I am no doctor but I understand 90% of herniated dics cases will heal by conservative management meaning no need surgery. I also understand that there is no need to consider surgery unless it does not heal after 3 months.

Same as you I woke up on 6/11/2004 with extreme pain. Got myself to hospital by ambulance only in the late afternoon. Stayed in hospital for 4 days. Mri confirms herniated dics l5s1. Conservative management with pain killers, anti inflamatories, heat/ice pack, muscle relaxants. Since discharge, do mckinsie exercises, acupunture, chiroprator, myofascial release, moxibustion. I would say I am 90% healed now. No need for surgery. I had constant pain only in first 2 weeks.

Like me you woke up one morning with pain. These are normally less serious than those who have the herniation after accident or lifting wrongly. Also you did not mention lost of bladder control or motion. All these suggest yours should recover by conservative management. You better see another doctor.

Medical science is wonderful. Unfortunately, not all doctors are created equal. Money is a source of many evil.

Thank you for your input, I was curious what the mckinsie exersise was and possibly a web site were I could get more information on it?
Myofascial release & moxibustion also?

Thank you so much for your time I surely do appreciate it !!!!!!!!

My physio in the hospital introduced me to mckenzie method and myofascial release. Mckenzie prohibits flexion exercises for herniated disc. Only do extension excersises initially. He wrote a famous book and method now taught in 100 universities aroud the world. I am fortunate my physio is trained in the mckenzie method. U can find in amazon

myofascial release (use google search) is a form of massage. Moxibustion is traditional chinese method for detox and pain relief. It uses vacuum cup and heat. Both of these give me good relief.

The body will heal itself as long as we dont aggravate the injury.

Other points u will want to know is you should avoid acidic foods/drinks as these are inflamatory. An acidic body causes all kinds of illnesses.

Is there anyone else that has any input to help my situation I need advice please????????????????????????????????


Thank you and god bless

First, there is absolutely no evidence that moxibustion, avoidance of acidic foods or drinks will help with disc herniations. The evidence for moxibustion with respect to pain relief is very very sparse.
Secondly, there are other options providing you do not have loss of bowel or bladder control, or have severe weakness of the lower extremities.
One method is traction therapy (use an inversion table or try an incline board at 60 degrees letting your weight pull against the discs causing distraction of the disc space). Another is epidural steroid injections provided by pain management. These may help up to 50% of patients avoid surgery. They are provided by pain management physicians. Another measure is pt such as mckenzie. Other methods which involve minimally invasive surgery performed through needles or portals include disc decompressor, nucleotome, nucleoplasty, endoscopic discectomy, percutaneous laser discectomy, etc. These do not involve open surgery and are effective from 50-90% of the time depending on the technique chosen. These are performed by advanced pain management physicians.

Thank you sneakycol, I still havent had the surgery. I have been doing physical therapy for now. I have another mri set up in november to see if the hernation has gotten any worse still have alot of pain.

Hi everyone,

i was diagnosed with a disc herniation (l4-l5) or as they called it "degenerative disc disorder". My brother is a radiologist, so I sent him my mri and he said that I have a moderate (medium sized) broad
disc bulge at l4/5 level causing moderate central canal stenosis (meaning
medium narrowing of the spinal canal at that level).

I've went to a back specialist and he suggested spinal fusion, but I don't want that because I heard they put plates & screws into your back.

Does anyone know whether an endoscopic discectomy would fix a problem like mine?

Thanks,
jason

I would like to share with all I have just recievied the results from my second mri and my disc hernation is in remission.
My doctor recommended surgery right away but through physical therapy and pain medication.(dont get me wrong its not easy. Most days are still hard) I will not need surgery. Jason as far as your age and situation has alot to do with your options (i am no expert I am just giving you advice on my personal experience) as far as fusion, unless you cant walk or have lost control of your bladder or bowel movements I would not have this done
are you young? How did your problem start? Your profession? Can you apply for disability?

Philly so weird that I pop in here looking for help an I find someone like you going through something very similiar to what I am going through. Even my wife is pregnant an due 12/22/04. I had a herniation go unoticed in april and now I am severely paying for it. I have been diagnosed with ces. Which has affected everything from sleep to bladder. An my only hope is fusion .Which will happen next week wednesday. Some doctors are quik to get you on the table. But a herniation near a nerve root is a potential disaster. In my opinion look into every minimally invasive technique .Stay away from epidurals.And be very attentive to any change in pain. Good luck

Sorry to here you got to have surgery and I can understand your pain.
I hurt my back in 1999 and of course workers comp drug there feet when I needed a test to see what was wrong and anyway I went through all kinds of test over the years to show nothing and had a pain shot in the spine that left a hole to only cause me to get panicattacks the day after and that took 13 weeks just to find out what they did wrong and to get a blood patch. I later had to put off my back to treat cancer that was found and to recover before I could get to the back problem and then workers comp did not let me have the test I needed and turned me down again so I waited and waited and we were told my pain was in my head and then I got a call one day to go do the test only after trying to get it for a few years then to find out that my l4 l5 was tore inside the disk and the test that showed this was called a diskogram and after lots of doctors vist after I had my surgery to fix the problem only to find out that I had later got staph infection in my back and to top it off while in the hosiptail I had a blood transifussion that scared the heck out of me and to later find out that the donner tested positive for hep c . So far I am ok and do not think I will have it. I did get a fusion done and I really feel worse now that I did before the surgery and I belive it is because it took so long to find the problem and the longer you wait I think the more damage that can happen
so for now I await a ctscan this week to see if the hard wear will have to come out because I am in way to much pain and also I got really bad headaches from all this and my pain doctor told me it is from the back so I hope when the hard wear comes out that I wil feel better and not in so much pain. I have not worked since my back injury and I can not sleep well at all and I feel like crap all the time but everybody is different and surgery works great for lots of people but I was one that did not do so well and only time will tell for me and I did want to say before your surgery ask your surgen what steps are they going to take to keep the risk of getting staph infection in your back low and do not wait till then to ask I would ask now because staph is very common now and if you get it it is hard to get rid of. I had to have at home iv for 6 weeks 3 times a day and I really do not ever want to go through this again. I hope your surgery goes well for you and hope you recover fast.

Ok I am new to this board so hell everyone, I am a 23 year old male, I have been heavy all my life, not morbidly obese but a big guy as I am about 375, 6'2, my height really helps with my weight, about 3 years ago I threw my back out for the first time to the point where I couldnt move off the couch, I couldnt do anything, I got throught that and it happened again last year, same thing, major pain throughout my lower back and hips to the point that I couldnt move but again I healed and I was fine. One thing I have always told myself is hey I may be fat but at least I am still mobile, I can still walk and get around good, but here about 2-3weeks ago I was at walmart with my wife and not even 5 minutes into the store I had to rush back to the car because my lower back was hurting me so bad I felt like I was going to fall down, I could barely hold myself, it was just awful. It happened a couple more times since then and I just thought it would go away, but today I was taking out my garbage, and you have to walk a little ways to get to the bin, and by the time I reached it I was in so much pain I could barely lift my trash up, sweating horribly and did not know if I could make it back to my apartment, I was in so much pain in my lower back and shooting down my hips, it took every ounce of energy I had just to walk back and immediatly hit the couh when I came in and started typing this, is this a weight inssue? Or have I messed up my back a couple of years ago when I had my first problems? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks

Two toke,

welcome to this board....Just so you know there does not seem to be a moderator of this board...And not too many people post...I visit from time to time, but not often....





If I were you I would make an appt to see either an oss (orthopedic spinal surgery) or a nss.(neurosurgeon spinal surgery)..I think you need to have an mri of the spine. It may just be muscle spasms, but you need someone to exam you, do the films and then make a determination from the mri. This seems to be going on for a long time for you. They will tell you to lose the weight because any extra weight is not good for the spine, but it seems to be more than just a weight issue with you.

Let us know what happens... :d

i wanted to edit this to tell you.....Please copy and paste your message into a new topic...Oh heck I will do it for you...You may get more answers to your post that way.....I will title it just as you did your message, so look for it...I will copy and paste my message as well....But when you have a new topic...Just hit the new topic button and you can start your own thread....Oh heck I will do it for you...You may get more answers to your thread that way....

Thx alot

Have your doctor order you a discogram. That way you can find out whether or not the pain is coming from the disc.