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Bulging Disc

Splib

Splib

Rusty Spoons
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I am asking for my brother who is in some constant pain. It's the lower discs with bulging, near the end of the spine. Over the last 18 months he has seen multiple Dr and has had the cortisone shots but after that, all they can advise is Physical therapy and pain pills, I forget if its ibuprofen or the other one. He will not go on opioids or similar. I recall years ago a friend had his upper back spine pain relieved by surgery. Isn't there some surgical procedure, fusing them, something like that ? Any suggestions appreciated greatly very much.
 
If he gets to the point he considers opioids, they don't do shit for nerve pain other than let you get some sleep.

Modern surgery for it is a lot more effective than fusing discs from what I've read/seen. I think they can even replace the disks entirely now, though not sure if that's available in the US yet. He'll have to push for any surgery though, docs are usually hesitant to suggest it until it gets debilitating for an extended period of time for whatever reason. It's hard to get a doc to take disc pain seriously in my experience.
 
Avoid numerous cortisone shots, it's just a bandaid and will be detrimental in the end. Highly recommend a reverse hyperextension machine, it's about saved my life. My 3rd time hurting a disc made me reconsider as I couldn't walk to my pond a week later. Diet, remove inflammation, this alone can impact greatly. Glucosamine chondroitin and collagen seemed to really improve the healing speed for me as well. Keep the core strong, weight down, and use that reverse hyper machine. I went from half steps of pain to full steps after the first time using it.
 
Fusion is 3rd world now-a-days and only necessary in severe cases (I'm no Dr.)

I had L1-2 and L3-4 Disectomy about 12 years ago
Outpatient
20 years of pain (barely moving) gone in an afternoon. Recovery was a bitch from a muscle memory standpoint, but worth all of it.
Motorcharge,
My wife had back surgery 25+ years ago and her surgeon was a Dr. Bray. Apparently, he was a Founding Father of replacement discs at that time, and was doing them overseas all the time. Don't know if they've been "approved" here in our "Free Country" yet
 
Bogus One said:
Motorcharge,
My wife had back surgery 25+ years ago and her surgeon was a Dr. Bray. Apparently, he was a Founding Father of replacement discs at that time, and was doing them overseas all the time. Don't know if they've been "approved" here in our "Free Country" yet
Click to expand...
It may be a new material they're making the artificial disks out of that I was thinking of.
 
I had L-5 S-1 pintched nerve and a slipped disk delta with it for 8 years and then finished it off at work and had surgery the next day they just shaved down the buldge and called it good. No shooting pain down my whole right side to my toes.

The wife kinda had the same surgery but she had to get a cage in her back but still in pain.

Doc said if I'm dumb and do it again I will have to get a cage also. I rather not have a cage.

Guy at work had neck surgery and they put new cartilage in between and made him new again.

Good luck to your friend no matter which way he goes about it.
 
I had a microdisectomy 7 years ago. Shots and therapy didn't help, on bad days I couldn't get out of bed, on good days I could walk maybe 50 feet before being in a ton of pain. Surgery was definitely the right move for me.
 
Getting this November 18th. My l5/s1 disc is flat only 5mm of space, needs to be 11m. Have dealt with numb burning right leg for 2 years. Went up to Steadman clinic in Vail. They go in through the front so no cutting of back muscles or abdominal muscles. 3 month recovery. Then fully released for athletics or anything. Dr has done over 400 of these with a robot. Said it is way better than it used to be.
www.globusmedical.com

HEDRON IA™ 3D Printed ALIF Spacer | Globus Medical

HEDRON IA™ is a 3D Printed Integrated ALIF spacer that features a biomimetic porous scaffolding designed to encourage cellular response and promote bone formation onto and through the implant.
www.globusmedical.com www.globusmedical.com
 
Red75bronco said:
Getting this November 18th. My l5/s1 disc is flat only 5mm of space, needs to be 11m. Have dealt with numb burning right leg for 2 years. Went up to Steadman clinic in Vail. They go in through the front so no cutting of back muscles or abdominal muscles. 3 month recovery. Then fully released for athletics or anything. Dr has done over 400 of these with a robot. Said it is way better than it used to be.
www.globusmedical.com

HEDRON IA™ 3D Printed ALIF Spacer | Globus Medical

HEDRON IA™ is a 3D Printed Integrated ALIF spacer that features a biomimetic porous scaffolding designed to encourage cellular response and promote bone formation onto and through the implant.
www.globusmedical.com www.globusmedical.com
Click to expand...
:confused:
 
Micro discectomy and opening up the sciatic passages in my vertebrae saved my life. Literally. If that didn’t work I was going to end it. If I ever end up in that level of pain again, I have my end it plan in place.

L4-L5 and L5-Sacrum here. I still have sciatica but it’s very intermittent now vs the throbbing relentless 86,400 seconds a day I had to endure prior to the surgery. I might have a couple bad weeks a year now and I know what to do to get relief. It cost me over 100 thousand dollars all in to get to where I didn’t want to kill myself but I think if you have a plan on the front end you can do it much cheaper than my splatter shot waste of time and money.
 
I had a microdiscectomy a little over 2 years ago, and while it did relieve a lot of the acute pain, I fail to say it was successful. I have considerably more chronic pain now, about the only thing I haven’t tried is the inversion table. Done cortisone shots and pain mgmt injections and pain killers, etc. etc. have lost weight, but that is always challenging. Part of my back trouble is related to rt knee issues . Friend is getting stem cells today, and I might investigate that for the knee issues. I think my disc rupture was related to a bad chiropractor adjustment, but it may have been coincidental.
 
Muscle relaxers/anti inflammatory drugs are about the only thing that helped me. Pain meds just make me sick. I had the option of fusion, or riding it out until the vertebrae naturally fused. I have degenerative disc disease at a young age, it’s gotten better as I’ve aged. It’s not great, but manageable. The problem with fusion is strength of the fusion if you’re active.
 
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My MRI reads like a bad horror novel. Numerous bulging disks, stenosis, and bone spurs. Ive had 3 surgeries (discectomy?), RF ablation (probably helped more than anything did...for about a year), injections, stem cells. Ive tried pretty much everything within reach. Was hooked on opiates for many years.
I also fell off a 10' wall 6 years ago and fractured 6 vertebrae. That pretty much sealed the deal.
I kinda gave up thinking it's really gonna get any better. I live with pain every day. Some days mild, some days it's bad enough for me to cry myself to sleep.
 
Physical therapy, stretching and learning how to take care of it long term.

I fucked my back (L4/L5) to the point that I had major sciatic nerve pain. It was really bad. At times I couldn't feel my right leg at all and I was in constant pain. To the point of wondering if life was worth living.

After a year of going to doctors, MRI, and chiropractic I finally was able to see a physical therapist at Portsmouth Naval hospital. After about 3 months of PT I was okay again.

It still flares up from time to time, but when I do my stretches it goes away in a few days.
 
I have no official MRI to show, but after seeing Dr multiple times, going to Physiatry and an xray I was told based on what they see my vertebrae doing and my symptoms i very likely have a bulging disc, L5-S1. Got to the point my foot had mild swelling during a bad sciatica flare up. What helps me is ensuring my muscles are evenly stretched, I neglected my quads for a while, but did all the usual stretches for low back pain and found I would still get flare ups. Probably because my quads were super fuckin tight compared to my hamstrings and glutes. Walking, dirtbiking, standing, bridge exercises and keeping my core strong all alleviates it. Usually flares from sit and reach stretches (mostly from how this compresses that disc), picking shit up wrong or sitting for too long and/or also wrong. I haven't got to the surgery stage yet, hopefully I won't have to and can manage it. Just being active and not using my back to move things but rather keeping my core tight and everything activated seems to help alot. Rowing machine has been great to me also if I keep proper form.
 
Do everything and do it again before surgery. Fly down to Panama or Colombia and get stem cells is a good option too. Or look into peptides. :smokin:
 
KarlVP said:
This. Also at PT they had me set an exercise bike on full blast and pedal as hard as I could for as long as I could. It sucks ass, but it helps me with my pain.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have been hitting the exercise bike more often these days. I focused on rowing really hard all last summer and was in great shape, but definitely wasn't well rounded strength wise. It does work out a ton of muscles, but have to do a bit of everything. I forgot to mention I try to do a day of calisthenic only exercise also.

Are you sitting while doing that intensity? I might give that intensity a try, I usually get some ok resistance then just pedal fast for about 15 minutes.
 
Toy4rnr said:
Yeah I have been hitting the exercise bike more often these days. I focused on rowing really hard all last summer and was in great shape, but definitely wasn't well rounded strength wise. It does work out a ton of muscles, but have to do a bit of everything. I forgot to mention I try to do a day of calisthenic only exercise also.

Are you sitting while doing that intensity? I might give that intensity a try, I usually get some ok resistance then just pedal fast for about 15 minutes.
Click to expand...
Yes, sitting. I usually last about 3 to 5 minutes at the max intensity. After that I go about halfway and pedal for 30min to an hour. I will crank it to full blast about every 10 to 15 minutes and pedal as hard as I can for as long as I can. Usually about 60 seconds.
 
The cortisone shots didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t have bulged discs, I had ruptured discs. The protrusions they removed on my L5–S1 disc was almost 75% of the disc. My medical records say I have 50% of the L4-L5 and less than 25% of L5-Sacrum.
 
Ive been doing this for years after a dirt bike accident. Its movements to strengthen and stretch the low back/hips. It is tough but 2-3x a week for 12 minutes each is worth it to me. My job doesn't help since I carry a lot of my gear on my back and waist. There are other shorter workouts he can do on the "off days".

 
Kilkenny4130 said:
Avoid numerous cortisone shots, it's just a bandaid and will be detrimental in the end. Highly recommend a reverse hyperextension machine, it's about saved my life. My 3rd time hurting a disc made me reconsider as I couldn't walk to my pond a week later. Diet, remove inflammation, this alone can impact greatly. Glucosamine chondroitin and collagen seemed to really improve the healing speed for me as well. Keep the core strong, weight down, and use that reverse hyper machine. I went from half steps of pain to full steps after the first time using it.
Click to expand...
For anyone curious what a reverse hyperextension machine is.
 
Pony_Driver said:
For anyone curious what a reverse hyperextension machine is.
Click to expand...


Good stuff. I bought a titan fitness one. Rouge is top notch, expensive but as solid as it gets. Louie Simmons, who developed the machine, was a powerlifter with numerous back injuries. Essentially was disabled after breaking his back and this is what he came up with. Might not be as effective for your upper back, but I dont know of anything coming close for rehabbing and strengthening your lower back. Immediate relief of the lower disc's for most people with minimal use or weight.

If there is a local gym with one around your buddy, try to get him on it.
 
I had L-5 S-1 laminotomy done 14yrs ago.
Best thing is inversion, and a lot of hanging off my arms, part of what got me into arial acrobatics.
Peptides are a big thing now. BPC 157 I believe for this sort of injury.
I wish I would have spent more time trying to fix naturally before getting surgery.
 
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