Herniated disc in my lower back..

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

Who's had one, and what did you do to fix it?

I see a specialist next Friday. Just curious.

[Pro88LX]

Doug, that sucks man

you need to raid the medicine cabinet at work!!! LMAO

[ram57ta]

Vicodin, hydrocodone, whisky...in any order

Oh yeah...DANG

[slow99]

Fuck. I feel for you. I ruptured L4 and let it go for over a year until I couldn't walk, stand, sit, anything. I can comfortably say it was the lowest time of my life. I eventually had surgery and it was the best thing I ever did. Been 13 years and still ok. I just have to be cognizant of what I'm doing. Best of luck, it can be truly devastating.

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

Yes the pain sucks. My right leg is killing me. Its been about two months that it has been bothering me.

[KungFuHamster]

Call my wife on Monday morning. 817-348-8488 @ Path to Wellness. Dr. Cochran is her name.

[LaserSVT]

I have a couple bad discs. Been that way for over 15 years. They wanted to fuse my spine but I would rather deal with searing pain every couple years when I lift something wrong as opposed to a dull pain all the time.

Firm matresses are your friend.

[stephen4785]

I had one @ L5-S1. I had 5 different consultations. I ended going to Dr Guyer w/ Texas back institute and an artificial disc replacement. I had surgery on Oct 6 2007 and I was cleared to go back to work full duty 8 weeks later. I have days that my lower back hurts a little but nothing like it did before the surgery. The advantages I found were
#1. Speed of recovery is much faster than a fusion
#2. You retain the movement of the discs
#3. The artificial disc can be removed latter if needed(Movement ends up causing pain, something new comes out and is better than an adr)

[black50]

I had one @ L5-S1. I had 5 different consultations. I ended going to Dr Guyer w/ Texas back institute and an artificial disc replacement. I had surgery on Oct 6 2007 and I was cleared to go back to work full duty 8 weeks later. I have days that my lower back hurts a little but nothing like it did before the surgery. The advantages I found were
#1. Speed of recovery is much faster than a fusion
#2. You retain the movement of the discs
#3. The artificial disc can be removed latter if needed(Movement ends up causing pain, something new comes out and is better than an adr)

This is the only surgical option I would go with. I had a L5-S1 8mm herniation, and siciata down my left leg. I met with a few surgeons and just didnt want them to cut me open. I have heard of too many horror stories of guys coming out of surgery worse than what they went in with..I kept hearing about the spinal decompression and I said what the hell, I will try some alternative medicine..The decompression worked fucking wonders..I still have lower back pain every now and then and if I pick up something wrong then I may have a little siciata for a couple days. But if you are having second thoughts about surgery then go in for the decompression.

Oh and another thing, once you have a lower back injury do not sleep on your stomach..It only makes it worse

[dmh165638]

I have had two (L4, L5) for about 12 years now. My doc told me if there was anyway around surgery he would suggest that route because back surgery is still a crap shoot. My best investment I ever made was an inversion table. I spend a few minutes in the morning and then again at night on it and haven't had any back issues in 3 years. If I do feel discomfort or flareup coming I just spend a little extra time on it and no issues. I have two co-workers that were so impressed with my results that they bought inversion tables also and they are now seeing similar results.

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

I have a couple bad discs. Been that way for over 15 years. They wanted to fuse my spine but I would rather deal with searing pain every couple years when I lift something wrong as opposed to a dull pain all the time.

Firm matresses are your friend.

Minor back from time to time, I can deal with. With this pinched nerve, my right leg is
In major pain. I can hardly walk without shooting pain. Plus, I don't want to suffer any
Permanent nerve damage.

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

I had one @ L5-S1. I had 5 different consultations. I ended going to Dr Guyer w/ Texas back institute and an artificial disc replacement. I had surgery on Oct 6 2007 and I was cleared to go back to work full duty 8 weeks later. I have days that my lower back hurts a little but nothing like it did before the surgery. The advantages I found were
#1. Speed of recovery is much faster than a fusion
#2. You retain the movement of the discs
#3. The artificial disc can be removed latter if needed(Movement ends up causing pain, something new comes out and is better than an adr)

A coworker had an ADR. He is also pleased with the results.

[BlueCoupeRedVert]

My best investment I ever made was an inversion table. I spend a few minutes in the morning and then again at night on it and haven't had any back issues in 3 years. If I do feel discomfort or flareup coming I just spend a little extra time on it and no issues.

This sounds like a good idea for future relief.

[Txstang1]

Fuck. I feel for you. I ruptured L4 and let it go for over a year until I couldn't walk, stand, sit, anything. I can comfortably say it was the lowest time of my life. I eventually had surgery and it was the best thing I ever did. Been 13 years and still ok. I just have to be cognizant of what I'm doing. Best of luck, it can be truly devastating.

Similar story here, but 8 years and counting. Still hurts on a daily basis, but I can function.

Better get it taken care of before it ruptures. SPinal decompression is one of the best non-surgical treatments I have had.

[stephen4785]

Honestly if I had the money I would've tried spinal decompression first. I dont know if insurnace is covering it now or not but Andre(Strongnuff) was going to cut me a heck of deal on it. He and his wife own their own chiropractic clinic. I invested a lot of time and research to figure out which way to go. I tired phyiscal therapy, stretching, an epidural spinal injection(which gave me the worst head ache Iv had in my life for 3 days), pain meds and nothing helped.
Dr Guyer asked me this before I went into surgery "If this surgery would only alleviate 50% of your pain would you do it"? The statistics say that you have a higher chance of coming out with a 50% pain reduction. My pain level went down to around 5%.
Nick Chapman had another procedure where they implant a small device the sends electrical signals to the nerves in that area and interrupts the signals and he loves it.
My best advice is try some non permanent solutions first. An adr can be removed but you'll never have that disc material. I havent met one person or read any review of spinal decompression making it worse. Just give yourself some options to try before you finalize on a disc removal procedure.
I exhausted my alternatives and I was taking way too much vicodin so I pulled the trigger and Im glad I made the choice for an adr. I had severe mood swings on pain pills and I was taking it out on my pregnant wife which wasnt good. After my adr surgery I took pan pills for 2 weeks and then tried to give my dr back the bottle they gave me because I really didnt need it any more.
One tip I will give you and it was Nicks case is that if the pain is caused by stenosis(narrowing of the spinal canal) then nothing is going to help other than surgery.