Herniated discs

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Michelle2526
Michelle2526 Posts: 13
in Introduce Yourself
Hey everyone!
I am looking for support and advice on how to get active again after herniating 2 discs in my back. They are the L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs and my god are they painful. So anyone with recommendations, or who would like to add me, please please please!!! Thanks!!

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  • scress0514
    scress0514 Posts: 51 Member
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    hi been there done that, i feel your pain....already had mine rupture and had the surgery. Loosing weight and walking is what the Doc. told me to do..so here we are... add me if you like.
  • KikiTea
    KikiTea Posts: 8
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    Hi there,

    These are the exact two discs I slipped when I had a fall last summer. I feel your pain. No surgery for me, thank god, but I did gain a lot of weight due to being inactive. Feel free to add me...
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    What is your current course of treatment? Physical therapy helped me immensely.

    Whenever I start a new exercise, I try to ramp up slowly. Before I would join in a body sculpt class, I spent a month working up my strength.

    If you have access to a pool, swimming and deep water aerobics build the muscles that can a leve some of the pressure on your spine.
  • MICHE_S519
    MICHE_S519 Posts: 4 Member
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    May I ask where you live? I recommend seeing a Myokinesthetic, and see if that helps with the pain. I can see if there is one in your area.
  • Derpes
    Derpes Posts: 2,033 Member
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    I had surgery at the age of 22 for discs in the same location (L4, L5).

    The surgery was a success, however, it was after conservative treatments failed.

    Make walking a priority and maybe give physical therapy a chance......good luck, back pain is AWFUL!
  • allisonlane61
    allisonlane61 Posts: 187 Member
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    I have same as you, plus a bonus one. Did it 15 years ago and couldn't do anything but lay on my stomach. I had the injections and they did nothing. What helped me most was walking, second most was weight control. Now, I run, hike, and do most exercises--stay away from forward folds (as in Yoga forward folds) or anything that mimics them. I'm always careful with foot placement when hiking and going down curbs and such, but it isn't an awareness of carefulness, more like I just do it now.

    Things I cannot or will not do, even now, 15 years later: snow ski, go on a roller coaster (although I do the log flume, lol). Every day I'm aware of these herniations and somehow being careful has become second nature.
  • dalehall64
    dalehall64 Posts: 290 Member
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    Mine were higher up.. I herniated C5-C6.. But, I had to have C4, C5, C6, C7 and T1 areas all fused. Twice. When mine herniated, it happened on Thursday evening and by Sunday afternoon, I lost all movement in the last 3 fingers of my left hand. They just curled up and stopped moving. Within a month and half (took that long to decide on surgery) I suffered almost total muscle atrophy in my left arm. 1st surgery was in April 2009, second in May 2010. So, after 2 surgeries and a total of 1 bracket, 2 rods, 12 clamps and 22 screws in my neck, I'm back at it. I still have almost total numbness in my left hand. I do have about 75% movement in those fingers, but no real fine motor skills in them. And, since I started working out full time in October, I'm starting to see some muscle growth in my left arm, where they told me I may not have any due to the nerve damage.
    As much as anyone hates going under the knife, it was the best thing I could have done.. Good luck with yours!!
    **Dale**
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    A caution about the walking: make sure you do walk around, and often, but long walks can actually aggravate the nerves and cause further inflammation, just like standing still.
  • cmkme
    cmkme Posts: 11
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    I have a herniated disc at C7. After a major pinched nerve last year and the subsequent physical therapy, I had to get back into exercze very slowly. But now I know the warning signs of aggravating that disc, and when I feel them, I adjust accordingly. For me, when I start to lose feeling in my fingers it's the sign for me to lighten up on the exercize. I do at home workouts with a DVD and there are some moves that I modify (like not lifting my arms straight over my head repeatedly) and so far I've avoided any further injury.
  • Michelle2526
    Michelle2526 Posts: 13
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    In response to "concordancia":

    My current treatment is nothing really. I have been through 3 rounds of physical therapy since the injuries happened 3 yrs ago. My last injection in my back was I want to say August. Now my exercise is really just around my apt, couch to the bathroom and back, and usually even that is quite painful.
  • Michelle2526
    Michelle2526 Posts: 13
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    May I ask where you live? I recommend seeing a Myokinesthetic, and see if that helps with the pain. I can see if there is one in your area.

    Utah. Salt Lake City area ish.
  • Michelle2526
    Michelle2526 Posts: 13
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    I have same as you, plus a bonus one. Did it 15 years ago and couldn't do anything but lay on my stomach. I had the injections and they did nothing. What helped me most was walking, second most was weight control. Now, I run, hike, and do most exercises--stay away from forward folds (as in Yoga forward folds) or anything that mimics them. I'm always careful with foot placement when hiking and going down curbs and such, but it isn't an awareness of carefulness, more like I just do it now.

    Things I cannot or will not do, even now, 15 years later: snow ski, go on a roller coaster (although I do the log flume, lol). Every day I'm aware of these herniations and somehow being careful has become second nature.

    I am so glad to hear you can still go hiking! And so terribly disappointed about the roller coaster thing. Of course ill have to torture myself and try that anyway to learn my lesson.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,618 Member
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    Michelle,
    Unless you are doing worse than before, perhaps start doing to stretches and exercises your therapy gave you to do and ease into your old PT routine. That's what I tend to do when I get moving again (same discs injured, one operated on at 17, both fused almost 5 years ago now). If you're in a lot of pain swimming is a great way to go if you have a pool you can use, and walking is always recommended. I've found the recumbent bike is one of the only things I can use since my surgery, but I have another big injury that caused nerve damage in my left leg so walking is very tough. Good luck!
  • arnfolly
    arnfolly Posts: 79 Member
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    There are several exercises I do for an L5/S1 herniation. CLOCKS is one. Lay on back, knees bent, feet on floor, knees together. Gently move knees back and forth quickly but only a couple inches to stimulate blood flow to lower back. It helped me a lot and did not aggrivate. PELVIC LIFTS. Designed to strengthen core w/o aggravation to L region. Same position as clocks, but gently raise pelvis only (NOT HIP LIFTS) and lower.
    LAYING MARCHES. Same position as clocks, but raise one leg at a time 2" of floor and back, then do each leg.
    I had herniated it last fall and now it is better. NO surgery. HOWEVER, 3 years ago I herniated severely C5, C6, C7. I had no function in my right arm AT ALL. Movement was EXCURCIATING and an MRI revealed they were pressing on my spinal cord badly and had to be removed and fused. I do VERY SLOW movements on all my exercises now and really take the time to warm up.
  • TurtleRunnerNC
    TurtleRunnerNC Posts: 768 Member
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    When I herniated mine last year (bending over to tie my shoe! ) I was on steroids & pain killers for a week. Then I was allowed to swim & walk on flat surfaces only for about 4 weeks.

    I did some research online that Yoga was good for this. I purchased a dvd from Amazon called Viniyoga for the lower back, sacram & hip. It helped so much. Now, it actually hurt like hell while I was actually doing it but then I noticed much less pain the rest of the day.
  • lelaspeaks
    lelaspeaks Posts: 163 Member
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    Hey everyone!
    I am looking for support and advice on how to get active again after herniating 2 discs in my back. They are the L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs and my god are they painful. So anyone with recommendations, or who would like to add me, please please please!!! Thanks!!

    I actually had the EXACT same injury almost exactly a year ago. 1 - you need to rest!! 2 - Google core workouts for a lumbar herniated disc. The reason is you need to learn how to do everything differently - from walking, lifting, sitting, etc. A few of my life savers include:

    1. When things get really sore, lay on your stomach and stretch out your back.
    2. Do gentle back bends - never hunch forward to stretch this out. While it may feel good for a second, it's actually doing more harm than good.
    3. Hang from a bar to help decompress the discs.
    4. CORE CORE CORE strength - quit using your back to strength train - rely on your stomach.
    5. Tuck your hips. Think of trying to pull your rib and hip bones together. This also puts less stress on your lumbar spine.

    I paid a ton of $$$ in physical therapy to learn these things. I still have flare ups, but I would recommend getting access to muscle relaxers (your muscles are most likely tightening which is causing the pain) and steroids (when you have flare ups, these fix you fast).

    Good luck. Feel free to PM me with any other questions.
  • allisonlane61
    allisonlane61 Posts: 187 Member
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    AND, if you have a desk job, get up regularly and walk around...sitting too long is a sure-fire way to aggravate the disks.
  • Michelle2526
    Michelle2526 Posts: 13
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    Everyone has been so helpful. Thank you so so much for all the advice and friend requests!!

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