Blut Wump said:
Can anything be done about that besides surgery? Have you seen a chiro?
I had a chat with my chiro last week about the possibility that I have a disc bulge. He said the only way to find out would be an MRI and for what? He said that one can blow a bulging disc just by a bad sneeze so, even if I were to find a bad disc, I should just keep lifting and working to strengthen my back muscles as much as possible to take strain away from my spine. The important thing is to lift carefully and not to subject the back to shearing forces.
He said that if the only thng I suffer from is back pain then they wouldn't do any corrective surgery since the one thing you can guarantee from disc surgery is that you will have resultant back pain for a very long time.
Of course, we're all different etc.
what symptoms do you have? i.e. pain in your lower back, numbness down your leg... is it just one side, or both? how long have you been having the problem?
not sure how much your doc. has told you....but basically, with on either side of your disks, are nerve endings. When your disk "bulges", it creates a protrusion on one of your disks, which pushes on its respective nerve ending. The pushing on the nerve ending, is what causes the pain, and numbness. So lifting, really isn't the way to make things better, because it will not help to pull the protrusion of your disk back into place.
there are several things that can be done. there is a thing called traction (not sure if that is the right spelling.) talk to a physical therapist about that one. what they do is strap you to this table, and it pulls you apart, so to speak. your upper body is strapped to the table, and there is a belt that is around your waist. Attached to the belt around your waist, is the part of the machine that pulls on your lower body. the idea behind the traction, is that it will create suction, and pull the protrusion in your disk back into place. Again, check with a physical therapist, as this is an option. It works for some people. It did a little help for me, but did not fix my problem.
Another option, is a steroid injection in your back. (This is actually what I am trying to get done through my insurance.) This can cost a little bit of money, but is definately cheaper than back surgery. What they do, is inject cortizone in your back at the location of the disk that is "bulging/herniated." Cortizone is not only a steroid, but is also a super anti-inflammatory. Kind of self explainatory, but it will reduce the inflammation (protrusion) of the disk, which will allow it to go back into place, and no longer push on the nerve. They say that this works almost immediately. I believe that they will do 3 injections max. over the course of a year, but most people will be better after the first injection.
Then, obviously, there is back surgery. We dont need to go into that. You are right, I was told by my doc (he had the surgery when he was younger) that with some people, after 5 years, it is almost as if you never had the surgery. In order to get the injections, or have surgery, the neuro-surgeon is going to want you to have the MRI done first. Most will reccommend the injections, and only give surgery as a last resort.
Like I said, for me the traction didn't work so well. I was lucky that I was in the military (just got my honorable discharge on 25th of July) and didn't have to pay for it. It takes like 9 session or so, in order for most people to start to feel some relief. Each session is 20 minutes, and you go 3 times per week. Not sure how much it would cost in the civilian world, but you will have to pay for each session. Do you have some medical insurance? I would see if they would cover the MRI, or at least part of it. If not, see if you can pursuade a doc. to give you the injection w/o having to get the MRI (they are expensive if you have to pay out of pocket, the injection won't be cheap either.)
Don't think that just because all you have is pain in your lower back, that you might not have a bulging disk. That is how mine started. I had sever pain in my lower back for the first 3 weeks (I pulled a muscle at the same time I screwed up my disk). I went through electrical stimulation, and that took away 80% of the pain in my lower back. Then I started to get a radiating pain that went all the way from my hip, down the back of my leg, and ended in behind my ankle on the outside of my foot. That lasted on and off for 2 months, and then it was replaced with numbness in my hamstring, and on my heel, along with pain in my lower back. This is where I am at right now.
Take care of your back, and dont push yourself too hard in the gym. I wont tell you to stay out of the gym, cause I know how that is. But if you do have a bulging disk, lifting can make it worse. I would get it figured out as soon as possible. It could be that you only have a pulled muscle. It which case, electrical stimulation will help. I wish you the best of luck
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