L4-L5 Bulged disc right side and Micro-discectomy surgery

I'm 1 week out and have been reducing my meds. Did any of you have any setbacks. I have had some days with a little more pain right after a good day. Maybe because I'm reducing the meds. I also had a sneeze that I was hoping didn't reherniate my disc, but I can't say if it caused some more pain or it was increased activity with less meds.

How many of you guys doing PT are doing sciatic nerve flossing exercises? I've found these to be super helpful, either sitting in a chair or lying on my side.

NickinCO,

Sciatic nerve flossing (or sliders, as I call them) are a mainstay for me and my patients, as a physical therapist. I progress to nerve tensioners, too. Yet another reason that, even though physically active, a visit or two to your physical therapist can help you before or after any surgery.

I hurt my back when I was 18 and in the military. Ever since, if I overdid it, it'd lay me up for days. 22 years later, enough was enough. I hurt it bad, couldn't even drive the 20 minutes into work everyday without stopping to get out out. Horrible sciatia down both legs. Converted my desk to a stand up, jumped through hoops with insurance for months before they'd give me an MRI (PT, had to have two cortisone shots, no good at all), and finally had my surgery, L5 S5 or something like that. It's been perfect since. Never wanted to have back surgery but its been the best thing I ever did. That's my experience.

I think a lot of the horror stories come from people who have had fusions rather than discectomies. A fusion is a much bigger deal and the success rate (complete resolution of symptoms) is much lower. These aren't interchangeable surgeries, the necessity is much different. That said, I'm another success story for microdiscectomy surgery. I injured my back while weight lifting when I was 27. I did PT and had great success with that for over a year. Then I really did it when lifting my step daughter. Within a few days the pain down my leg prevented me from putting on my shoes and socks, I couldn't sit...it was bad, like "kill me now" bad.

The MRI showed moderate impingement on the left exiting nerve root at L5/S1 consistent with my pain. My doc asked if I wanted to try PT again and I said only if they'll come to my house because even sitting in a car was more than I could handle.

I had a L5/S1 microdiscectomy and was immediately better (besides the usual post-operative pain). That was over 15 years ago and I haven't had any problems since. I think that strictly following my post-op instructions contributed to my success. I quit climbing for 10 months after surgery because I didn't want to screw it up. Maybe that was overkill but I didn't want to take any chances.

Burt, I hope things go well for you. Taking the least invasive approach is not a bad thing, but if it comes down to it, find a competent surgeon and don't rush the healing process. Good luck.

Doug. Thanks for the encouraging words. I had my updated MRI earlier this week and a consult directly afterwards and I have decided to forge ahead and have the Micro-D. Scan showed no improvement and a very irratated nerve still. I am doing all I can now to promote good blood flow to the tissue and bone at my future surgical area. Alot of floor excerizes and water drinking and eating healthy and sleeping 8 hours.

I was diagnosed with herniated discs at L/4-L/5, L/5-S/1 in 1990 at age 35. I was an avid basketball player, runner, hiker, skier, bicyclist, and climber at the time. I went through extensive chiropractic treatment (waste of time and money), got facet blocks (about the same), and refused surgery. My doctor predicted I'd never climb nor play basketball, etc., again. Frankly, I couldn't even push the clutch down in my old 1980 280Z (before it got stolen), and I was at my wit's end about continuing with my athletic endeavors.

But, truth is, I didn't push it too much, and within a couple of years was back to climbing and bicycling. Climbed the best of my life in those years. Seemed to me I was in too much of a hurry to get back, and my back needed time to heal. We call it "reposo"in Spanish.

Now, I still climb (although not at my former levels - I'm getting old, Man), ride bicycles, ski, and coach and ref soccer. I also ride an Andalusian stallion 4-5 days a week. I keep meaning to go see my old doctor to see what he thinks.

I still do occasionally get back pain, mostly in the nerves. What works now? - Acupuncture. All I need is two sessions and I'm back in business.

My recommendation is you take a couple of months off, don't stress it, and then ease yourself back into your activities. Climbing is probably the best activity because it is low impact, and inherently causes you to stretch your back muscles and keep your weight down.

Jorge Gonzalez wrote:... Climbing is probably the best activity because it is low impact, and inherently causes you to stretch your back muscles and keep your weight down.

I've found the same thing. My L4 will act up sometimes (usually for no discernible reason, too) enough that it's painful to ride in the car to the gym or the crag, and then climbing will make it feel better.

Hi everyone.

I hope to hear some advice back.

Long story short, I've had back pain for the past 8 years. Only the last 2 have been the worst where I'm in pain all day everyday with the added pain from my sciatic nerve.
CT scan shows I have 2 disc budges in L4-5 and L5-S1.
I've done everything the back specialist told me to do. Went to physio, chiropractor, exercised (the best I could) stopped smoking, ate properly, and still no improvement. Now the doctors are basically telling me to live with it. I'm not sure how I can do that.
I've been in so much pain, I've missed tons of work, I've been to the hospital numerous times. I had to move in with family to help me with my 2 year old son as sometimes I'm so bad, I can't even bath him.
They told me to take Tylonel for pain management. Well taking that for the last 8 years now and it has not helped and I don't think I can do this anymore. I fell like I'm going to have a mental break down. It's taking such a toll on my mental well-being. What should I do?

I'm now 3 1/2 weeks post op from my Micro and now off of meds except for the occasional aleve. The pain I feel now ( 2 - 3 out of 10) seems to be more from soreness due to increased activity, and less from nerve pain. I have some occasional residual nerve tingling, but it has seemed to have lessened. I'm able to walk all over the neighborhood and walk around stores for extended periods. Sometimes I have to stop myself from lifting or bending when I shouldn't because I feel so much better. I hope I don't do anything stupid and mess up the progress. For DanielleRamm, I don't know what options you have explored, but folks on this forum have lots of different experiences with good results (surgery, exercises, literature etc.). Hopefully someone can chime in and send you in a helpful direction. Good luck.

I am nearly 1 week out from my Micro-Discectomy last week Tuesday morning. It has been a bit of a challenge so far. The incision site is healing pretty well and I can now push on the spot and around it with my fingers without adding any real pain...soreness almost out of that... it is still quite painful deeper in where the bone removal took place. The sciatica pain is gone in my in my deep buttock and down the calf and into the foot toes. I am still having quite a bit of numbness and weakness though and I was expecting that based on the amount of time (6 months right on the head)I experienced the S1 nerve irritation. I do still have soreness and aching (mild to sometimes bothersome) in the deep buttock... guess I was expecting that too because that the location I had the worst of the sciatica issues... I am taking the most minimal doses of Vicodin I can to get buy thus far plus mild doses of muscle relaxer. I am sleeping quite well. Expect to go back to desk job employment fairly soon.... maybe some 1/2 days later this week to start out with.... I don't believe my original symptoms have worsened with this procedure as of yet and that they have improved a bit but still too soon to really tell just yet.

I think another hard part is going to be not violating the movement rules for the first 6 weeks after I start improving significantly from the surgery soreness and feeling better.... and wanting to move more freely....

Good luck buddy. Wishing you the best.

Thanks Nick. Really trying to take it all slow and steady. Seeing what I can do more easily every day.....

Danielle. I feel most empathetic with your situation. It is a tough situation that I can easily understand having just spent the last 6 months in the same and I still am at this point. Push your Ortho doc and your regular doc to have you see a neuro-surgeon further up the chain so you can at least be told by an expert whether there are viable surgical options for you. Seems to me you may have suffered enough and that you jumped through all the hoops except possibly injection of steroid into problem sites. I wrote the Ortho doc I was seeing to help me through the same issues a heartfelt letter asking him to refer me to Nuero-specialist so I could get the ball rolling on any possible surgical options and the pros and cons of that. I wanted to avoid surgery myself at first but started to weigh the pros and cons from as much information I could garner.... verdict is still out for me on whether it all works out but I am glad thus far i did it.

Burt,
You mentioned that you'll be returning to work (desk job) soon. I hope your post-op instructions advised against excessive sitting, especially this soon after your surgery. My doc told me to stand or lay down and avoid sitting as much as you can for 6 weeks post-op. I know that can be difficult for a lot of people but it's something to keep in mind.

Glad to hear it went well and hopefully you'll see continued resolution of your symptoms.

Doug.

Your are most correct and thanks for calling me out. Yes I have been advised the same thing. I am not really supposed to return to work until after my doctor says so. I have the 2 week appointment in one week. I have a stand up station option at my work place and plan to stand as much as possible. Truth be told... I may have been a bit optimistic in my above statements... I am shooting for a few 1/2 days up until the 2 week check-up but even that may be a wrong choice.

I am feeling better every day now. Yay! I think I made the right choice having the Microdiscectomy...

It's the only choice after conservative options are exhausted and/or the nerve compression is causing immediate nerve damage.

Sometimes the root is merely irritated and inflamed from the herniation (bulge or fragment), other times it's crushed. When crushed you are permanently losing nerve each day.

If yours was more an extreme irritation vs substantial compression, take the recovery slow, rehab the core and protect the spine for about 4 months, when reherniation is most likely, then enjoy life.

It's more complicated when you had substantial compression and need to rehab nerve function.

Good luck.

Thanks J.Serpico.

The surgeon told me after the procedure that everything went very well. He said the bulged portion of the disc came out in one large chunk and that the nerve was pretty badly compressed and was pretty puffy red and irratated looking. I have been left with some fairly noticable nerve damage in the aftermath. The outright pain is gone from the nerve compression but I still have quite a bit of numbeness in the outer calf and the top center of my foot and all the inner toes. The nerve where it runs through the buttock has a very funky feel to it still and the muscle around it has been weakend and is seriously tweaked. I have weakness and cramping going on down the leg muscle pretty much all along the leg.

Yikes!

I have much work to do to rehab all of this.

I wish I somehow could have had the procedure sooner in order to avoid too much of this kind of nerve damage but I was constantly told by all the care providers I was seeing that my condition was mild... MILD? I had to really champion my position with the health care provider I have access to to get further treatment of surgey. I had to go through the conservative treatment regiment first. Oh well... It's a fine line I guess and folks should consider that if they are reading this and ever find out in the future they have a similar affliction.

Burt, I'm 8 weeks 2 days out from my micro. I'm feeling your pain. I will say that the numbness was all the way down to the ankle and now it is more of a burn just in the side quad and the calf (feels more like a shin splint). I'm taking that as progress. I was also compressed and as explained to me by the doctor and others who went through this, as the nerve awakens it will burn and tingle (I hope they are right). I actually feel better walking than standing still and I'm up to a mile or two a day, and I've been to the gym lifting for the last 3 weeks. I feel like I'm getting stronger and I'm supposed to go back to work in two weeks (I have a physically demanding job). I guess my expectations were high because I thought I might be pain free by now , but I'm learning that nerves take a long time to heal. I, like you, wish I would have gotten it done sooner, but I definitely feel much better than before. Hang in there and good luck.

Kingsmountain wrote:Burt, I'm 8 weeks 2 days out ... I guess my expectations were high because I thought I might be pain free by now , but I'm learning that nerves take a long time to heal. I, like you, wish I would have gotten it done sooner, but I definitely feel much better than before. Hang in there and good luck.

Don't be discouraged. The healing process often involves "Wallerian degeneration" - that is, the individual nerve fibers die all the way back to the spinal cord, then grow out anew from there back to their former destinations. (Don't ask why, that's just how neurons do it.) The growth rate is 1-2mm/day, so it can take many months. Hang in, they'll get there.