Bulging L5S1 troubles

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Sup dudes/dudettes

I’ve been whinging about this for awhile in other threads so thought it time to start it’s own thread.

Basically 6 months ago I broke myself at work, pulling a fan out of a roof cavity. Being the nature of my work and the fact I’m 6”4 and unstreatchy, this was the straw the broke the camel.

Since that fatefull moment I’ve undergone a pretty rough rehab plan with the physio, seen osteo’s and acupuncturists, and was making decent progress (still a long way off, but was seeing progress) untill I sneazed making a bloody coffee three weeks ago.

Now physio isn’t working too well, the pain I was dealing with changed when I sneezed, and laying down is no longer the magic cure-all it once was. My rehab work I was doing (modified deadlifts 15kg, a bajillion squats, static lunges, mackenzie extensions, nerve gliders, hip floor raiser things, and lastly hamstring work) has been canned and I’ve reverted back to stretching and the extensions. BUT I’m not seeing results, to the point I went without sleep last weekend untill monday when I finally got my mits on some endone and special nerve painkillers (Lyzalon).

Surgery is now very much on the cards (diskectomy). Everyone I’ve spoken to has different opinions about this, although nobody has gone through with it that I know. Another bloke at work has deslt with his bulging L5S1 for 25yrs, sleeps with a pillow under his knees, sees an acupuncturist every month and doesn’t do much of anything. Refused surgery and just puts up with it.

The big questions after that essay is, have any of you guys gone through surgery to fix your back? How long was recovery? How much did you recover? Theres plenty of stuff online, mostly americans on body builder forums about fusions and returning to body building, but that doesn’t really relate to me all that much. I’ve no plans on getting huge, just want to be able to ride my bloody bikes again on things that aren’t suited to cyclocross bikes, without pain, and be able to walk around at more than the snails pace I’m lucky to hit atm.

Any input is appreciated at this point.
 
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rangersac

Medically diagnosed OMS
Me no surgical experience. Wife yes and a couple of colleagues I know have also had it. From the experience of others I say it all depends on how bad your symptoms are. If you have numbness or considerable loss of feeling anywhere, then your disc is compressing nerves and causing potential permanent damage and I would seriously recommend considering surgery.

Wife is probably the worst case scenario out of the experiences I know. She stuffed her back doing gardening, and over a period of three weeks she went from being slightly uncomfortable (initially she just thought she'd pulled a muscle) to hardly being able to move and in incapacitating pain, with serious loss of feeling in her leg. After one scan, she was admitted straight to hospital and operated on the next day because the surgeon was so concerned with the compression. When he got in there he found the disc was ruptured and fragmented, something that couldn't be determined from the scan, so most of it came out. Nine months down the line, she still has serious loss of feeling, and can't do much in the way of twisting or lift anything heavier than a basket of wet washing, despite frequent physio, acupuncture, and reasonable signs of disc regeneration from subsequent scans.

On the flip side, the other two colleagues I know who had the operation have made much faster recoveries. However, they both didn't have the numbness to anywhere near the degree my wife did, just pain over a lengthy period and a bit of tingling. One bloke had his operation in November last year, and is now back on the bike, and is about the walk the South Coast Track in Tassie, a pretty demanding seven day hike carrying a 20kg pack.

Physio mates I spoke to before the wife had the op recommended doing everything to avoid it if possible, and I would suggest trying acupuncture if you have yet to do so. I have a dodgy back, and I find it's the best thing to put my back to rights when it plays up. Wife also reckons it has made the biggest difference for her recovery.

Good luck!
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
Where are you based? I don't know a thing about your condition but if you're in Sydney I have probably one of the best physios in the country. He might not be able to solve your problem but a combination of treatments including surgery, physio and OT might be able to.

I had a long standing knee problem that led to weight issues which made the knee problem worse etc etc. I thought it might need surgery, but he managed to get my knees back to 100% over many months so now I can exercise and start losing weight.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
thanks for the reply’s guys.

Hearing about old mate doing the trek and being back on the bike is reasurring, that’s the dream for me atm. I am sorry to hear about the wife @rangersac, I hope things work out for her.

@Oddjob, yeah I’m based in sydney. Symptoms for me are nerve pain the the back of my left leg(basically a pressure that won’t let up), numbness in my left foot. Theres been a large drop in strenght in my left leg. Not much pain in my back at all.

I’ll probably turn this thread into a rehab log post surgery, so expect some photo’s of this dickhead all drugged out in a hospital gown hahaha.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
I left a job because a boss wouldn't listen to me about not having a proper gear box cradle, some gearboxes 2 of us would have to lift in by hand. Not an easy task when you got to line up clutch splines and a spigot but about ten years down the track had passed and he needed to get 2 of his vertebrae fused together. While I was at that job, I had constant back pain and I went in to see doctors then sent to a specialist and was told to stop doing the job that I was in. Since then I've looked after my back the best I could have and told employers where to go when they tell me to lift things I shouldn't.

I hope all goes well for you but there's a lesson to learn out of this.
 
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rangersac

Medically diagnosed OMS
thanks for the reply’s guys.

Hearing about old mate doing the trek and being back on the bike is reasurring, that’s the dream for me atm. I am sorry to hear about the wife @rangersac, I hope things work out for her.

@Oddjob, yeah I’m based in sydney. Symptoms for me are nerve pain the the back of my left leg(basically a pressure that won’t let up), numbness in my left foot. Theres been a large drop in strenght in my left leg. Not much pain in my back at all.

I’ll probably turn this thread into a rehab log post surgery, so expect some photo’s of this dickhead all drugged out in a hospital gown hahaha.
If it’s any consolation these were pretty much the symptoms of my workmate who is about to do the seven day hike post surgery


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pink poodle

気が狂っている男
When I was about 28 I had a bunged disc. It started out just feeling like I'd pulled something where my arse meets my thigh rock climbing. After a week or so of it getting worse rather than better I saw the gp. They were pretty dismissive, prescribed anti-inflammatory pills, and a few days later I was worse again...lost feeling from the waist down and extreme pain. Visit to after hours gp (pm if you want a retelling of how I aggravated this! I've posted it before so won't again) with my dad carrying me and fortunately the doctor there was pretty sharp with what was going on. She prescribed some heavy pills and referred me to aback surgeon and made some calls to get it dealt with quickly.

The surge was pretty good. He was dismissive of alternative treatments like physiotherapy or chiropractic (see whatever witch doctor you want mate...) telling me to rest up as it couldn't be rushed or forced and in about 12 weeks it would all take care of itself. If it didn't we would follow it up with steroid injection and surgery if need be, though he was certain it wouldn't be needed. Just like clockwork the back corrected itself pretty much right on time to what he said.

Since then I have (very poorly of late) maintained good flexibility and only had 1 flair up. I attended 2 chiro sessions that time, partly out of curiosity and desperation, and it was not the treatment for me. I engage in a variety of reckless sports and spend a lot of time standing up + lifting small weight for work. The back could be a lot better but it doesn't give me grief.

Have you given it a reasonable amount of time to actually recover of its own accord? Then once it has recovered work on preventing it coming back?
 

Scotty675

Cable thief
Went through this 4-5 years ago. What started as lower back pain and feeling a bit stiff (typical stuborn me, she’ll be right), turned into debilatating pain that I would wish on no one. Went from back pain to what I thought was just an aching leg to numb to ankle. The night I went to hospital it took half hour just to be able to get out of bed and stand. I was originaly able to rest and find a comfortable spot to lay. Confirmed bulged dics was rubbing nerve. I saw specialist and went back and forth for 4 months. I didnt want surgery but in the end couldnt stand the pain. I turned up for surgery twice, both operations cancelled on the day. Second time I had gone through pre op, drip in arm wheeled up to operating room, to be then told by surgeon he couldnt do surgery as didnt have a recent mri scan (had 3 before this point but none the week of op and I had told them I needed one before surgery) at the time I was going through the public system, thats how bad our health system is.

As it turns out between this and next mri scan my back began to improve. I still havent had operation (micro discectomy) and am able to manage these days. I changed jobs (was self employed and no I was pushing myself to hard). Lift and twist was doing the damage.

I didnt want to but rest was the only way I got through at its worst. I now ride no worries and can do everything I used to within reason. I still get back pain and stiffness at times. Voltarin and panadol ostero get me though and knowing my limits of what I can lift and how I lift.

Hang in there and rest when its bad. Your body will let you no what it can handle. I pushed myself for to long were if I had of stopped took a step back and changed what I was doing, I would of been better off. PM me if you want to chat and Ill share what I did.
 

mtb101

Likes Bikes and Dirt
most doctors/surgeons will recommend surgery funny about that, they'll give you a guarantee of success that's less than what your local bike mechanic would give you to get your wheel straight. if you have surgery no other future options apart from fusion .... yep more surgery and a lifetime of pain killers which essentially means they've failed - do we need to go into what the pain killers will do to your health?

the body heals itself don't it? would you be better off giving it time and trying an active program such as swimming, running, walking etc, good diet, forget weights and anything that concentrates load on the joints/back.

I was recommended to have surgery about 20 years ago, glad I didn't and I'm 100% strong.

of course there are success stories, just wanted you to hear another perspective.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
^ funnily enough...a few years ago after I experienced the flair up I mentioned above (happening at the end of October and all of November), I decided to do some swimming to help me recover my fitness and build up some core strength (my great weakness!). I eased into it, just a few hundred metres of freestyle and breast stroke at first, no "I'm going to save the world!!!" efforts. After a couple of weeks I could feel my back slipping back into bad territory. Eased up the swimming, ramped up the stretching, and all was good in a few days and to celebrate I went snowboarding for a while month and experience no issues.

I happen to agree with the rest and allow your body take care of itself philosophy on the most part. The surgeon I originally saw was strongly against surgery unless an extreme cases. I guess his yacht collection was big enough?
 

kten

understands stuff moorey doesn't
I've had L4/L5/S1 hybrid surgery and have had good results and am back to pretty much doing whatever I want. I had pretty bad lower back/glute pain and only occasional leg pain but it was bad enough that something had to be done. I went thru pain specialists, chiro's, physio's etc and it never really helped. Got nerve ablations (basically they burn the ends of the nerves on your lower back) and it didn't do anything.

Finally went to see a recommended specialist who referred me to another one called Matthew Scott-Young on the Gold Coast. That was about 3 years ago and I have no complaints. Pain is gone and I am back to doing whatever I want. On the day of the op I was up walking around and back home after a few days. I'm not one for doing the bare minimum for recovery so balls to the wall from here on in. Surgeon said walking was the best thing ever, be guided by pain so I started walking twice a day. This quickly became running and after about 6 months I would say I was about 80% recovered. After 12 months about 95%.

I will say that prior to the op I was as fit as I could be (50min 10K run and still lifting weights relative to pain levels) and that really helped my recovery. I'm also pretty strict with what I eat so again this contributes to good recovery too.

Whatever you choose I wish you all the best and if you do choose this way and find yourself down a rabbit hole in the initial recovery send me a message, happy to help.
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Cheers for all the replies fellas.

Abit of an update, I'm no longer needing endone to sleep so thats a plus.

I might give it another month of resting before I commit to surgery, apparently things have started to swing around so we'll see. So long as I don't bloody sneeze again ahaha.

What I got from all this is both options are viable, so it's an either/or case. damnit.

what I have done since being injured is clean up my diet (damn I love me some pizza/burgers), and go for as many strolls as I can. As stated previously, the squats/deadlifts have stopped for the time being. So I'm into week 2 of doing bugger all.

Something to note however, is no marks from the cupping my acupuncturist is doing on the side the bulge is. Looks pretty funky
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Tell your significant other that some random guy on the internet guarantees that receiving head jobs and giving her the odd gentle "pony ride" does amazing things for your condition, both physically and emotionally. It comes with a money back poodle guarantee.
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
That pony ride wouldn’t have anything to do with your story you won’t share a second time would it?

I’ll give it a go, hell it ain’t gonna get any dryer in this relationship
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Nope. Gentle pony rides were definitely post trauma. Wild as fuck rodeo rides however...were a too frequent occurrence in the lead up to the critical mass.
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Riding hasn’t stopped, nor general walks (the dog is stoked with this one).

Problem is I can’t drive for more that 15/20mins without my leg going apeshit. So no work still.

The intensity of my rides has taken a dick punch. No more jumping around an manualling, no rock gardens at speed etc. just sit down and enjoy the view, which is nice

I’ve been moving for 6months, barely making progress. My back itself isn’t sore, its the bloody nerve thats fucking my life. Dr, physio, acupuncturist are all like “you’ve had a good run jim, time for surgery now”.

Waiting on a call back from surgeon to book me in. This disk ain’t gonna fix itself, time to remove the pieces floating around.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
...but the wonders of chiropractic therapy...




(note use of sarcastic font. If you're offended, see your practitioner.)
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Without the sarcasm, have you tried Bowen technique? I never have, but I knew an old guy that had a similar nerve pinch up higher and was fucking his arm over...until he tried this. All gone and never a problem again.
 
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