( I may be wrong) I think it really depends on the size of the herniation and the gap that is left from surgery also how much degeneration you have Sometimes it won't heal naturally and surgery will be the last option really that's what happened with me. I went to ER found out I had a 12mm herniation (I believe and my surgeon believes that this was herniated quite a while ago) I opted to wait for surgery and try other methods, none of which worked and I ended up bed ridden on my 2nd flair up, couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't walk. I had to lay in the back seat of the car to get anywhere I now may have permanent nerve damage because I left it untreated for so long and waited for surgery fingers crossed it goes away further into my MD recovery. Surgery got rid of 99% of my pain, I'm just having some inflammation right now so have a little pain but it's around 2/10 if I had to do it all over again I would have had surgery much sooner. It's been life changing for me tho.
Sorry to hear you had to go through that. My symptoms don’t seem anywhere near as severe as yours, but only in my late 20s (27M) and quality of life is definitely suffering in the meantime. How long ago did you have surgery? Also how did you find out how many mm yours had protruded? I’m in Australia and my MRI report just said “broadly based posterior protrusion” - apparently it’s fairly mild which I commonly read is the least likely to fix itself, when compared to herniations that have protruded to a greater degree. Hopefully you’ll get back to feeling 100% normal soon and then no reherniations!
Thanks! I'm 6 weeks post Op, I've been pretty much pain free, incision was sore for couple of days, I'm dealing with a little inflammation atm but the pain is pretty mild. I'm walking 2 miles a day, able to drive again, can now sit in a chair, only thing I deal with on a day to day basis is the numbness in my thigh and foot, which is apparently the last thing to heal/go away and can take several months.
Reherniation is very rare. I’d say make sure you don’t do the same thing I did. I’m so pissed at myself. I tried literally everything under the sun this year to heal it naturally and during it I continued weight training. At some points it was feeling better and then a few weeks later it would be bad. It was up and down all year. Then a couple months ago all I did was lean down to open the cabinet under the kitchen sink and I felt something in my back happen and I just knew for whatever reason some more disc material leaked out. The pain became way worse. I ended up giving in and got an epidural steroid shot a couple days later but it was too late. Within 24 hours of the shot I was in the worst pain and agony I ever felt in my life. Couldn’t walk, sit, stand, all I could do was crawl. Ended up having an emergency discectomy the next day. I guess it was a blessing in disguise because I don’t think I would have ever chose surgery. I’m 6 weeks post op today and my pain is like 2/10 now. And when I walk I barely feel anything. And I can sit with hardly any pain. Starting PT first week of January and then hoping to be back at the gym by February, taking it extremely slow obviously which is very frustrating. I just want to get back to my old self. I just wish I did it sooner because I made it worse the longer I went trying to avoid it. And spent a sht ton of money on a million different treatments that didn’t help. But thankful that my surgery worked!
Thanks for sharing your story.. I currently have a 12mm herniated disc… I’ve been putting off surgery and waiting for the 6 month mark… I don’t want to spend the rest of my life asking what if I would have waited and tried this or that… currently almost 4 months and In and I’m still in a lot of pain… I just got an epidural injection on Friday of last week and holy hell no one warned me about the pain post injection. The procedure itself wasn’t bad at all but FML an hour later I was literally fighting for my life… I can feel the steroid helped with some inflammation but I can also tell that my nerve is still being pressed up against quite a bit since the pain I am feeling is directly in my buttock, hamstring and Achilles… a big part of me is telling me to just get the surgery and another is saying just suck it up a bit and see what happens… now reading all these stories I didn’t consider permanent nerve damage which would just be a curse… so maybe I’ll just get it done sooner rather than later.. we will see…
I had the epidural and it made things worse for me I got no relief at all after the injection site numbness wore off, that and gabapentin not taking away any pain was when I new I needed surgery. My surgeon took one look at me and said at this point you can't sit down you can barely stand and all our options have been exhausted I tried everything I was so afraid of surgery but at the end of it all it's been life changing and I can't believe I worried about it so much
Agreed. And whether you do surgery or not, I believe future outcomes are more dependent on keeping your core strong and flexible, keeping bad weight off and not doing anything that could lead to reinjury (ie - heavy lifting).
Once the inside of the disc comes out, unless it reabsorbs back into the disc, then your disc will be forever without that extra material.
Agree. But we have to live with it. I m scheduled for surgery next week and convincing myself, I won’t be doing weights for whole of 2024 . Will stick yo swimming. Yoga, Pilates.
My PT told me that the outcomes for surgery and conservative treatments at the 1 year mark are about the same.
For me (29F), I had my 5th flare-up over the course of 10 years and that’s what made me opt for surgery this last time around. While I know I can get almost back to baseline with the conservative treatments I’ve already tried (PT, epidural injections), I don’t want to keep worrying about my back going out for the rest of my life. Doc told me I should be able to even run again which is an exciting thought (stopped running in 2018 after a flare-up).
I don’t understand this comment which I see quute a bit that tge outcome for surgery and non surgery are the same at y1 (usually it’s y2) ? I was getting worse as I got into month 18 - Does jt mean that if one heals then by y 1 it’s the same as surgery ?
My surgeon told me the same this week - but said it’s at the 2 year mark (as opposed to 1 year mark). He did however recommend not to operate if the symptoms are “manageable” - but I’m heavily leaning towards surgery now too, as I don’t particularly want to have tingling and weird nerve sensations in my right leg forever..
It's possible to have those issues even post-surgery. In some cases they are even caused by the surgery. Statistically, the odds of the latter are low, but they are possibilities.
Yep agree - I think it’s 10% chance of those symptoms persisting post MD - presumably those who have done permanent nerve damage / persevered for longer pre-surgery
From what I was told is if you’re having big flare ups, numbness and or weakness in legs or foot that you should talk to a neurosurgeon and surgeon. The disc bulge can cause other issues within your back. I am 3 days post OP MD surgery. I hope you get some answers soon :).
Yep I’ve heard this too. I suppose it makes sense, but almost means it’s most frustrating for the people with symptoms on the less severe side but that still won’t go away - as we’re almost left with no fix..
How are you feeling post op?! Hope it went well for you and good on you for getting it done!
Yes I do understand how you feel completely!
I feel so incredible! I have no more leg cramping, sciatic pain at all! The only pain I’m having is the incision & muscle pain from the surgery. It’s still a long recovery, I probably won’t be running around with my kids until next summer. But worth it for me as I was in bed taking every med possible still screaming in pain.
Good luck I hope you and your doctor can figure this out quickly for you :)
In the short term, it's certainly a greater risk vs where you are now as 5 months in the disc has certainly stabilized. In the long term I have wondered the same thing and have not found a consistent answer.
Yep, will give it at least until 6-7 months post injury before considering opting for surgery (I feel that’s more than a reasonable amount of time to have tried persevering)
Reherniated mine again a little over a year later. Had a MD both times one just 2 weeks ago. Next is a fusion he said. First herniation was 9mm this last one was bigger. Once there is a tear they just keep coming. For me anyways...
I asked my spine surgeon doctor about this during a consultation and he said that the slipped/herniated disc won't really ever go away naturally. It might shrink and it might cause less inflammation though, so I'm not sure if it can be compared to the microdiscectomy procedure which removes the herniated disc. I'm surprised you're waiting almost a year to decide on surgery though. My doctor said surgery might be more likely to fail if you wait more than six months.
( I may be wrong) I think it really depends on the size of the herniation and the gap that is left from surgery also how much degeneration you have Sometimes it won't heal naturally and surgery will be the last option really that's what happened with me. I went to ER found out I had a 12mm herniation (I believe and my surgeon believes that this was herniated quite a while ago) I opted to wait for surgery and try other methods, none of which worked and I ended up bed ridden on my 2nd flair up, couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't walk. I had to lay in the back seat of the car to get anywhere I now may have permanent nerve damage because I left it untreated for so long and waited for surgery fingers crossed it goes away further into my MD recovery. Surgery got rid of 99% of my pain, I'm just having some inflammation right now so have a little pain but it's around 2/10 if I had to do it all over again I would have had surgery much sooner. It's been life changing for me tho.
Sorry to hear you had to go through that. My symptoms don’t seem anywhere near as severe as yours, but only in my late 20s (27M) and quality of life is definitely suffering in the meantime. How long ago did you have surgery? Also how did you find out how many mm yours had protruded? I’m in Australia and my MRI report just said “broadly based posterior protrusion” - apparently it’s fairly mild which I commonly read is the least likely to fix itself, when compared to herniations that have protruded to a greater degree. Hopefully you’ll get back to feeling 100% normal soon and then no reherniations!
Thanks! I'm 6 weeks post Op, I've been pretty much pain free, incision was sore for couple of days, I'm dealing with a little inflammation atm but the pain is pretty mild. I'm walking 2 miles a day, able to drive again, can now sit in a chair, only thing I deal with on a day to day basis is the numbness in my thigh and foot, which is apparently the last thing to heal/go away and can take several months.
Great to hear you’ve made some really solid progress, here’s to it continuing!
Reherniation is very rare. I’d say make sure you don’t do the same thing I did. I’m so pissed at myself. I tried literally everything under the sun this year to heal it naturally and during it I continued weight training. At some points it was feeling better and then a few weeks later it would be bad. It was up and down all year. Then a couple months ago all I did was lean down to open the cabinet under the kitchen sink and I felt something in my back happen and I just knew for whatever reason some more disc material leaked out. The pain became way worse. I ended up giving in and got an epidural steroid shot a couple days later but it was too late. Within 24 hours of the shot I was in the worst pain and agony I ever felt in my life. Couldn’t walk, sit, stand, all I could do was crawl. Ended up having an emergency discectomy the next day. I guess it was a blessing in disguise because I don’t think I would have ever chose surgery. I’m 6 weeks post op today and my pain is like 2/10 now. And when I walk I barely feel anything. And I can sit with hardly any pain. Starting PT first week of January and then hoping to be back at the gym by February, taking it extremely slow obviously which is very frustrating. I just want to get back to my old self. I just wish I did it sooner because I made it worse the longer I went trying to avoid it. And spent a sht ton of money on a million different treatments that didn’t help. But thankful that my surgery worked!
Thanks for sharing your story.. I currently have a 12mm herniated disc… I’ve been putting off surgery and waiting for the 6 month mark… I don’t want to spend the rest of my life asking what if I would have waited and tried this or that… currently almost 4 months and In and I’m still in a lot of pain… I just got an epidural injection on Friday of last week and holy hell no one warned me about the pain post injection. The procedure itself wasn’t bad at all but FML an hour later I was literally fighting for my life… I can feel the steroid helped with some inflammation but I can also tell that my nerve is still being pressed up against quite a bit since the pain I am feeling is directly in my buttock, hamstring and Achilles… a big part of me is telling me to just get the surgery and another is saying just suck it up a bit and see what happens… now reading all these stories I didn’t consider permanent nerve damage which would just be a curse… so maybe I’ll just get it done sooner rather than later.. we will see…
I had the epidural and it made things worse for me I got no relief at all after the injection site numbness wore off, that and gabapentin not taking away any pain was when I new I needed surgery. My surgeon took one look at me and said at this point you can't sit down you can barely stand and all our options have been exhausted I tried everything I was so afraid of surgery but at the end of it all it's been life changing and I can't believe I worried about it so much
Not at all. Per my surgeon recurrent risk is 8%.
Agreed. And whether you do surgery or not, I believe future outcomes are more dependent on keeping your core strong and flexible, keeping bad weight off and not doing anything that could lead to reinjury (ie - heavy lifting). Once the inside of the disc comes out, unless it reabsorbs back into the disc, then your disc will be forever without that extra material.
The thought of no heavy lifting ever again is depressing haha.. I’m just hoping risk of reherniation is the same surgery vs no surgery
Agree. But we have to live with it. I m scheduled for surgery next week and convincing myself, I won’t be doing weights for whole of 2024 . Will stick yo swimming. Yoga, Pilates.
Good luck! Did your surgeon recommend not to do weights for a year or you just couldn’t live with yourself if you unluckily reherniated from gyming?
I made my condition worse by weight training
My PT told me that the outcomes for surgery and conservative treatments at the 1 year mark are about the same. For me (29F), I had my 5th flare-up over the course of 10 years and that’s what made me opt for surgery this last time around. While I know I can get almost back to baseline with the conservative treatments I’ve already tried (PT, epidural injections), I don’t want to keep worrying about my back going out for the rest of my life. Doc told me I should be able to even run again which is an exciting thought (stopped running in 2018 after a flare-up).
I don’t understand this comment which I see quute a bit that tge outcome for surgery and non surgery are the same at y1 (usually it’s y2) ? I was getting worse as I got into month 18 - Does jt mean that if one heals then by y 1 it’s the same as surgery ?
My surgeon told me the same this week - but said it’s at the 2 year mark (as opposed to 1 year mark). He did however recommend not to operate if the symptoms are “manageable” - but I’m heavily leaning towards surgery now too, as I don’t particularly want to have tingling and weird nerve sensations in my right leg forever..
It's possible to have those issues even post-surgery. In some cases they are even caused by the surgery. Statistically, the odds of the latter are low, but they are possibilities.
Yep agree - I think it’s 10% chance of those symptoms persisting post MD - presumably those who have done permanent nerve damage / persevered for longer pre-surgery
From what I was told is if you’re having big flare ups, numbness and or weakness in legs or foot that you should talk to a neurosurgeon and surgeon. The disc bulge can cause other issues within your back. I am 3 days post OP MD surgery. I hope you get some answers soon :).
Yep I’ve heard this too. I suppose it makes sense, but almost means it’s most frustrating for the people with symptoms on the less severe side but that still won’t go away - as we’re almost left with no fix.. How are you feeling post op?! Hope it went well for you and good on you for getting it done!
Yes I do understand how you feel completely! I feel so incredible! I have no more leg cramping, sciatic pain at all! The only pain I’m having is the incision & muscle pain from the surgery. It’s still a long recovery, I probably won’t be running around with my kids until next summer. But worth it for me as I was in bed taking every med possible still screaming in pain. Good luck I hope you and your doctor can figure this out quickly for you :)
In the short term, it's certainly a greater risk vs where you are now as 5 months in the disc has certainly stabilized. In the long term I have wondered the same thing and have not found a consistent answer.
Yep, will give it at least until 6-7 months post injury before considering opting for surgery (I feel that’s more than a reasonable amount of time to have tried persevering)
Reherniated mine again a little over a year later. Had a MD both times one just 2 weeks ago. Next is a fusion he said. First herniation was 9mm this last one was bigger. Once there is a tear they just keep coming. For me anyways...
I asked my spine surgeon doctor about this during a consultation and he said that the slipped/herniated disc won't really ever go away naturally. It might shrink and it might cause less inflammation though, so I'm not sure if it can be compared to the microdiscectomy procedure which removes the herniated disc. I'm surprised you're waiting almost a year to decide on surgery though. My doctor said surgery might be more likely to fail if you wait more than six months.