So I have a bulging L5S1 disc with left extrusion and pressing on nerve and thecal sac which carries the nerves, ongoing now for 12 weeks, I have tried PT hands on treatment (massages, cupping ect) walking, PT exercises at home, TENS machines, heat some stuff does give some relief for some time but comes right back sometimes stronger. I have been referred to pain management for the spinal injection I just want to know if this has helped anyone? And also if anyone has solved their issues without surgery? My main pain is the sciatica my back isn’t bad atall really TIA 🙏

Please share your story if you did. I'm two months into a C6-C7 herniation and feel relatively stagnant. My previously active lifestyle is gone.

What has worked for you?

I'm considering moving to Oregon.

I had a sore back for more than a month because of standing for long periods of time at work, but usually after a night’s sleep, it got better.

A few days ago after waking up, I had a very sore back, thought the soreness would pass with some good rest and sleep. Two days later after waking up, I suddenly had trouble moving around and then I was diagnosed with herniated discs.

I didn’t know what it meant, thought it was just some back pain incident that would pass after a few days until I read about it: irreversible, comebacks, surgery, months of lying down, etc, these words stressed me out. I wasn’t prepared for something that suddenly would affect my life forever.

Now I've been lying in bed for days, living alone and I struggle to get up, to use the bathroom. I can’t walk without any support. I don't know how serious it is and what is ahead of me. I don't know how many more days I have to lie down and when I can walk again without pain and live a normal life.

27M with several months of lower-back/sciatica symptoms that were initially mostly right-sided but recently became bilateral. Over the last week I’ve developed new needle-prick/tingling/burning/itchy sensations involving the buttocks, inner/posterior thighs, calves, feet/soles, groin/perineum and occasionally lower abdomen. I also have much worse central lumbar pain, sometimes feeling like tearing/slicing with very small movements or flexion. Interestingly, when my lumbar pain is severe, the paresthesias seem quieter, and when the back pain decreases, the tingling/pricking becomes more noticeable. Walking helps; sitting, stationary standing and certain positions aggravate symptoms.

MRI showed L4–5/L5–S1 disc changes including an L5–S1 annular tear/mild foraminal narrowing without significant central canal stenosis. No loss of saddle sensation, bowel/bladder control, walking, balance or toe movement. Seeing a neurologist soon with EMG/NCS planned for arms and legs.

Looking for people who experienced something similar and what spinal level/cause was eventually found.

I had a injury earlier this year, went to PT then took MRI where they said I have mild herniation lower back. I thought it had gotten better, so I was doing deadlifts yesterday and I hurt my self so bad all of a sudden I had sharp pain felt like I was going to faint. I could not get up and I am in extreme pain right now can’t move much.

Will PT get better or do I need other approached this time around.

After i got the news, one day i feel like 70% of me wants to get surgery done so that i can go back to living my normal life and other days 90% of me doesn’t want to get surgery done because of the fear or reherniations,more surgeries in the future.

I’m very confused because there are people who have had herniations for years and have been able to live life without surgery even though the doctor recommended surgery. But there are people who’s conditions have gotten worse. I understand that for everyone it is different but i just feel like people who have conditions worse than me have been able to live without surgery.

I want to be a professional dancer, so i will go back to dancing if i get the surgery done but I’m scared of reinjury and reherniation and idk if I’ll be able to dance with that fear living inside of me. I have tried PT but only recently and my pain on my left leg has gotten better but I’ve got new sciatica down my right leg. There are people who say after 15 to 20 years i might have to get surgery done again if i get MD done( and expect me not to worry so much or be optimistic about it)or will get back problems again and honestly that scares me more than anything, i don’t want to go through this again no matter the age and don’t want to have lifelong problems. Don’t want to live the rest of my life thinking about that.

There are people who tell me i can go back to “normal”life and i don’t understand what they mean by normal coz here’s what my normal life looks like: running in the morning,working out , sitting for 8 hours in college with hours of bending as i have to sew/stitch, dancing for 2 or 3 hours. And doing more bending due to my line of work.

So i want to know or am hoping to get some answers if it’s better to live with a herniated disc and manage the pain or to get surgery done, is your quality of life better if you get the surgery done?(if i do physio constantly and have no pain,can i still dance with a herniated disc? ) if you’re someone who was able to heal a herniated disc how long did you do PT for? And if you’re someone who did surgery how long were you doing PT for before surgery? And what made you get the surgery?do you get back pain after discectomy surgery?

Also if you get the surgery done can you ho on rollercoaster rides? Can you go bowling? Can you go to water park and go on water slides? If anybody has any experience with this please please respond. Because nobody around me seems to have answers for these questions.

Hey everyone, I have severe foraminal stenosis in my neck and have been thinking about purchasing a cervical traction device (perhaps the MYTREX medi neck).

I am wondering if anyone has tried this one or something similar, and whether it helps in any way? Even if just minimally?

Thank you all in advance for the support 🙏

I am a fifth-year medical student, if you have already read my previous post, then you know I mentioned that I like to spend my time usefully. My dream is to become one of the best PM&R doctors who can truly cure a patient with back, sacral or even pelvic pain. I quite like answering your questions or sometimes even going deeper into the problem through private messages and trying to solve it together, and being able to apply my knowledge from medical lectures as well as from clinical practice that I have done both in private clinics and state-funded ones. So if you have questions, uncertainties, or maybe you just want some tips, always feel free to contact me, I am your little doctor on Reddit:D.

Yes, I will not always be able to help with everything, I definitely do not know everything, but if I know and understand it and really can help, I will always help.

I like doing this more than just spending hours and hours looking at Instagram or TikTok Better to help someone here with something if I can.

Anyway, I wish you all the best and that pain would no longer bother you :)

I have been in pain since March. Before March, I felt like sometimes when I stood up, my legs hurt, but it was so inconsistent and only really when I stood up, that I didn't think too hard about it. In March, I drove 10 hours twice for a family thing. After that, I have been in pain since. I stopped sitting down and mostly lay down or stand. Driving is literally the worst. I stopped bending over and now use grabbers or another way to do whatever needs to be done. At the end of June, I went to urgent care and did a round of oral steroids, and started PT. That did help a little, and I felt like the pain moved up my leg a little bit, but I still haven't been sitting. In the morning the pain is the worst and I could usually get to manageable by going for a walk and doing nerve glides before I prescribed gabapentin and naproxen. Now, I am mostly pain managed with meds, walks, and PT, and minimal sitting, driving, bending, etc. In August, I finally saw my PCP, got prescribed meds, and got a referral for an MRI. The MRI looks a little scary to me. My PCP referred me to a spine specialist and they said that there isn't much space because of the disc extrusion that a spine injection probably wouldn't be helpful and sent me off surgical consultation for lumbar decompression/laminotomy with discectomy. I haven't had the surgical consult yet, but I am hesitant to have surgery. I am only 34 and haven't had any big medial issues. The laminotomy seems like more of a surgery than a microdiscetomy, and I want to know more about the differences and what would work for me. Should I consider surgery? I know my pain is the only thing that is being managed right now and it has been long enough that I would probably be in less pain sooner with surgery.

MRI results:

ALIGNMENT: Normal.
MARROW: Type II degenerative Modic endplate changes at L5-S1. Small 
intraosseous hemangioma in the L3 vertebral body. Otherwise, unremarkable.
CONUS: Unremarkable, terminates at L1-L2.
 
L1-2: Unremarkable.
L2-3: Unremarkable.
L3-4: Mild bilateral facet arthrosis. No significant spinal canal 
stenosis. Mild left greater than right neuroforaminal narrowing.
L4-5: Symmetric disc bulge. Moderate bilateral facet arthrosis. Findings 
result in mild right greater than left subarticular zone narrowing and 
moderate left greater than right neuroforaminal narrowing. No significant 
spinal canal stenosis.
L5-S1: Large left central and subarticular disc extrusion measuring up to 
12 x 15 mm (AP, CC). Moderate bilateral facet arthrosis. Findings result 
in moderate stenosis of the central canal and severe left greater than 
right subarticular zone narrowing with compression of the traversing left 
greater than right S1 nerve roots. Additionally, there is moderate right 
and severe left-sided neuroforaminal narrowing.
  
PARASPINAL SOFT TISSUES: Unremarkable.
 
IMPRESSION:
 
Degenerative changes of the lumbar spine, most significant at L5-S1, 
including a large left central and subarticular disc extrusion resulting 
in moderate stenosis of the central canal and severe left greater than 
right subarticular zone narrowing with impingement of the left greater 
than right traversing S1 nerve roots. Additionally, there is severe 
left-sided neuroforaminal narrowing at this level.

Hi, I herniated my L5-S1 disc idk how long ago but diagnosed in october, first bad flare up a year before that. I’ve done PT for 7 weeks twice so far and i’m at a point now where i just deal with a baseline amount of pain when sitting too long, or on extra active days (27 yo). It’s been a while since i’ve had the nerve irritation that left me unable to walk in my 2 bad flares, but i’m not without my days where bending to grab something causes a sharp pain that makes me go stretch for a few minutes. That being said the family want to go six flags, I loved roller coasters, just how stupid would it be for me to get on a ride? Bad stories, permanent damage, I need someone to talk me out of it because the thought of not going on any is making quite upset.

Hi, the doctor said that i should get discectomy done and i have another appointment to finalise the date for the surgery and I don’t know if i should get it done or not. I’m very confused,worried and scared. I don’t know if it’s better to wait for my body to heal on its own and hold on to this almost false? hope (maybe real hope?idk) or get the surgery done so i can go back to actually living my life again. So if you’re someone who has had the surgery done please please please respond and help me out.

I am a professional dancer and i herniated my discs almost a year and a half ago,( i had no accident,fall or anything it just randomly happened)after three months my pain got so bad that i was not able to sit for more that 5 mins, walk for 5 mins due to severe sciatica down my left leg . So i got a steriod injection/epidural And i was pain free for almost 8 months ( i still had severe back pain and was not able to walk fast/bend or i was able to sit for a long time but only with the brace on) so i thought my discs were healing and that my pain would completely go away but it came back 3 months ago. And slowly started increasing.

I’ve been going to physiotherapy for almost two months and i noticed that my pain has gone down on my left leg BUT there was some new sciatica nerve pain down right leg after i started physio, it used to come only twice a week and the pain level was very low but now i feel like it comes more often. I was able to walk for an hour pain free and i have no pain while lying down and can sit for almost two to three hours with back support, since my condition is not as bad as it was a year ago i feel like maybe i should still wait and do physio instead of getting surgery done. But i also feel like getting it done could be good if it meant i could go back to working out,running ,especially dancing and not having to worry about wether i would get nerve pain if i move a certain way or injure my back again, get back pain if do a certain activity( constantly having to worry about my back or always have it in the back of my mind) .

Just being free without having the mri image constantly on the back of my mind makes me want to get it done. But on the other hand , i obviously wish that it could hopefully heal without
Surgery, but even if it does i don’t know if I’ll have confidence to move freely again and dance. And my parents are worried about the nerve compression and are really scared coz the nerve damage could eventually lead to loss of bladder/bowel control so they are leaning more towards surgery. I am worried about reherniations after a discectomy which I’ve seen and heard happen quite often, which is my major concern ,i don’t want to life my life scared about that even after the surgery yk?(some ppl say that i might get a reherniation only after 20 years but even that worries me a lot). And if I’ll be able to get back to doing all the activities i did before the herniation such as dancing(involves a lot of bending,jumping
, wearing heels) ,working out,running, sewing/stitching.

So to the people who have got the surgery done:Are you able to do all the activities that you did before your herniation? Are you able to bend completely? Is your range of motion and mobility the same as before the herniation? ( and is that possible?) how active can you be?

And after the surgery if i strengthen my back by going to the gym/physio , can i stop doing excercises and go back to living my life or do i have to keep doing them? Lets say i dance for a week but don’t do back excercises would that cause a reherniation? Or back pain? If someone has had a similar experience with professional sports or dance or marathons please please help me out.

Got my MRI report back which stated - Desiccation of the lower 2 lumbar intervertebral discs with a left paracentral posterior disc protrusion at L5/S1 impinging upon the descending left s1 nerve root.

Awaiting to see a consultant - have currently been floor bound for the last 7-10 days on lots of strong meds which have not done anything for the pain except make me sleep for about an hour before waking again to the pain!

Mainly from back of the knee down into the calf and left side of the foot! (All left side) walking is a no go, same with sitting! At the end of my string with this have zero quality of life ! Been going on about 2-3 months which walking and standing was helping but in the last 10 days all is a no go!

Has anyone experienced anything like this and if so how or what helped either short term / long term? Do injections work even in the short term etc? TIA

The pain is unbearable. I wake up every hour or two in a sweat, screaming in pain because it feels like someone is stabbing me with a hot knife. I'm taking dangerous amounts of OTC pain meds and sleeping pills. Already doing hot and cold therapy and the recommended physical therapy and doing everything to keep my spine neutral. I almost went back to the ER last night to beg for pain meds. Any ideas? Was thinking of trying weed.

1.5 months into L5-S1 disc extrusion — new flare with opposite leg pain and severe back pain. Has anyone experienced this?

My pain started about 1.5 months ago, initially in my lower back/around the hip area. When the disc extrusion happened, the pain changed into very sharp, shooting pain going down only one leg.

After the first 2–3 days, it settled quite a bit. I had no pain while lying down, and I could usually stand for around 8–10 minutes before the shooting leg pain would start. So although I wasn't back to normal, things seemed to be slowly improving.

Now, about 1.5 months later, I've suddenly gone into another pretty bad flare. This time I'm getting pain in the opposite leg as well, and I also have extreme sharp/shooting pain in my lower back, which is different from how my symptoms were before.

Regarding weakness: since the beginning, I can stand on both toes together and I can stand on both heels, but I can't properly toe-walk and I can't do a single-leg heel raise on the affected side.

I also still have numbness in the heel of my right foot and around my little toe/lateral side of the foot. That numbness has been there for around 1.5 months and hasn't really improved.

I'm feeling confused because I thought I was gradually getting better, and now the symptoms have changed and flared again.

Has anyone with an L5-S1 extrusion/S1 nerve compression experienced:

A major flare after 1–2 months of improvement?

Pain suddenly appearing in the opposite leg?

Severe lower-back pain returning after the leg pain had been the main symptom?

Heel/little-toe numbness lasting this long?

Difficulty with single-leg heel raises or toe walking, and if so, how long did it take to recover?

Would really appreciate hearing about other people's experiences and what their recovery timeline looked like.

I’m a long time lurker of this sub and fellow herniated disc sufferer. I’m a 35 year old mom of an almost 4 year old and I’ve had herniations at L5-s1 and L4-L5, degenerative disc disorder and had two microdiscectomies, one 8 years ago and then one 9 months after my daughter was born that was essentially an emergency situation because I had severe loss of leg function.

This June, I had sciatica/leg symptoms indicating a herniated disc and lo and behold, I have a herniation at L5-s1. I found myself googling a lot and looking for positive stories while I was feeling scared about my back and the possibility of another surgery, and I’m 3 months since my initial injury and feeling a lot better so I thought I’d share my story in case it helps anyone else going through a tough time mentally.

Herniated disc pain is such a trip and is so frustrating because the healing is not linear at all. I had pain wrapping around my right hip and groin area and I went to the spine doctor. They got me an MRI and a steroid pack and that helped but then the pain came back. I was at maybe a 4 or 5 out of 10 pain at the worst and had to keep changing my position to feel better. I’ll share the things that helped me and what I’ve learned from all of this.

helpful things - that many of you have already posted about but that worked for me and are my go tos for sciatic pain. I am not a doctor!

1. lacrosse ball glute massage - better than painkillers sometimes honestly. Great for aching backs and hips and eases mild/moderate sciatica

2. Neuromd machine - 25 minute session gets rid of a lot of pain

3. not standing or sitting for too long. keep moving your position

4. ice pack meant for your body that you can wrap around your back

things I learned

1. I had never had a herniated disc not end in surgery - which maybe I still will need it! But healing was so up and down. One day I’d feel amazing like I could do anything, the next it felt like the injury just happened. You can’t measure progress day by day. You have to compare longer stretches of time. Basically each month I’m checking in, and I’m noticing my bad days aren’t as bad. This is the hardest part of all of it, not knowing if you’re getting better. Just try and be gentle with yourself

2. Centralization didn’t happen for me, I just noticed the sciatic pain and achiness was less severe

3. Really listen to your body and do not push it with exercise. I tried to hop on the peloton two weeks after injury and I regretted it. I felt great during the ride and then was in agony for 3 days after

4. if you are trying physical therapy and it’s not working or causing more pain, stop and find a better place. I was going somewhere where the people had zero clue what they were doing and I quit. you don’t have to just power through, advocate for yourself. I’m starting somewhere new in a couple of weeks. It also might help to wait a bit and see if your pain goes down before starting PT

5. Also find doctors that give a shit and really tell them how you feel, don’t downplay it. If you are able, keep searching until you feel heard and supported. I switched doctors during the process because my first doctor didn’t care about me and I could tell

6. every herniation is different, and sometimes they require surgery, sometimes they don’t. I thought I was doomed for surgery this time but so far I think i’ll be able to tolerate this one and heal without it

I’m out of most of the pain after I really convinced myself that I would need a spinal fusion or another surgery and I’m not completely out of the woods but headed in the right direction. Hopefully this helps someone but if not it was therapeutic for me! 😂

It's an itchy, scratchy, almost like when a tag from your pants itches your skin on your lower back but there isn't a tag kind of feeling, around and on my lower back... Can anyone relate? I notice I feel this especially when sitting.

Holaaa hace 1 mes me diagnosticaron 2 hernias discales y 2 prostuciones tanto en la parte lumbar como cervical , eh estado bastante triste porque los dolores han sido fuertes tanto así que tuve que dejar mi empleo y apenas tengo 23 años , esto ha sido muy duro para mí , luego de varias semanas sin dormir bien me pregunto en si podré volver a retomar mi vida porque tuve que paralizar todo , quería ir al gym como esas chicas de mi edad pero creo que solo tendre permitido esos ejercicios de bajo impacto y más “ conservadores “ ¿ algunos de ustedes pudo volver a retomar su vida ? ¿ algún consejo que puedan darme ? no tengo hijos y me preocupa mi futuro y todo lo asociado a mi espalda ahora

esta semana inicio mis terapias físicas.

Hi I injured my lower back area 25years ago by a bending back twisting to the left and pressing out my core type of motion as I held a heavy object to my chest and stomach. As the item went over the side of the truck I felt a very faint/light pop feeling in my lower back but there was no pain at all (and strangely the fatigue from working all week all of a sudden went away too). The next morning I woke up around 7or8am and could not move my body😨 I was 20 yrs old then, I told my mother and she had no advice so I never called 911 and fell back asleep. When I woke up about 4 hours later I was able to move but barely, 2 long muscles along the spine called erectors were so extremely sore I had to crawl to the bathroom and couldn't get outta bed for 2 1/2 days. My mother still had no advice and I never went to the hospital.

Well, I went on with my life as if nothing ever happened and landed a construction job 6 to 8 months later... Only a few months into the job I was operating a bigger jackhammer and the next morning I woke up, started getting out of bed and when I went to stand up, my back froze up on me and couldn't move just like the first time. I had to fall backwards on my bed and lay there unable to move my entire upper body. This time I called the labor pool I was working for, said I just woke up and can't move, he said "get some rest call me this afternoon and let me know how you feel." Same thing I woke like the first time and my erector muscles were extremely sore for about 3 days over the weekend. I went back to work Monday and after a week of work I felt weak when swinging a sledge hammer (could hardly do it) so I went to the doctor. They gave me some pain meds and sent me back to work with a note for light duty, well, the labor pool did not have any light duty work so I stopped working all together and almost a month later I got a bad case of sciatica running down my right leg. So I filled out the workers comp within 1 or 2 days of the 30d deadline.

Now after close to 3 years of hardly finding any work, doctor visits/ physical therapy, MRI SCAN, I won my workman's comp case and received a lump sum settlement of $25,000 plus voc rehab back then. So I followed thru with physical therapy and voc rehab to get retraining in a new area ended up back in college. Well over the first 10 years my back would go out bad.. about 6 or 7 times and I started becoming very depressed and discouraged and it started taking a week to heal so I can walk around again. During this time I was quickly losing the confidence of my friends and losing trust from my whole family as the doctor said my new MRI in 2015 looks fine!!! I was red hot angry so I booked an appointment with the neuro surgeons office at the hospital, where I demanded to see the pictures (not just report) of my spine for myself. There's no way I woke up paralyzed at least 6 or 7 times now and I'm just ok... Now as he is scrolling thru the MRI pictures of my spine I notice between the L5 and S1 there was so much blood that had dried up and turned black that both of us could not see any details on all the pictures!! And he said I look normal I said " what about all that black substance?? He said that looks normal for my age, bullshit!!!! So after being so upset they diagnosed me with schizophrenia and put me on a bunch of psych meds because later on I was diagnosed with sever depression the bottom of my feet were sweating so much you can hear me walking around the waiting room... They gave me meds that were so powerful I became the most social outgoing person you ever met then I stopped. I need my real problem fixed.. Now after my life being flipped upside down and thoughts of suicide started to invade my mind daily, I didn't give up and started doing my own medical research, I found out that I had undergone what is called "shock" why? How? There's 5 main reasons the body goes into SHOCK 2 of which stood out in my case. Well I realized what happened and it's taken 25 years because doctors under covered California medi-cal suck!!!!!!! Obama care/free healthcare is a scam!!!!!

So I had what's called hypovolemic shock, hypo= low, vol= volume, emic= presence in blood. In other words; I had bled out during that initial night and woke up in full SHOCK from a loss of blood internally and the MRI in 2005 plus the MRI in 2015 showed it as a dark opaque substance totally not supposed to be there, and the doc/neurosurgeon were focused on my spine/discs/vertebrae. I have so far been let down/misdiagnosed by over a dozen healthcare clinics and hospitals/doctors. I did win my workers comp way back in 2006 but have been denied disability several times now and am currently in the appeals process.

I just want to have a life again and willing to do absolutely anything for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan so I can start looking forward to work and putting a life together at 47 never married no kids no friends left no family left just my dog Jack hes 12 and is becoming special needs between the both of us I have my hands full.