought I was going to lose my mind not being able to workout and if you ask my wife, I did lose my mind. After 3 months I was cleared to workout again. Unfortunately I am not the same athlete as I was before. No more heavy squats and no more oly-lifts. I tried getting back to crossfit but since I had to sub so many movements I have since retreated to bodybuilding style workouts. The good news is you will most certainly recover from surgery if that's what you choose to do. But.... my advice is to take your recovery seriously and slowly creep your way back to exercise. I've had to learn the hard way to look at training in the long term instead of the workout in front of me. Gotta train smart!