well as many of you know i have been off of work since the 4th of july with back pain. well i got the results from my MRI yesturday. i have a herniated disk. it is bulging 9mm. now i just have to wait until my appointment with the specialist on the 25th. i will know then if i am going to have surgery or not. i think i will but i hope not. man i hate just sitting here all the time i am going stir crazy!!! at least Full_Kustom_Culture_Rodz is helping me out and taking me to a few car shows. he is even getting me a wheel chair this wekend so i can stay at the car show longer. it really does help having good friend that look out for you. i really do appreiate it, thanks jose.
I have a similar problem with my neck. The Doctor said they will not operate (they didnt even give me a choice) because with the surgery comes a slight risk of paralysis and it is bad but not totally debilitating. The Doctor said it was like a one in four thousand chance.........tell that to the one guy.
Did they tell you what disk it was? I had four herniated disks L1,L2 ,L3,L4. After 6 mounths of rest they receeded axcept for L4. Had the surgery, removed part of the disc and part of the vertabrea. I can feel my leg again!! Was forced out of physical labor, ended up back in school, now I am Engineer. Still building cars with extreme caution, though. Have the surgery, It was outpatient. I was up walking 4 hours after and home after 6 hours, would have been quicker if I didn't have a reaction to the MORPHIN they were pumping in. Good Luck,
Try to go to see a Physical Therapist. I'm going through the same thing. I hurt my back last fall doing yardwork and didn't do anything about it and it seemed to get better by Christmas. In June, we went on vacation to Utah and I rode a horse, which made my back hurt again. By July, the pain was going down my leg. Went to the family doctor and he was worthless. Luckily, I have a neighbor who is a Physical Therapist and I told him what was happening and he said right away I had a bulging disk (why didn't the MD say that?!). I've been going for Physical Therapy for about a month and it really has decreased the intensity of the pain and is giving me more flexibility back in my leg and back. They say you also need to walk, and that helps me too. I drove my '40 to Macgunie last week and my back hurt all the way there. By walking around the show all day, I got cured and it didn't hurt as much on the drive home. Trouble is, it always comes back at night from lying down. I wake up like every hour, jump in the shower to get heat on the spot and it makes it better for about another hour and I wake up again and repeat the process. 2 Advils 3 times a day also helps. I get worked over pretty good at Physical Therapy twice a week, but it really is making a difference. They'll give you stretching exercises to do at home too. The thing that really sucks is I don't want to be in a car other than driving to and from work, so it's not a good injury if you're interested in cars like we are. I have to stick some pillows/rolled up towels behind my back when I drive (like my Grandmother used to do, damn, I'm not that old yet!) I'm still planning to "suffer through" more drives in my '40 since some good events are coming up. Hope you can get better without surgery.
I had surgery on my severly herniated disc 4 months ago. When they got in there they discovered it was an old injury and the disc hard hardened. They cleaned out what they could and ground some of the bone away to make more room for my spinal cord. The symptoms I had was I was almost fully numb from the waist down. My legs felt kinda weak. The surgery helped alot. I still have some numbness but I have regained most of the sensation in my lower body, thank god. I don't know if this fixed it forever. I still fell crappy alot of the time. I get aches and pains in my legs and back. I feel real stiff in my back still. I'm able to work again though, but my job is a desk job. Keep us posted how you're doing... sounds like alot of people have been through it. PS... If you don't already have a recliner chair. Do yourself a favor and buy the most comfortable one you can find, especially if you have surgery. Really helps take the pressure off your back, and after surgery its the only type of chair you can sit in. Sure beats laying in bed all day.
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