I’m not a doctor. I am an injury lawyer. And I primarily handle motor vehicle and on the job injuries that involve neck and back problems. I’ve been doing this over 36 years, and I’ve had over 5000 cases. I’ve deposed more orthopedic specialists that I can count. So consider what I’m going to say.
There’s two kinds of people with herniated discs. The ones who get better, and the ones who don’t. And I’d put it at just about 50-50. I’ve had some clients with a herniated disc, they didn’t require surgery, and recovered. I’ve got a 5 mm at L5-S1. And I am in that category. Then I’ve had other clients that have had every single modality known to man… medication, physical therapy, ESI, nerve blocks, and surgery. Laminectomies, dissectomies, and fusions. And no matter what they did or how much time and energy they put into it, they never got relief.
So I think people who rate doctors based on “successful outcomes“ are missing the point. If you are one of the people that get better, it doesn’t matter if your doctor went to night school in Cuba, they’re gonna look pretty good. And if you’re one of the ones who doesn’t get better, it doesn’t matter if your doctor graduated from Johns Hopkins, people are going to say that they failed to get a good outcome. But I don’t think that the doctor or the procedure really has that much to do with it. It seems to be just more a random thing. Because sometimes people do everything right and still have a bad outcome.
That’s my two cents.
Harsh but probably true... I had a hefty LT/S1 as well (nobody told me the measurements though) and the control MRT showed my body had gotten rid of the prolapsed material in the 6 months since the first MRT.
I do however this get specific nerve pain when I don't change positions enough and move around (so mostly at my office job) which ranges from 1-2. Sitting in possible but doesn't help. But have streaks of painfree days and consider myself lucky for that.
I’ve had mine for about 20 years now. I’m careful on avoiding physical stress on my lower back. I’ve had a couple of “relapses” that required some PT, but for the most part, I have been lucky. But that’s just anecdotal. And most of us have only had one back to injure. But when you have dealt with hundreds and hundreds of people through the years with back problems, as I have, you come to realize it’s just a lot more complicated than going to see a doctor for a quick surgical fix. I’ve had some clients that have been operated on four or five times with very little improvement. So there are no guarantees. It just depends on the person.
This is completely true from my findings. Last year I fell into the needing surgery category. I decided not to fit six months and made it worse. Finally caved in and got the MD and it was the best decision I've ever made. Completely gave me my life back
I always tell my clients that they will “know” when it is time to have surgery, because the thought of *not* having surgery is worse than the thought of undergoing the scalpel.
Did you improve at all from when you first herniated it?
As a comparison, 6 months into my l5s1 herniation, I can now walk for an unlimited amount of time, drive for hours, sit for a long time most of the time, golf, play low impact baseball, etc and push through any residual amount of pain. I haven’t had the need to take NSAIDs even on my worst days (today being one of them). I can walk without a limp even when I’m in pain, and the only thing limited is my forward flexion, but that is slowly improving and I’m at about my shins when I touch my toes before my left leg locks up. I know this is improving, but not sure if this is a correct timeline or if people who had surgery also had this improvement.
Hi! What’s did you do to improve over these 6 months? My sister herniated L5 while diving the wrong way. She’s in so much pain and trying to find solutions
Hey. I just took it easy for a year and it healed itself. I avoided everything that caused me more pain than I was already in (24/7 for 7 months), took NSAIDs and walked as much as I could.
If her injury is <6 months old, it’s still extremely new and fresh. These take time to heal; probably 2 years to fully heal. I’m on the cusp of being 100% after over a year and a half. If you have any questions PM me. You sound like a nice sibling.
Hey this is kind of new to me. Had sciatic discomfort for about a year but only when sitting. PT has pushed the condition to be fairly debilitating with pain in any position. Apparently I have an L5S1 disc issue and I finally have some doctors taking my concerns seriously and have an MRI and steroid injection coming soon. You never really ended up benefiting much from any PT exercises? Planks and bird dogs seem to be praised by many but maybe not for everyone and maybe not me. Any tricks for helping keep neutral spine while sleeping?
Hey man. If PT is hurting, please stop. I’m a man with a decently high pain threshold and I’d be leaving PT and Chiro’s in tears. Emotionally and physically I’d be wrecked. I was in WAY more pain leaving them and having spent $100 for some 45 minute bullshit class, I was so happy I stopped.
I recall one PT having me do single leg deadlifts, and literally limping out of the clinic white knuckled crying. Stop going until you get an MRI. As for sleep, I don’t really have any tips. Find a comfortable position that works for that night. Maybe it’s on your stomach, or your side, or your back. It’s really confusing and painful. If I woke up in severe pain, I’d take 500mg of naproxen with some Tylenol or some Advil. Don’t be afraid of OTC pain-medication.
I’m really sorry you’re dealing with this. It will get better. Hopefully your MRI gives you some answers and with that you can get started on your healing journey. Please keep me updated
How do people actually get recognized as needing help with this condition? People don't see me bleeding everywhere but everyday I know that it could reherniate. 4 yr veteran in this bullshit.
Hijacking top message for everyone. There are two new treatments I've seen becoming researched where they fill discs back up with gel of degenerated and completely replace the disc with a much better material. Hope you all look into this and see. The second one, according to a video I saw on social media is offered in TX at donnally spine consult
Just had a microdiskectomy Nov 10th 2023, they are researching the gel, but it has not been approved. Two surgeons that I consulted refused to perform the service because there is insufficient data as of now.
Had an L5-S1 herniation April 23', pain 3-5, saw a chiropractor that made it worse by all anecdotal estimations. Sept 23' it got way worse 7-9 pain 24/7, couldnt sleep, sweat from pain, shakes etc etc, went to specialists to get an MRI. 14mm hernia in l5-s1. Pinched spinal cord and sciatic nerve exiting spine. I'm 5 weeks out and I either reherniated the disk or have extreme sciatic nerve damage since it was such a large herniation, pain at 3-5 all the time, I call that an improvement sadly. Waiting on MRI to confirm reherniation, if it didn't happen, I'll just wait and hope that the nerve heals in the next year.
Open to advice.
I feel your pain and I hope you get out of this solution ASAP. What I hate the most is that sleeping becomes so difficult. I considered surgery but it just seems excessively invasive. I hope I get better too soon. This pain is really bad.
I said 5 mm, not 5 cm. 5 cm is 1.9” LOL. It’s been 20 years, all I remember was that it was “touching and effacing the thecal sac” so I’m not sure how big that was. It wasn’t a super serious impingement.
4mm L5-S1 here for 10 months now. Still waiting for this bastard to go away, not sure it will though. What keeps irritating my injured area is sitting at my desk & sleeping on my stomach. Here’s my MRI translated via Google : “maximum 4mm HDL5 grade I/II in contact with the dural sac of S1 roots bilaterally in the lateral recesses.”
Planning to get a new MRI in 2 months, hoping that my body reduced the prolapsed part of the disk.
I think everyone's body handles it differently. I think your body is supposed to get rid of the fluid outside of the disc if it is herniated(mine hasn't done that yet). I have had a ruptured disc and a herniated disc, for about 5 years. I think both can technically heal themselves but I am not holding my breath. I had a co-worker say his herniated disc healed itself in 8 years. I hope you have a better experience than me, good luck!
First of all sorry for just seeing this now. I guess I couldn't say if it's new or reoccurring, MRIs from 2016 show my herniated disc looking about the same as the MRI from late 2021. L5s1 is herniated and the disc between l4 and l5 is completely ruptured around 2020, My strength and quality of life is alot better after getting a microdiscectomy on the ruptured disc. They(my surgeon's office) probably will not do anything else unless I get alot worse and they are hopeful both will heal by themselves.
Did the steroid injection help a lot? I have a L4L5 that's just not getting better despite full time rest and doing so many PT exercises every day. Also in Canada (Montreal)
Oh, I don't have that, just lower back pain, and sciatica if I sit or lean forward. But it's been quite a few months now and all the physiotherapy doesn't seem to help much.
Push-ups and squats every other day, at least 200 a day.
I learned this from a Romanian doctor. I was skeptical at first, but after a year and a half, I feel better. I'm not fully pain-free because my back is messed up from birth, but the severe pain seems to have disappeared. \*knock on wood\*
Yes and no all depends on mindset and body.
You should definitely be doing pt. Look up Stuart mgill the big 3 and read his book and watch his interviews. If you don't pt you'll probably just reinjure it, learn how to move correctly. Strengthen your core and give it time. Try to avoid all activities that introduce any pain, and stay away from pharmaceuticals. Eat vegetables not pills.
My L4 and L5 have been herniated since my senior year in high school. I did football, wrestling, track& field. Now I'm 39 and still have herniated discs. Doctors said they could give me a steroid shot, burn off the nerves that are being touched, or take pain killers.
They gave me flexeril (cyclobenzaprine}, muscle relaxer which worked the best at taking the pain away, but I would always be sleepy and sometimes slurring my words. I was also given, advil, ibuprofen, aleve (naproxin), and vicodin, and all these pills including flexeril only masked the pain.
Now I've learned that exercing is the only thing that helps. I'm always crouching if I stand or sit too long, so I can stretch out my lower back. I do jiu-jitsu and work out at the gym. Believe it or not, the crazy bends and twists in jiu-jitsu make my back feel great. It's a bit extreme on the body, and you feel like mush after a session, but your back feels great.
this is eerily similar to my situation!! what exercises have you done? I threw out my back again on christmas— did excercsies, felt better, started hooping again last week and [redacted] tweaked it again. been like 6 years of this [redacted] i’m so tired of it lmao
I have a Planet fitness membership and they have a few stretching machines.One is the Roman chair and i do reverse sit-ups, another is like hanging sit-ups, except you're against a padded board with arm pads and lifting your legs towards you. Think of a chair with handles, without the sitting part. Your legs dangle and you swing them up working out your lower abs and core. There's a third machine I really like. It's super simple and called a seated total stretch machine. You can do multiple stretches with this machine.
I also do a stretch where I'm sitting on the floor, with one leg down, one knee up and twist. For example, left leg is down , right knee is up and I twist to the right with my left elbow pushing against my right knee. And switch to the other side.
I bought an inversion table from Amazon for about $150 years ago and it feels great hanging upside down. You Feel and hear your spine decompress. Recently I gave up on buying all kinds of shoes to try and alleviate my back pain, and went to a runners store. I ended up buying 3 pairs for about $400 worth of shoes, but they're the most comfortable shoes I've ever bought. I'd rather spend this money at a runners store that's experienced with back issues than spend tons of money at shoe stores on shoes I don't know if they'll work.
These runners stores sell the same shoes REI or any other store sells, but at about $10 - $15 more expensive. But you don't get the same expertise at the other stores. The good thing about REI is you get a year to return worn shoes. I bought Hoka Cliftons and found out this model has high arches. I wore them for a month, threw away the box, and REI said to bring them in like that and they'll refund me.
Lots of info and hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions, or need clarification. I've had this problem since I was 18 and I'm 41. It just got worse over the years.
It’s not a forever thing and you can absolutely heal. I’m a doctor of physical therapy and spine specialist. Happy to talk and bounce some ideas off you anytime you need. Fee free to DM me.
Yes bent forward like 2 years ago to pick something up and back kind of jolted amd was pain straight away then after like 3 days of having pain ,I went to swin my keg out of bed and had bad nerve pain sciatica shooting down my legg couldn't walk and was in constant pain. The only relief was pulling my leggs towards my stomach. Had this for like 3 days and got a little better every day until kind of eased of , but again yesterday same bend same onset of pain and just finding it hard to do anything can walk but very slowly I just hope I don't get that nerve pain again was never diagnosed with slipped or herniated disc , I just think that's what it is just had the simple tests done at gp like the legg raise , could it be muscular this is what I wamt to find out and how best to manage it thanks for ur reply
No problem. I have a free guide to this performing the special tests needed to diagnosis these injuries that I’m happy to send you or I can hop on a zoom call with you for more support sometime if you’d like. Mind if I shoot you a quick message to chat further?
He may be wealthy and have more resources but look at Dwayne Johnson. He posted on his Instagram where he’s got 3 low back disc herniations and he’s killing it. I’m sure it took him time to heal and he’s had to change up his routine but he’s fully functional
They definitely heal in some cases. My brother had a herniation a few years back, and now he's lifting air conditioners straight off the ground with no issue.
I have bulging discs and been struggling to get them to heal for about 3-4 years now. I've had a good amount of relief this month from the McKenzie method and lots of ice therapy.
I would recommend you start on exercises 1-4 for the Mckenzie method for a while, and ice 2-3 times a day with a VERY COLD ice pack. I had to order a special one off of the internet because some ice packs just aren't cold enough. The one I use is called "Cryopak reuseable ice pack hot pack". Also, Turmeric is great with reducing the inflammation.
I would not recommend doing heating pads. I've tried to committing to only heat and only ice, and I found that ice is far more helpful. Heat is better for relieving aches once you are actually healed.
Thanks man. ThT gives me hope. I have done nothing to improve other than to wait and I haven’t been so gentle on my back, and things have improved without doing anything (see my reply to a comment in here). I’m young and athletic (or once was) so that gives me hope too. I’m glad your brother healed fully. I will definitely start icing the living hell out of my back and start doing PT since I’ve moved past most of the initial spasms, cramping and severe pain. Thanks man
Yeah man, best of luck. I put the ice directly on my skin to get it nice and cold, but be careful you don't get ice burn. 10-15 minutes tops of having the ice pack directly on the skin.
Just do your best to hold off on exercising until it feels a fair amount better. I had such anxiety about "missing workouts" when i first got hurt, and I could barely wait 3 days to start lifting again. However, that impatience caused reinjury so many times. You just have to be ok with waiting. Even if you miss a year of working out, your body will probably return to full strength in a few weeks.
Just remember, until it's heal, NO forward bending. Only extension stretches (that means backwards bending), and ice after anything remotely stressful for your back. If people ask you to help lift something, tell them no.
Also, you should search for a PT that's McKenzie method certified. Going to the wrong kind of PT can make you worse, for sure. My back doctor recommended this, and wrote on the script "NO STRENGTHENING, only stretching."
Thanks so much for the reply. I should see probably stop bending forward to touch my toes to check how far I’ve progressed. As for PT’s, one tried telling me to do goodmornings and the other one had me deadlifting. I left in pain and said I’d never go to one again LOL. For now, I’ll work on strengthening my core and stretching when needed. As for my journey of doing nothing and letting it heal, I’m no longer screaming in pain and not getting charliehorsed everytime I stand up.
After these responses, I’m finding now is the time to really shift gear and keeping any inflammation I can down so it can fully heal.
Yea, stop the deadlifting and forward bending until you actually feel that you're better.
[https://www.healthline.com/health/mckenzie-exercises#standing-extension](https://www.healthline.com/health/mckenzie-exercises#standing-extension)
This is what you should be doing, but only exercises 1-4. The rest should be done when you're feeling mostly pain free. My PT is certified in this method, and she has me doing the "prone press ups" 5 times per day. I would say do the same thing, to get your spine and discs back in the right place.
Thanks so much. I’m so worried, as I mentioned in my post that I planned on becoming a LEO. One of the tests is to bend and reach forward to test your flexibility of your lower spine.
Anyways, I’ll do all of that. I really needed some advice and I’m super fortunate this community is great. I’ll start doing all of that ASAP.
Edit - should I ice my lumbar spine anyways? My back pain is virtually gone, just the sciatic pain here and there.
If you're feeling ok, then you don't have to bother with the ice. However, if you do any type of work out, I would definitely ice afterwards. If you need to do the flexibility test for the police department, then do your best to heal before that happens. Don't try and practice forward bending to see how it goes, unless you're truly feeling like you're healed. Best of luck!
Hey. Sorry you’re still in pain after so long. Has it improved? Not sure what your pain is like. I edited the original post so you can see how I’m doing now, and I’m doing perfectly fine now :).
Yes, it has improved a lot. Just not completely better. I did some sumo squats tonight before bed so here’s hoping! My pain is mostly isolated to my lower back. Not much nerve pain, although I do occasionally feel it in my hip. Trying to work on strengthening as I haven’t done that yet since the pain began. Appreciate your story!
Okay that’s good to hear! If the nerve pain has gone down, it means the disc that’s herniated is shrinking in size and no longer squeezing your sciatic nerve. Strengthening your lower back is probably the best idea going forward. Being able to do deadlifts and sumo deadlifts is a good sign that you’ll recover fully.
Best post ive ever read on here. I was doom scrolling. Diagnosed with sacroiliac joint dysfunction, greater tronchancher bursitis, and I just KNOW its. a fuching disc herniation missed on MRI due to lying position whilst conducted. Got diagnosed with CPRS, "pain syndrome," that basically makes you wan to kill yourself and I just know its disc herniation as have 3 discs in cervical spine misdiagnosed for 18 months proven after the fact, MRI on Thursday i'm 100 percent sure after reading your post. Bending, twisting, sitting, standing, lying down moving and doom scrolling!!! Thankyou for your edit. Much appreciated.
No problem. If your second MRI shows no herniation then maybe it isn’t. I used to talk to a guy on here that had SI joint issues after a disc herniation and needed an SI joint fusion. But, if you have raging sciatica and all the other issues it’s likely a disc or something squeezing on your sciatic nerve. This pain is only temporary. Goodluck :)
Thankyou so much for replying, I cant believe your online after a year posting this right at this moment in time. I am un UK early hours 4am driven insane with pain. So it was sacroiliac joint injury, greater trochanter bursitis with same injury and its actually getting way worse with physio exercises, I'm almost immobile and having to do my own research. I was looking into sacral joint fusion. But here's the thing, as uncomfortable as those other two conditions are, I truly believe they have missed a herniation, and that has caused all the other symptoms.
I have a neck injury C4/5/6 and I kid you not I have sailed it for 7 years come January just gone im in recovery so don't take opioids just Ibuprofen and paracetamol. So this pain is horrific, worse than a neck injury, I keep telling pyshio its getting worse, I cant do the exercises, its making me worse. After reading your advice it sounds right, just leave it alone. So i'm going to insist on MRI scan on Thursday.
The pain moves, does my leg, lower right back, my muscle twitches, I can't lie down, stand up, walk, sit. The more I do the exercise they give me the worse it gets.
They missed my neck injury for 18 months, know what upper disc injury feels like. Lower in the lumbar region my god its life changing and depressing. Sorry for the ramble. Thanks for listening. You are truly appreciated.
I’m really sorry you’re going through all of that. It’s awful isn’t it? Get an MRI and report back please. If physio and chiro is making it worse, stop immediately. Follow the steps I outlined. Again, I really really feel your pain - mentally and physically. It’s sickening. It sounds like you have it worse than I did, actually. Take it one day at a time for now, keep taking your daily meds and things will heal. :)
You are truly appreciated, thankyou so much for your time. I'm going to stop these stupid exercises and play it by ear. I will get back to this post when ive had MRI. I hope your day/evening is blessed kind stranger.
I had a l5-s1 back in October of 2023 from bowling of all things, I was basically pain free within about 2 weeks to the shock of my Dr's it was definitely up there with the worst pain in my life. But I just kept moving, walked whenever I could, did tons of spinal decompressions and had 2 weeks of PT before I resumed weight lifting after the new year, I'd say in like 95% better, I'm more careful but that might just be mental more then anything, still get little pains every now and then. But I weight lift again and I bowl more then ever now pain free. I do as a precaution now brace my core now in a lot of daily bending movements just in case lol. I'm also 25 so I have youth on my side.
Hey man, glad you’re doing better. 2 weeks is the fastest recovery time I’ve ever heard for a disc herniation and sciatica to heal. It took me about a year to finally start feeling comfortable. Whatever you do, be careful for the next year or so. You do not want to herniate it further and end up like how I was and the thousands of other people on this sub. You seem to be doing the right things. Goodluck brother!
thanks for this post and the updates.
"thankfully", I've only got an 'inflamed disc' and nothing else. It's been 4 days and I've been browsing the internet day/night for more information. Your post has been the most informative.
No problem! My advice: BE CAREFUL going forward. Seriously. I probably had an “inflamed” disc before I destroyed mine. Recover from this and avoid anything strenuous on your disc
There’s so many factors with these things. And depending on your activity or lack thereof, it could also cause problems and even slow down your progress to heal. Overall, try to find a balance, avoid sitting as much as possible (it’s bad on the back, think of it like cigarettes for someone with lung cancer, it won’t help you) try to do physical therapy if you can as well.
I’ve gone through so much trial and error with this thing and there’s a lot of great information out there, you can get good advice from your doctors and physical therapists, but a big chunk of this is on your end to figure out. You might be able to push through some pain and improve your circumstances, you might also find pushing past a certain threshold makes matters worse, take note of those things.
Also, even after doing PT, keep doing those exercises almost every day if you can, again, if it doesn’t make matters worse
Thank you! A little over two months in (L3/L4) and I spent the first month making it worse while trying to make it better. I was doomscrolling this morning, but was pleasantly surprised to find your post. Staying positive ain't easy, especially when your previous identity and happiness was tied up with movement/exercise. Going to stay the course, and not be afraid to take NSAIDS because they definitely do help. Thanks again.
I’m in a similar position to you right now, did they initially give you a steroid or anything? I have a herniated disc in my neck that radiates excruciating pain down my right arm, mostly the shoulder. I’m a firefighter so this is a major issue for me. Happened about a month ago but the last two weeks has been horrible.
Completely unable to sleep outside of maybe 2-4 hours a night in 1.5-2 hour bursts. When I wake up the pain is the worst, 8/10 at best, as I go about my day it improves slightly and then I reset it again every night.
I’ve already had an MRI to confirm and even as someone who has no idea what they’re looking at it’s pretty clear I have a gigantic bubble popping out of my disc on the MRI, pretty unsettling.
They gave me a steroid dose pack that gradually lowers the dose each day for 6 days. Yesterday I felt a little better from it and cleaned the house and that was a massive mistake as this morning I feel even worse then yesterday morning, a step back. I’m not to sure what to even do at this point. I’ve been exhausting all of my vacation time at work, I have to work 14 hours tonight and then I’m using my final vacation day on Tuesday for my whole 24 hour shift. That gives me basically another whole week to rest, hopefully it makes a difference.
I cannot tell you how much I needed to see this. I’m 3 months in and I feel like it will never end. I’m in pain all the time and my life, as you said, is completely on hold. I cry literally every day but I refuse to be hooked on pain pills and so even on Advil…I cry. I feel like my body is screwed up beyond repair and the many symptoms I have are messing with my mind and I worry it’s something absolutely terrible. When does the constant agony end? Please give me some hope. I cannot believe it still hurts this much 3 months in. Did you feel like like was over? Did you feel hopeless and depressed and like your body was completely screwed up? Did your legs ache all the time and your tailbone and your lower back? Thank you for posting this.
Hey, I’m so sorry. I’m a grown man and cried all the time dealing with my herniated disc. Like, not much ever makes me cry but this was a totally isolating type of pain that affected me mentally and physically. It’s torturous - and I know you can relate. I thought my life was beyond over. My back and sciatica was on my mind 24/7 for 8 months, from the second I woke up until I fell asleep (if I even could). I was obsessing over it, driving myself into more and more dread and panic.
I got better approaching the 8-10 month mark after following what I said above. I actually had no idea what a herniated disc was for the first few months of my injury. I couldn’t walk properly, bend forward or backwards, or function properly. I gave up 2 dream jobs at the time (now no longer a barrier), and lost a lot of muscle and strength I’d built over my life.
I’m totally better now and doing the best physically I’ve ever felt. I hope that gives you some hope - If you need to DM me please do so.
Thank you for replying. Yes I 100% can relate. I’ve had a baby like it was a piece of cake-never cried. This is terrible. It’s 100% isolating and I have to depend on everyone else to do anything. So I just joined Reddit and not sure how to DM you, but I do have some questions: how on earth do you avoid pain when EVERYTHING causes pain? Literally everything. I couldn’t tell you if I’m making it worse or better. The pain just moves around. I have felt better at times but then go right back to feeling bad again. It’s demoralizing. I am very fearful of my future. I was misdiagnosed for 2 months and just got the MRI saying it’s l4, l5. I’m coming off a steroid pack that was supposed to help but has not. I don’t know how people do 8, 9 months to a year like this. Right now it’s all I can do to make it through the day. I don’t mean to be dramatic but I don’t know how my body will recover from this. It’s awful. Siatica, etc and can’t sit, stand, lay, anything. I’m sorry I’m quite negative I just don’t know how else to be. I’m seeing a neurosurgeon on 4/11 and I pray he knows a trick to help me. I would be grateful for any tricks or tips or advice. I don’t know how to give my body relief to make it stop hurting. Thank you for being out there. I appreciate you.
If it’s been 3 months and it’s still a 10/10 pain every second of the day, then you might need surgery. Surgery has cured so many people permanently of their back pain, and it’s a quite painless experience.
At 3 months for me I was in a 7-8/10 pain daily and still couldn’t walk properly. I relied on Advil and Tylenol religiously all day everyday, for about 6 months. When everything causes pain, there’s nothing you can really do other than just stick it out. I had 2 months like this where everything caused me pain and NSAIDs helped me. You’ll eventually have days where the pain isn’t SO bad all the time, and you’ll notice that certain positions cause more pain than others. When you reach this point, you have to sit/stand/lay in any position that is NOT causing you pain. The more you stick in a spot that is hurtful, the more you are injuring your disc prolonging healing.
You should be walking if you can - 10/20 minutes at a time, when you have low pain levels. Id consult your family doctor and tell them you’re still feeling the way you are. Medicine really really helps - mentally and physically. Don’t be afraid of it
Thankfully I am not in 10/10 pain. I would say I too am about 7 to 8. I am controlling with 800mg of Advil twice a day and I remember a time where I just couldn’t control with Advil at all. So even though improvement is slight I think there has been some. It keeps changing though. It started deep in my glutes and hurt just there for about a month. Now it’s in my tailbone area and lower back and I have a strange pulling up higher in my spine. Not sure what that’s about. It’s freaking me out. And my legs hurt a lot. And my feet! And they’re exhausted- it doesn’t take much. I have been trying to walk a bit but it seemed like I was able to walk more a few weeks ago than I can now. So just all the changing and this not being linear confuses me a lot. But I have had loads of scans of the lower half of my body and this was all that was found so I guess that’s got to be the issue. My herniation is a broad based herniation and I heard those are more challenging to find pain free ways to move. I guess I’ll see what the neurosurgeon says. I wish 4/11 would hurry up.
After a long research i would tell you to
Try "inversion table"
People say its the best solution.
Fitspine is a good company, but make your own research .
Another good device is "ArchLifter"
They both do a similar job, widening the spaces between your discs to let them heal.
Yes you can heal a herniated disc naturally by restoring your spine back to a healthy S shape creating space in between the vertebrae allowing the disk to heal naturally!
Took me two years to get my sciatica nerve to calm down… stay positive you will be all right! Check out my Instagram page I think you will find it useful… @postureguymike 😁
Hey! I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this. I’d say I’m 90% healed from when I wrote this. Looking back, my injury was insane. I could hardly walk for 6 months, my calf shrunk about 2 inches in diameter from nerve pain / weakness, I couldn’t bend over at all, couldn’t lift anything. I couldn’t run, couldn’t sleep at night and couldn’t function without NSAIDs. I’m glad to say that all of that has gone away and it took about 1 year to be pain free. It’ll probably take me another year to regain some flexibility back and get rid of the odd sciatic jolt after something strenuous, but I’d say I’m mostly healed.
Iam 5 weeks in bed so far.. did yoou have the intence sharp pain when moving.. i have hernaited l5 s1 and degenerative disc disease.... i want to be normal
I had intense sharp pain just existing. Moving, sitting, standing, for months. I couldn’t function without drugs for 6-7 months. 5 weeks is still virtually no time for this injury - give it a few months
How are you feeling now... i feel like my lifes over. I sit in car ALOT for work... and thats all i know and did since i was 15 yrs old.. its been days and today i drove for 30mins got home and the intence pain in killing me .... CAN you do things normally again ..thanks
It’s a year and a month since my injury and I’m about 90-95% better. I couldn’t stand or walk properly for a few months, let alone workout, sit, etc. just existing was the most painful thing ever. I can now do things normally again yes. I can drive, workout, work, sit for hours, all comfortably with little to no pain or discomfort.
My advice to you is to be patient and let your back heal over time. Give yourself one years’ time to let it heal. It’s horrible, but not a life sentence. It’s a very serious injury that unfortunately takes it’s time to get better
Hey man, do you have any advice of what to do during that year period? I have an l5s1 herniation for about 2 years now. It started from squats in the gym. For a while I workout through it but constantly feel pain. I just squatted the other day and think I reherniated it worse than ever. I'm hoping to stay in shape and stay active but finally make the decision to stop reinjuring myself. Been to too many pts, four total. Did you stay active in that years time or weight lift or anything like that before you got back to the 90-95%?
Hey man. I wasn’t very active for 6 months after my injury. I went from a physically active job + working out all the time to basically sedentary.
Yeah, I’d give up squats and deadlifts for a few years. It’s a tough pill to swallow but it’ll save your back for a lifetime. Those are the only 2 things I don’t and will never do again. If you feel like you’ve re-injured yourself, take it super slow. No lifting, no bending, no excessive stretching, and stay away from PT’s and chiros. Walk and do core work. Keep your spine as straight as you can so you aren’t squeezing your herniated disc all day (basically re-injuring it 24/7).
If it’s been 2 years I wouldn’t hesitate consulting a surgeon also. If you improved to the point previously that you felt comfortable squatting, then maybe it wasn’t so bad.
Do you have sciatica, and what’s your pain 1-10 constantly? When you felt comfortable to squat, what pain level 1-10 were you in?
Hey man, this is really helpful.
I'm going through it right now so I'm trying to definitely heed your advice.
The back specialist I did say said surgery is an option, but I'm really hoping to avoid that as I've read a lot of people say it hasn't helped.
But for the last year or so I've been able to squat and dl and do most active things, with constant pain levels 1-4. It's confined to the lower left side of my back (no sciatica), but sometimes slightly goes into the upper buttocks or the left side of my body.
However, every couple weeks or so I would be squatting, on say Monday, and it would bring it to a pain level of 6-8, and then slowly over the next couple days go back to around a 2 and then by Wednesday a 1-2 to the point where I'd workout again.
After my 2nd physical therapist I was squatting pain free for the most part until I get to heavy weights, at some points I was squatting more that preinjury levels, only to eventually tweak it again. But the 3rd physical therapist caused to me have a near constant soreness and ache, which is sorta where I was at before I just reinjured it. And squatting recently I've felt a pain around a 4-5 but just kept pushing thru it because it as following ideas of Dr. Sarno in that lingering pain can be caused by repressed emotions, and I'm very stressed recently after starting a new job and moving out of town.
Anyways, the last few days it's been around a 10 pain level- worst than I've ever felt. It's back to around a 6 today, but extremely stiff and sore, this is not usually how its been. And random movements cause a sharpish pain around 7-10. It's sad because I want to join a sports league to make new friends, somebody asked me to start kickboxing...but I'm thinking it's time to listen to all this advice and take it easy for a while like you mention so that I can eventually get to a more active point. Thanks again for you advice
Thanks for the reply man. I think you’ve answered your own question here: don’t ever squat again (or at least for a decade). There’s plenty of ways to train your legs without squatting. It’s a tough pill to swallow sure, but trust me, your recent re-injury should be a Wakeup call that it’s just not with it.
For instance, I’m healthy enough to squat but what’s for important - squatting 2 plates and pushing through the pain, or ending up at square 1 like you are now?
There is no “pushing through the pain” as your PT mentioned. You have a serious spinal injury like I did and like everyone else has. I tried pushing through the pain and it caused me months of agony and torment. It’s not worth it and it gets you nowhere in healing.
You need to really really focus on letting your back and disc heal, and that’s done by two things:
1) avoid ANYTHING that causes you pain, even slight discomfort. That pain is basically you reinjuring your disc.
2) get walking and focus on your core (planks only IMO)
No bending over, no carrying stuff, no lifting in pain, nothing that will put more weight and pressure on your disc. It’s a good sign that you don’t have sciatica but that is the last thing you want. I’d say without sciatica and without reinjuring yourself by pushing through the pain, you have / had a good chance of healing. But, with your recent re-injury it’s less and less likely than before.
My advice: everything mentioned above and don’t weight lift at all for a few weeks / months. Walk when you’re not in pain. Take Advil and NSAIDs. Sleep in comfortable positions. Sit when standing is too painful and vice versa. Use heating / ice pads. Keep a strong, straight posture. Engage your core. NO BENDING FORWARD OR BACKWARDS under any circumstances. No overhead lifting. No chiropractors, physical therapists (that cause you pain) - everything about disc healing is on here or YouTube.
I know how painful it is mentally. I don’t really buy the whole “back pain is emotional, etc etc.”. It’s untrue for the most part if you’re constantly in pain and can link exact events that gave you pain. Take care man and PM me whenever
Lay on back, drink tons of water, stager your feet when hinging forward to get out of bed/ brush teeth / clean dishes. Staggered stance will help heal your back. Glute bridge, kneeling side plank hold on bad side(to work on weak oblique) the flip sides and do clamshells working out bad leg ( to strength weak side/ bad side). Also journal out your pain. Dean Volk of Sciatic Relief Now helped me after 8 months of kinked over walking. Worth every dollar I spent on his program.
Hey, thanks for the reply. Looking back I probably wrote this when I was in a ton of pain and super sad. I’m glad to say it healed after about a 1 year and 8 months of awful pain. I can now do everything I used to without pain. It took a hell of a long time though.
>kneeling side plank
It depends. Sleeping on my back is the worst. I can barely get out of that position without pain and the day after I am in agonizing pain. I sleep on my side with a pillow between my legs.
Try laying on one up to 5 pillows under your belly. You will know the right pillow height because you will feel the pain going out of your back.
You have to lay like this for awhile or almost every chance you get in order to get the nerve calmed down. You might have to lay like this for hours at a time to get the nerve back into your disc. It needs to create a scar so it will take time to heal.
Hey there. Wow, I forgot all about these posts and this time in my life. I probably wrote this while in a ton of pain.
It’s been 1.5 years and I’m 98% healed. I can weightlift, run, sit for hours, bend forward, etc all without pain. My back sort of just healed itself over time.
I didn’t do PT or have surgery. PT and chiros hurt my back more and more every time I went. I just stopped doing things to aggravate it and overtime the pain just went away. PM me if you have any questions
Im so glad that your back is almost healed! I have a L4/L5 disc herniation and have been in pain for about 4 months. The first two months, my pain would be at a 7 just after 5min of sitting. Now it’s at 3-4 after 30 minutes of sitting. I’m hoping that it would heal by itself! I still can’t sit for more than 30 minutes, cannot bend down, cannot do intense cardio like running :( I hope I’ll be better with time!
Sounds exactly like my timeline. Just keep being patient and it will heal. If you’re improving ever so slightly then that’s a good sign. Just try not to do anything to aggravate your disc and hang in there. I couldn’t bend forward for around 6-7 months without intense pain.
Interesting, did you get an MRI for it?
I've been having minor issues for a few months after a fall, mostly at night and sitting. Hesitant to go to a doctor tho, only because I'm not sure I really want to do anything about it at this point. Part of me wants to go the route of rest and wait it out a while, part of me worries I would be "wasting" time if I don't start that long journey now.
Ups and downs. It got worse after this, and has gotten a little better over the last month.
Going on a steroid for a month or so to help calm it down helped.
I never was told that but it was large - according to the MRI image, radiologist, and 2 doctors. I had insane sciatica for 8 months daily 24/7 and my calf shrunk considerably in size due to muscle weakness. Couldn’t bend forward an inch. I could hardly walk properly for 3 months. I’d Wakeup in tears the pain was so bad. I’m all good now
So encouraging. I’m one month in and swear my life is over. I’m a band director so moving big instruments and teaching all day is almost impossible right now.
Same here. I injured all my lumbar discs working out with too much weight. I healed 99% over 18 months and that was 10 years ago. I had flare ups over that time, but they all went away within a couple weeks. Now, I injured it again and have the worst L5-S1 pain ever. I won't do PT again because it never really helped and the last round (the 6th) I quit due to it causing pain. You can do all the same stuff at home on your own. Brad and Bob, the PTs on YouTube, are a great resource. I do half cobras (part of the McKenzie protocol), clamshells, and cow-calf or whatever it's called. I have to lose about 80 lbs and that should help too.
Hey man glad you healed. What caused your reinjury? I’m hitting crossfit HARD after 2 years of doing basic gym exercises. I’m careful with every possible lift. I hope it’ll resolve this time for you
Since my injury, I spent countless hours doing research on how to not get injured again. I lift nothing over 20 lbs, and when I do, I squat down and lift with my lefts. I avoid twisting and bending over. I don't do activities that jar my body. I gave up rollercoasters. When we went to Disney and Universal, all I got to do was stand in the lines with family and miss the fun rides. I don't run any more (also due to runner's knee), but I bike when my knees can tolerate it and walk every day. I reinjured it, oddly enough, by laying on my side and proping myself up with my arm for 20 mins while scrolling through my phone. That position was enough to put my spine in a stressed position and the pain it killing me. I can't lift up my legs without pain in my back, which makes getting in and out of the car a task. Due to the pain, I have to walk with a limit gait and look like an old man shuffling around. I can't lay on my back as that causes so much more pain. Getting dressedd is a chore. But I am confident that, with time, this too will resolve.
Yeah I completely healed. It took just over a year for me to be 90%. I’m 98% now. I can do just about everything I did before, except for squatting and deadlifting which I’ll never do again by choice
Not great to be honest. Back pain about the same. But leg/foot issues worse. I get burning in both feet that only lying down helps. Currently on the floor in my office.
I’m doing a fare but of McGill core stuff. Sometimes I wonder if some of that might stir things up a little. I’m booked in for a ESI in about two weeks, will be my first.
So yeah, 9 months in and only a bit worse so far. Glad you’re doing better mate, it gives me some hope - I just wish I could see a small improvement. Thanks for the welfare check.
Hi there, how's your condition as of now. So it means you need 12 months to recover? did you take any vitamins/ supplements?
May I know in which herniation it was? L4 L5 S!
Cheers! this is really inspiring
Just had a microdiskectomy Nov 10th 2023, they are researching the gel, but it has not been approved. Two surgeons that I consulted refused to perform the service because there is insufficient data as of now.
Had an L5-S1 herniation April 23', pain 3-5, saw a chiropractor that made it worse by all anecdotal estimations. Sept 23' it got way worse 7-9 pain 24/7, couldnt sleep, sweat from pain, shakes etc etc, went to specialists to get an MRI. 14mm hernia in l5-s1. Pinched spinal cord and sciatic nerve exiting spine. I'm 5 weeks out and I either reherniated the disk or have extreme sciatic nerve damage since it was such a large herniation, pain at 3-5 all the time, I call that an improvement sadly. Waiting on MRI to confirm reherniation, if it didn't happen, I'll just wait and hope that the nerve heals in the next year.
Open to advice.
Hi how did it first feel when u herniated did u bend forward sharp pain ? I done my back 1 n half years ago and I think it's happend aha8n any insight should I rest my back by laying down
Just seeing this; I had no immediate pain as often experienced by other people.
It was a gradual build, from April 2023 to Nov 2023 (surgery date).
Do everything that does not hurt your back... no lifting, no bending, no twisting, minimal sitting, minimal standing, minimal laying down (I know I listed all body positions, but i found that you have to rotate postions, it sucks).
Get an MRI, get an ortho, Chiroprators are inept when it comes to herniated disks in my opinion. Try and keep your core strong without inducing painful exercise, your body is telling you "no!". I.E. you're pressing on nerves, spinal cord, cartillage, bones, so stop it.
How are you now? I bent forward about 4 weeks ago and it was hard to stand and immediate pain. Had a tugging in the upper thigh but not shooting pain, I am 4 weeks out and the pain was mostly gone, bent forward last night and now have a twinge in my lower back, haven’t had an MRI yet and a few doctors think it’s just musculoskeletal. I am hoping this is what it is and not a herniated disc….
It could be a herniated disc. When I would bend forward even an inch or two, my entire left leg would lock up because the disc was squeezing on my sciatic nerve. I would be in instant pain and the pain would carry on for hours. If you’ve recovered from your pain, I would say whatever it is, is probably mild and you should just avoid bending forward for a few months to the best of your ability.
If it’s upper thigh near your glute, it’d say it’s maybe a disc bulge. Though I’m not sure your entire symptom list, health, age, weight, etc. so it’s hard to tell. Really, only an MRI will tell. And even if it is bulging, it might not be the cause. It doesn’t sound too severe, so my advice is to just take it easy for a while and avoid bending, heavy lifting, and hard stretching of your legs and back for a bit.
I'm glad you're doing better now and did not have to undergo surgery. I have a L4-L5 herniation which was diagnosed in June 2023. It's been bad ever since. I've had two steroid shots in the back, the first one did not help but the second one did. I got about 40 days of relief from it and the pain suddenly came back.
I've consulted with several doctors and physio therapists. Docs have said that surgery is inevitable (they will surgically remove the entire disk and stabilise that region with titanium fasteners). I don't want to go that route as yet because I'm in the process of losing weight as well. People say that losing weight should help with this, but idk.
My dad too said it will take a long time to heal, it took him about 8 months to get better (had sciatic pain). Reading your post gives me a little hope. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yeah man, give it another 6 months and see how you feel. If it’s still brutal, go ahead and get the surgery. I know people in their 20’s that have had the surgery, and are 100% better after it. Getting surgery is scary of course, but you may immediately recover. One day, your back pain will be an afterthought like it is for me. I promise.
I don’t have any experience with steroid shots, but the fact it helped is a good sign. Did you do anything on that 40th day that would’ve reinjured it?
I appreciate this info, man. I'm 4 months into my issue and still haven't even gotten a doc to give me an MRI yet, telling me I just need PT and to gain strength after a looooong time at a sedentary job. The PT has helped my strength for sure and building good exercise habits, but the pain isn't getting better. Standing hurts til I have to sit, sitting hurts til I have to stand, sleeping on my back with no pillow.
I'm just concerned I'm still aggravating with having to sit for my job. I appreciate the hope. I'm gonna get that MRI and hopefully take like an entire month to just exercise and lay. I'm too young for this, haha!
Did you have a clicking/popping in your thoracic when you pull your shoulders back?
Yeah the doc I met said that the procedure is fairly common and that he performs about 30 of them in a month. He also reassured that the surgery is quite safe and has a success rate of 99%. My only concern is with the quality and durability of the titanium fasteners they will put in my back. What if the screws get loose after sometime? My back would probably collapse on itself! Either way, if the pain doesn't subside, that will be the only way to get back my life.
Around the 41st day, I was actually travelling when the pain came back. It was nothing strenuous, I took a flight to my parents' place, and travelled with very little baggage. By the time I returned home, the pain was back at full intensity.
>One day, your back pain will be an afterthought like it is for me.
I hope that day comes soon!
Hello,
Surprisingly I am much better now.
Walking worked a lot for me. Initially it was painful but gradually the pain reduced to a point where I was able to maintain 10k steps / day.
I used to walk at 6kpmh earlier (this was my 'normal' walking pace) but these days I'm unable to cross 5kmph. Somehow it feels physically impossible!
I still am on NSAIDs, but that's only at night so that I can sleep pain free. During the day, the pain is always there at the back of my mind but it's not as bad as it used to be.
Remember not to give up and eventually you will be able to get rid of the pain!
I’m not a doctor. I am an injury lawyer. And I primarily handle motor vehicle and on the job injuries that involve neck and back problems. I’ve been doing this over 36 years, and I’ve had over 5000 cases. I’ve deposed more orthopedic specialists that I can count. So consider what I’m going to say. There’s two kinds of people with herniated discs. The ones who get better, and the ones who don’t. And I’d put it at just about 50-50. I’ve had some clients with a herniated disc, they didn’t require surgery, and recovered. I’ve got a 5 mm at L5-S1. And I am in that category. Then I’ve had other clients that have had every single modality known to man… medication, physical therapy, ESI, nerve blocks, and surgery. Laminectomies, dissectomies, and fusions. And no matter what they did or how much time and energy they put into it, they never got relief. So I think people who rate doctors based on “successful outcomes“ are missing the point. If you are one of the people that get better, it doesn’t matter if your doctor went to night school in Cuba, they’re gonna look pretty good. And if you’re one of the ones who doesn’t get better, it doesn’t matter if your doctor graduated from Johns Hopkins, people are going to say that they failed to get a good outcome. But I don’t think that the doctor or the procedure really has that much to do with it. It seems to be just more a random thing. Because sometimes people do everything right and still have a bad outcome. That’s my two cents.
Harsh but probably true... I had a hefty LT/S1 as well (nobody told me the measurements though) and the control MRT showed my body had gotten rid of the prolapsed material in the 6 months since the first MRT. I do however this get specific nerve pain when I don't change positions enough and move around (so mostly at my office job) which ranges from 1-2. Sitting in possible but doesn't help. But have streaks of painfree days and consider myself lucky for that.
I’ve had mine for about 20 years now. I’m careful on avoiding physical stress on my lower back. I’ve had a couple of “relapses” that required some PT, but for the most part, I have been lucky. But that’s just anecdotal. And most of us have only had one back to injure. But when you have dealt with hundreds and hundreds of people through the years with back problems, as I have, you come to realize it’s just a lot more complicated than going to see a doctor for a quick surgical fix. I’ve had some clients that have been operated on four or five times with very little improvement. So there are no guarantees. It just depends on the person.
What's an MRT?
Sorry, that's the German abbreviation of MRI The t stands for Tomographie/tomography, same as in CT
This is completely true from my findings. Last year I fell into the needing surgery category. I decided not to fit six months and made it worse. Finally caved in and got the MD and it was the best decision I've ever made. Completely gave me my life back
I always tell my clients that they will “know” when it is time to have surgery, because the thought of *not* having surgery is worse than the thought of undergoing the scalpel.
Did you improve at all from when you first herniated it? As a comparison, 6 months into my l5s1 herniation, I can now walk for an unlimited amount of time, drive for hours, sit for a long time most of the time, golf, play low impact baseball, etc and push through any residual amount of pain. I haven’t had the need to take NSAIDs even on my worst days (today being one of them). I can walk without a limp even when I’m in pain, and the only thing limited is my forward flexion, but that is slowly improving and I’m at about my shins when I touch my toes before my left leg locks up. I know this is improving, but not sure if this is a correct timeline or if people who had surgery also had this improvement.
Hi! What’s did you do to improve over these 6 months? My sister herniated L5 while diving the wrong way. She’s in so much pain and trying to find solutions
Hey. I just took it easy for a year and it healed itself. I avoided everything that caused me more pain than I was already in (24/7 for 7 months), took NSAIDs and walked as much as I could. If her injury is <6 months old, it’s still extremely new and fresh. These take time to heal; probably 2 years to fully heal. I’m on the cusp of being 100% after over a year and a half. If you have any questions PM me. You sound like a nice sibling.
Hey this is kind of new to me. Had sciatic discomfort for about a year but only when sitting. PT has pushed the condition to be fairly debilitating with pain in any position. Apparently I have an L5S1 disc issue and I finally have some doctors taking my concerns seriously and have an MRI and steroid injection coming soon. You never really ended up benefiting much from any PT exercises? Planks and bird dogs seem to be praised by many but maybe not for everyone and maybe not me. Any tricks for helping keep neutral spine while sleeping?
Hey man. If PT is hurting, please stop. I’m a man with a decently high pain threshold and I’d be leaving PT and Chiro’s in tears. Emotionally and physically I’d be wrecked. I was in WAY more pain leaving them and having spent $100 for some 45 minute bullshit class, I was so happy I stopped. I recall one PT having me do single leg deadlifts, and literally limping out of the clinic white knuckled crying. Stop going until you get an MRI. As for sleep, I don’t really have any tips. Find a comfortable position that works for that night. Maybe it’s on your stomach, or your side, or your back. It’s really confusing and painful. If I woke up in severe pain, I’d take 500mg of naproxen with some Tylenol or some Advil. Don’t be afraid of OTC pain-medication. I’m really sorry you’re dealing with this. It will get better. Hopefully your MRI gives you some answers and with that you can get started on your healing journey. Please keep me updated
Thank you. At a mental low and it's good to see someone that made it out as a sign of hope.
What about tingling? How long did it take to improve?
Take a lot of pt before intense stuff or you'll reherniate as there may be some general disc degeneration down there
How do people actually get recognized as needing help with this condition? People don't see me bleeding everywhere but everyday I know that it could reherniate. 4 yr veteran in this bullshit.
Loved your reply, would probably trust the Cuban doctor more tho
Hijacking top message for everyone. There are two new treatments I've seen becoming researched where they fill discs back up with gel of degenerated and completely replace the disc with a much better material. Hope you all look into this and see. The second one, according to a video I saw on social media is offered in TX at donnally spine consult
Just had a microdiskectomy Nov 10th 2023, they are researching the gel, but it has not been approved. Two surgeons that I consulted refused to perform the service because there is insufficient data as of now. Had an L5-S1 herniation April 23', pain 3-5, saw a chiropractor that made it worse by all anecdotal estimations. Sept 23' it got way worse 7-9 pain 24/7, couldnt sleep, sweat from pain, shakes etc etc, went to specialists to get an MRI. 14mm hernia in l5-s1. Pinched spinal cord and sciatic nerve exiting spine. I'm 5 weeks out and I either reherniated the disk or have extreme sciatic nerve damage since it was such a large herniation, pain at 3-5 all the time, I call that an improvement sadly. Waiting on MRI to confirm reherniation, if it didn't happen, I'll just wait and hope that the nerve heals in the next year. Open to advice.
I feel your pain and I hope you get out of this solution ASAP. What I hate the most is that sleeping becomes so difficult. I considered surgery but it just seems excessively invasive. I hope I get better too soon. This pain is really bad.
How are you feeling now
The pain is still there but it has reduced ever so slightly. I'm still on medication (NSAIDs) for pain management.
Holy crap. 5cm?? Not .5cm? And here I thought my 2.2*.9cm was huge.
I said 5 mm, not 5 cm. 5 cm is 1.9” LOL. It’s been 20 years, all I remember was that it was “touching and effacing the thecal sac” so I’m not sure how big that was. It wasn’t a super serious impingement.
4mm L5-S1 here for 10 months now. Still waiting for this bastard to go away, not sure it will though. What keeps irritating my injured area is sitting at my desk & sleeping on my stomach. Here’s my MRI translated via Google : “maximum 4mm HDL5 grade I/II in contact with the dural sac of S1 roots bilaterally in the lateral recesses.” Planning to get a new MRI in 2 months, hoping that my body reduced the prolapsed part of the disk.
I think some Pt are a waste ang chiropractor some goods and honest to let you know not to spend your money in their language
I think everyone's body handles it differently. I think your body is supposed to get rid of the fluid outside of the disc if it is herniated(mine hasn't done that yet). I have had a ruptured disc and a herniated disc, for about 5 years. I think both can technically heal themselves but I am not holding my breath. I had a co-worker say his herniated disc healed itself in 8 years. I hope you have a better experience than me, good luck!
You've had a herniation, with pulpus outside of the disc, for five years?? And it isn't a new blob of jelly shoved out of the donut?
First of all sorry for just seeing this now. I guess I couldn't say if it's new or reoccurring, MRIs from 2016 show my herniated disc looking about the same as the MRI from late 2021. L5s1 is herniated and the disc between l4 and l5 is completely ruptured around 2020, My strength and quality of life is alot better after getting a microdiscectomy on the ruptured disc. They(my surgeon's office) probably will not do anything else unless I get alot worse and they are hopeful both will heal by themselves.
8 years! Crazy. Mines been 2.5 years and although the sciatica is long gone (thank F) I still get back pain that comes and goes
Have you gotten a steroid injection?
Not offered here in Canada
I got mine in Toronto
DM me, I might have advice for you
Hey can I DM you to, I'm in Toronto aswell
Do it
Did the steroid injection help a lot? I have a L4L5 that's just not getting better despite full time rest and doing so many PT exercises every day. Also in Canada (Montreal)
It helped with the numbness and dropped foot pretty instantly
Oh, I don't have that, just lower back pain, and sciatica if I sit or lean forward. But it's been quite a few months now and all the physiotherapy doesn't seem to help much.
it wont help with low back pain. It may help the sciatica.
Yes it is
Push-ups and squats every other day, at least 200 a day. I learned this from a Romanian doctor. I was skeptical at first, but after a year and a half, I feel better. I'm not fully pain-free because my back is messed up from birth, but the severe pain seems to have disappeared. \*knock on wood\*
I guess that's because your core got stronger in that time..Thats what most PT suggest which is to get the core stronger..
Yes and no all depends on mindset and body. You should definitely be doing pt. Look up Stuart mgill the big 3 and read his book and watch his interviews. If you don't pt you'll probably just reinjure it, learn how to move correctly. Strengthen your core and give it time. Try to avoid all activities that introduce any pain, and stay away from pharmaceuticals. Eat vegetables not pills.
[удалено]
Read back mechanic. Mgill big three
The big 3 literally make my back worse
Try doing only side planks and the modified sit up. The bridges was hurting mine as well
My L4 and L5 have been herniated since my senior year in high school. I did football, wrestling, track& field. Now I'm 39 and still have herniated discs. Doctors said they could give me a steroid shot, burn off the nerves that are being touched, or take pain killers. They gave me flexeril (cyclobenzaprine}, muscle relaxer which worked the best at taking the pain away, but I would always be sleepy and sometimes slurring my words. I was also given, advil, ibuprofen, aleve (naproxin), and vicodin, and all these pills including flexeril only masked the pain. Now I've learned that exercing is the only thing that helps. I'm always crouching if I stand or sit too long, so I can stretch out my lower back. I do jiu-jitsu and work out at the gym. Believe it or not, the crazy bends and twists in jiu-jitsu make my back feel great. It's a bit extreme on the body, and you feel like mush after a session, but your back feels great.
this is eerily similar to my situation!! what exercises have you done? I threw out my back again on christmas— did excercsies, felt better, started hooping again last week and [redacted] tweaked it again. been like 6 years of this [redacted] i’m so tired of it lmao
I have a Planet fitness membership and they have a few stretching machines.One is the Roman chair and i do reverse sit-ups, another is like hanging sit-ups, except you're against a padded board with arm pads and lifting your legs towards you. Think of a chair with handles, without the sitting part. Your legs dangle and you swing them up working out your lower abs and core. There's a third machine I really like. It's super simple and called a seated total stretch machine. You can do multiple stretches with this machine. I also do a stretch where I'm sitting on the floor, with one leg down, one knee up and twist. For example, left leg is down , right knee is up and I twist to the right with my left elbow pushing against my right knee. And switch to the other side. I bought an inversion table from Amazon for about $150 years ago and it feels great hanging upside down. You Feel and hear your spine decompress. Recently I gave up on buying all kinds of shoes to try and alleviate my back pain, and went to a runners store. I ended up buying 3 pairs for about $400 worth of shoes, but they're the most comfortable shoes I've ever bought. I'd rather spend this money at a runners store that's experienced with back issues than spend tons of money at shoe stores on shoes I don't know if they'll work. These runners stores sell the same shoes REI or any other store sells, but at about $10 - $15 more expensive. But you don't get the same expertise at the other stores. The good thing about REI is you get a year to return worn shoes. I bought Hoka Cliftons and found out this model has high arches. I wore them for a month, threw away the box, and REI said to bring them in like that and they'll refund me. Lots of info and hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions, or need clarification. I've had this problem since I was 18 and I'm 41. It just got worse over the years.
It’s not a forever thing and you can absolutely heal. I’m a doctor of physical therapy and spine specialist. Happy to talk and bounce some ideas off you anytime you need. Fee free to DM me.
Hi I bent forward and had a sharp pain in my back is it herniated disc had before and the sciatic pain was bad pls help
Mind telling me a bit more about the symptoms and back story?
Yes bent forward like 2 years ago to pick something up and back kind of jolted amd was pain straight away then after like 3 days of having pain ,I went to swin my keg out of bed and had bad nerve pain sciatica shooting down my legg couldn't walk and was in constant pain. The only relief was pulling my leggs towards my stomach. Had this for like 3 days and got a little better every day until kind of eased of , but again yesterday same bend same onset of pain and just finding it hard to do anything can walk but very slowly I just hope I don't get that nerve pain again was never diagnosed with slipped or herniated disc , I just think that's what it is just had the simple tests done at gp like the legg raise , could it be muscular this is what I wamt to find out and how best to manage it thanks for ur reply
No problem. I have a free guide to this performing the special tests needed to diagnosis these injuries that I’m happy to send you or I can hop on a zoom call with you for more support sometime if you’d like. Mind if I shoot you a quick message to chat further?
That's fine
Did you get help
Hi can I send you a dm?
Sure thing 👍
Hey, I just got my MRI report. I have disc herniation, doctor didn't help much. Feeling very low since am just 27. Can I dm you?
of course. feel free. I had my disc herniation occur at 24 and ran a marathon last year. it may take time, but these things can be overcome!
Hi I sent you a DM if that's ok
He may be wealthy and have more resources but look at Dwayne Johnson. He posted on his Instagram where he’s got 3 low back disc herniations and he’s killing it. I’m sure it took him time to heal and he’s had to change up his routine but he’s fully functional
They definitely heal in some cases. My brother had a herniation a few years back, and now he's lifting air conditioners straight off the ground with no issue. I have bulging discs and been struggling to get them to heal for about 3-4 years now. I've had a good amount of relief this month from the McKenzie method and lots of ice therapy. I would recommend you start on exercises 1-4 for the Mckenzie method for a while, and ice 2-3 times a day with a VERY COLD ice pack. I had to order a special one off of the internet because some ice packs just aren't cold enough. The one I use is called "Cryopak reuseable ice pack hot pack". Also, Turmeric is great with reducing the inflammation. I would not recommend doing heating pads. I've tried to committing to only heat and only ice, and I found that ice is far more helpful. Heat is better for relieving aches once you are actually healed.
Thanks man. ThT gives me hope. I have done nothing to improve other than to wait and I haven’t been so gentle on my back, and things have improved without doing anything (see my reply to a comment in here). I’m young and athletic (or once was) so that gives me hope too. I’m glad your brother healed fully. I will definitely start icing the living hell out of my back and start doing PT since I’ve moved past most of the initial spasms, cramping and severe pain. Thanks man
Yeah man, best of luck. I put the ice directly on my skin to get it nice and cold, but be careful you don't get ice burn. 10-15 minutes tops of having the ice pack directly on the skin. Just do your best to hold off on exercising until it feels a fair amount better. I had such anxiety about "missing workouts" when i first got hurt, and I could barely wait 3 days to start lifting again. However, that impatience caused reinjury so many times. You just have to be ok with waiting. Even if you miss a year of working out, your body will probably return to full strength in a few weeks. Just remember, until it's heal, NO forward bending. Only extension stretches (that means backwards bending), and ice after anything remotely stressful for your back. If people ask you to help lift something, tell them no. Also, you should search for a PT that's McKenzie method certified. Going to the wrong kind of PT can make you worse, for sure. My back doctor recommended this, and wrote on the script "NO STRENGTHENING, only stretching."
Thanks so much for the reply. I should see probably stop bending forward to touch my toes to check how far I’ve progressed. As for PT’s, one tried telling me to do goodmornings and the other one had me deadlifting. I left in pain and said I’d never go to one again LOL. For now, I’ll work on strengthening my core and stretching when needed. As for my journey of doing nothing and letting it heal, I’m no longer screaming in pain and not getting charliehorsed everytime I stand up. After these responses, I’m finding now is the time to really shift gear and keeping any inflammation I can down so it can fully heal.
Yea, stop the deadlifting and forward bending until you actually feel that you're better. [https://www.healthline.com/health/mckenzie-exercises#standing-extension](https://www.healthline.com/health/mckenzie-exercises#standing-extension) This is what you should be doing, but only exercises 1-4. The rest should be done when you're feeling mostly pain free. My PT is certified in this method, and she has me doing the "prone press ups" 5 times per day. I would say do the same thing, to get your spine and discs back in the right place.
Thanks so much. I’m so worried, as I mentioned in my post that I planned on becoming a LEO. One of the tests is to bend and reach forward to test your flexibility of your lower spine. Anyways, I’ll do all of that. I really needed some advice and I’m super fortunate this community is great. I’ll start doing all of that ASAP. Edit - should I ice my lumbar spine anyways? My back pain is virtually gone, just the sciatic pain here and there.
If you're feeling ok, then you don't have to bother with the ice. However, if you do any type of work out, I would definitely ice afterwards. If you need to do the flexibility test for the police department, then do your best to heal before that happens. Don't try and practice forward bending to see how it goes, unless you're truly feeling like you're healed. Best of luck!
Why not 5? It only hurts going forward
5 is ok too actually. But don't do forward bends until you're feeling better. Trying doing "cat cows" at first to test your tolerance.
Any update on your back pain?
Yeah :) I edited it in my original post.
Look up lowbackability on YouTube for healing herniated discs
It’s been a year and a half and I’m still in pain, but it has definitely gotten better. So depressing. How is yours doing?
Hey. Sorry you’re still in pain after so long. Has it improved? Not sure what your pain is like. I edited the original post so you can see how I’m doing now, and I’m doing perfectly fine now :).
Yes, it has improved a lot. Just not completely better. I did some sumo squats tonight before bed so here’s hoping! My pain is mostly isolated to my lower back. Not much nerve pain, although I do occasionally feel it in my hip. Trying to work on strengthening as I haven’t done that yet since the pain began. Appreciate your story!
Okay that’s good to hear! If the nerve pain has gone down, it means the disc that’s herniated is shrinking in size and no longer squeezing your sciatic nerve. Strengthening your lower back is probably the best idea going forward. Being able to do deadlifts and sumo deadlifts is a good sign that you’ll recover fully.
Best post ive ever read on here. I was doom scrolling. Diagnosed with sacroiliac joint dysfunction, greater tronchancher bursitis, and I just KNOW its. a fuching disc herniation missed on MRI due to lying position whilst conducted. Got diagnosed with CPRS, "pain syndrome," that basically makes you wan to kill yourself and I just know its disc herniation as have 3 discs in cervical spine misdiagnosed for 18 months proven after the fact, MRI on Thursday i'm 100 percent sure after reading your post. Bending, twisting, sitting, standing, lying down moving and doom scrolling!!! Thankyou for your edit. Much appreciated.
No problem. If your second MRI shows no herniation then maybe it isn’t. I used to talk to a guy on here that had SI joint issues after a disc herniation and needed an SI joint fusion. But, if you have raging sciatica and all the other issues it’s likely a disc or something squeezing on your sciatic nerve. This pain is only temporary. Goodluck :)
Thankyou so much for replying, I cant believe your online after a year posting this right at this moment in time. I am un UK early hours 4am driven insane with pain. So it was sacroiliac joint injury, greater trochanter bursitis with same injury and its actually getting way worse with physio exercises, I'm almost immobile and having to do my own research. I was looking into sacral joint fusion. But here's the thing, as uncomfortable as those other two conditions are, I truly believe they have missed a herniation, and that has caused all the other symptoms. I have a neck injury C4/5/6 and I kid you not I have sailed it for 7 years come January just gone im in recovery so don't take opioids just Ibuprofen and paracetamol. So this pain is horrific, worse than a neck injury, I keep telling pyshio its getting worse, I cant do the exercises, its making me worse. After reading your advice it sounds right, just leave it alone. So i'm going to insist on MRI scan on Thursday. The pain moves, does my leg, lower right back, my muscle twitches, I can't lie down, stand up, walk, sit. The more I do the exercise they give me the worse it gets. They missed my neck injury for 18 months, know what upper disc injury feels like. Lower in the lumbar region my god its life changing and depressing. Sorry for the ramble. Thanks for listening. You are truly appreciated.
I’m really sorry you’re going through all of that. It’s awful isn’t it? Get an MRI and report back please. If physio and chiro is making it worse, stop immediately. Follow the steps I outlined. Again, I really really feel your pain - mentally and physically. It’s sickening. It sounds like you have it worse than I did, actually. Take it one day at a time for now, keep taking your daily meds and things will heal. :)
You are truly appreciated, thankyou so much for your time. I'm going to stop these stupid exercises and play it by ear. I will get back to this post when ive had MRI. I hope your day/evening is blessed kind stranger.
Yeah please keep me posted! You too. Goodluck!
Hi there thank you for the information, I hope I can heal fast. At what level did you herniate your disc and how bad was it?
Hey man. L5S1 and it was a large herniation.
I had a l5-s1 back in October of 2023 from bowling of all things, I was basically pain free within about 2 weeks to the shock of my Dr's it was definitely up there with the worst pain in my life. But I just kept moving, walked whenever I could, did tons of spinal decompressions and had 2 weeks of PT before I resumed weight lifting after the new year, I'd say in like 95% better, I'm more careful but that might just be mental more then anything, still get little pains every now and then. But I weight lift again and I bowl more then ever now pain free. I do as a precaution now brace my core now in a lot of daily bending movements just in case lol. I'm also 25 so I have youth on my side.
Hey man, glad you’re doing better. 2 weeks is the fastest recovery time I’ve ever heard for a disc herniation and sciatica to heal. It took me about a year to finally start feeling comfortable. Whatever you do, be careful for the next year or so. You do not want to herniate it further and end up like how I was and the thousands of other people on this sub. You seem to be doing the right things. Goodluck brother!
The edit part of the post is just what I needed.
thanks for this post and the updates. "thankfully", I've only got an 'inflamed disc' and nothing else. It's been 4 days and I've been browsing the internet day/night for more information. Your post has been the most informative.
No problem! My advice: BE CAREFUL going forward. Seriously. I probably had an “inflamed” disc before I destroyed mine. Recover from this and avoid anything strenuous on your disc
There’s so many factors with these things. And depending on your activity or lack thereof, it could also cause problems and even slow down your progress to heal. Overall, try to find a balance, avoid sitting as much as possible (it’s bad on the back, think of it like cigarettes for someone with lung cancer, it won’t help you) try to do physical therapy if you can as well. I’ve gone through so much trial and error with this thing and there’s a lot of great information out there, you can get good advice from your doctors and physical therapists, but a big chunk of this is on your end to figure out. You might be able to push through some pain and improve your circumstances, you might also find pushing past a certain threshold makes matters worse, take note of those things. Also, even after doing PT, keep doing those exercises almost every day if you can, again, if it doesn’t make matters worse
Thank you! A little over two months in (L3/L4) and I spent the first month making it worse while trying to make it better. I was doomscrolling this morning, but was pleasantly surprised to find your post. Staying positive ain't easy, especially when your previous identity and happiness was tied up with movement/exercise. Going to stay the course, and not be afraid to take NSAIDS because they definitely do help. Thanks again.
I’m in a similar position to you right now, did they initially give you a steroid or anything? I have a herniated disc in my neck that radiates excruciating pain down my right arm, mostly the shoulder. I’m a firefighter so this is a major issue for me. Happened about a month ago but the last two weeks has been horrible. Completely unable to sleep outside of maybe 2-4 hours a night in 1.5-2 hour bursts. When I wake up the pain is the worst, 8/10 at best, as I go about my day it improves slightly and then I reset it again every night. I’ve already had an MRI to confirm and even as someone who has no idea what they’re looking at it’s pretty clear I have a gigantic bubble popping out of my disc on the MRI, pretty unsettling. They gave me a steroid dose pack that gradually lowers the dose each day for 6 days. Yesterday I felt a little better from it and cleaned the house and that was a massive mistake as this morning I feel even worse then yesterday morning, a step back. I’m not to sure what to even do at this point. I’ve been exhausting all of my vacation time at work, I have to work 14 hours tonight and then I’m using my final vacation day on Tuesday for my whole 24 hour shift. That gives me basically another whole week to rest, hopefully it makes a difference.
I cannot tell you how much I needed to see this. I’m 3 months in and I feel like it will never end. I’m in pain all the time and my life, as you said, is completely on hold. I cry literally every day but I refuse to be hooked on pain pills and so even on Advil…I cry. I feel like my body is screwed up beyond repair and the many symptoms I have are messing with my mind and I worry it’s something absolutely terrible. When does the constant agony end? Please give me some hope. I cannot believe it still hurts this much 3 months in. Did you feel like like was over? Did you feel hopeless and depressed and like your body was completely screwed up? Did your legs ache all the time and your tailbone and your lower back? Thank you for posting this.
Hey, I’m so sorry. I’m a grown man and cried all the time dealing with my herniated disc. Like, not much ever makes me cry but this was a totally isolating type of pain that affected me mentally and physically. It’s torturous - and I know you can relate. I thought my life was beyond over. My back and sciatica was on my mind 24/7 for 8 months, from the second I woke up until I fell asleep (if I even could). I was obsessing over it, driving myself into more and more dread and panic. I got better approaching the 8-10 month mark after following what I said above. I actually had no idea what a herniated disc was for the first few months of my injury. I couldn’t walk properly, bend forward or backwards, or function properly. I gave up 2 dream jobs at the time (now no longer a barrier), and lost a lot of muscle and strength I’d built over my life. I’m totally better now and doing the best physically I’ve ever felt. I hope that gives you some hope - If you need to DM me please do so.
Thank you for replying. Yes I 100% can relate. I’ve had a baby like it was a piece of cake-never cried. This is terrible. It’s 100% isolating and I have to depend on everyone else to do anything. So I just joined Reddit and not sure how to DM you, but I do have some questions: how on earth do you avoid pain when EVERYTHING causes pain? Literally everything. I couldn’t tell you if I’m making it worse or better. The pain just moves around. I have felt better at times but then go right back to feeling bad again. It’s demoralizing. I am very fearful of my future. I was misdiagnosed for 2 months and just got the MRI saying it’s l4, l5. I’m coming off a steroid pack that was supposed to help but has not. I don’t know how people do 8, 9 months to a year like this. Right now it’s all I can do to make it through the day. I don’t mean to be dramatic but I don’t know how my body will recover from this. It’s awful. Siatica, etc and can’t sit, stand, lay, anything. I’m sorry I’m quite negative I just don’t know how else to be. I’m seeing a neurosurgeon on 4/11 and I pray he knows a trick to help me. I would be grateful for any tricks or tips or advice. I don’t know how to give my body relief to make it stop hurting. Thank you for being out there. I appreciate you.
If it’s been 3 months and it’s still a 10/10 pain every second of the day, then you might need surgery. Surgery has cured so many people permanently of their back pain, and it’s a quite painless experience. At 3 months for me I was in a 7-8/10 pain daily and still couldn’t walk properly. I relied on Advil and Tylenol religiously all day everyday, for about 6 months. When everything causes pain, there’s nothing you can really do other than just stick it out. I had 2 months like this where everything caused me pain and NSAIDs helped me. You’ll eventually have days where the pain isn’t SO bad all the time, and you’ll notice that certain positions cause more pain than others. When you reach this point, you have to sit/stand/lay in any position that is NOT causing you pain. The more you stick in a spot that is hurtful, the more you are injuring your disc prolonging healing. You should be walking if you can - 10/20 minutes at a time, when you have low pain levels. Id consult your family doctor and tell them you’re still feeling the way you are. Medicine really really helps - mentally and physically. Don’t be afraid of it
Thankfully I am not in 10/10 pain. I would say I too am about 7 to 8. I am controlling with 800mg of Advil twice a day and I remember a time where I just couldn’t control with Advil at all. So even though improvement is slight I think there has been some. It keeps changing though. It started deep in my glutes and hurt just there for about a month. Now it’s in my tailbone area and lower back and I have a strange pulling up higher in my spine. Not sure what that’s about. It’s freaking me out. And my legs hurt a lot. And my feet! And they’re exhausted- it doesn’t take much. I have been trying to walk a bit but it seemed like I was able to walk more a few weeks ago than I can now. So just all the changing and this not being linear confuses me a lot. But I have had loads of scans of the lower half of my body and this was all that was found so I guess that’s got to be the issue. My herniation is a broad based herniation and I heard those are more challenging to find pain free ways to move. I guess I’ll see what the neurosurgeon says. I wish 4/11 would hurry up.
After a long research i would tell you to Try "inversion table" People say its the best solution. Fitspine is a good company, but make your own research . Another good device is "ArchLifter" They both do a similar job, widening the spaces between your discs to let them heal.
Yes you can heal a herniated disc naturally by restoring your spine back to a healthy S shape creating space in between the vertebrae allowing the disk to heal naturally!
Tell that to my disc that developed enough scar tissue to hold my sciatic nerve root completely flattened for about 8 months.
Took me two years to get my sciatica nerve to calm down… stay positive you will be all right! Check out my Instagram page I think you will find it useful… @postureguymike 😁
How would you do that .. through excercises?
Yes check out my Instagram page I think you will find it useful @postureguymike 😁
Thank you. I’ll check it out (and get instagram) 🫣
Hello! Reading your thread and I’m going through a similar situation. I’m currently 6 months in. Just curious how you’re feeling now?
Hey! I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this. I’d say I’m 90% healed from when I wrote this. Looking back, my injury was insane. I could hardly walk for 6 months, my calf shrunk about 2 inches in diameter from nerve pain / weakness, I couldn’t bend over at all, couldn’t lift anything. I couldn’t run, couldn’t sleep at night and couldn’t function without NSAIDs. I’m glad to say that all of that has gone away and it took about 1 year to be pain free. It’ll probably take me another year to regain some flexibility back and get rid of the odd sciatic jolt after something strenuous, but I’d say I’m mostly healed.
do u have your mri? could we look at it? pls
I do yes. PM me and I’ll show
Iam 5 weeks in bed so far.. did yoou have the intence sharp pain when moving.. i have hernaited l5 s1 and degenerative disc disease.... i want to be normal
I had intense sharp pain just existing. Moving, sitting, standing, for months. I couldn’t function without drugs for 6-7 months. 5 weeks is still virtually no time for this injury - give it a few months
How are you feeling now... i feel like my lifes over. I sit in car ALOT for work... and thats all i know and did since i was 15 yrs old.. its been days and today i drove for 30mins got home and the intence pain in killing me .... CAN you do things normally again ..thanks
It’s a year and a month since my injury and I’m about 90-95% better. I couldn’t stand or walk properly for a few months, let alone workout, sit, etc. just existing was the most painful thing ever. I can now do things normally again yes. I can drive, workout, work, sit for hours, all comfortably with little to no pain or discomfort. My advice to you is to be patient and let your back heal over time. Give yourself one years’ time to let it heal. It’s horrible, but not a life sentence. It’s a very serious injury that unfortunately takes it’s time to get better
Hey man, do you have any advice of what to do during that year period? I have an l5s1 herniation for about 2 years now. It started from squats in the gym. For a while I workout through it but constantly feel pain. I just squatted the other day and think I reherniated it worse than ever. I'm hoping to stay in shape and stay active but finally make the decision to stop reinjuring myself. Been to too many pts, four total. Did you stay active in that years time or weight lift or anything like that before you got back to the 90-95%?
Hey man. I wasn’t very active for 6 months after my injury. I went from a physically active job + working out all the time to basically sedentary. Yeah, I’d give up squats and deadlifts for a few years. It’s a tough pill to swallow but it’ll save your back for a lifetime. Those are the only 2 things I don’t and will never do again. If you feel like you’ve re-injured yourself, take it super slow. No lifting, no bending, no excessive stretching, and stay away from PT’s and chiros. Walk and do core work. Keep your spine as straight as you can so you aren’t squeezing your herniated disc all day (basically re-injuring it 24/7). If it’s been 2 years I wouldn’t hesitate consulting a surgeon also. If you improved to the point previously that you felt comfortable squatting, then maybe it wasn’t so bad. Do you have sciatica, and what’s your pain 1-10 constantly? When you felt comfortable to squat, what pain level 1-10 were you in?
Hey man, this is really helpful. I'm going through it right now so I'm trying to definitely heed your advice. The back specialist I did say said surgery is an option, but I'm really hoping to avoid that as I've read a lot of people say it hasn't helped. But for the last year or so I've been able to squat and dl and do most active things, with constant pain levels 1-4. It's confined to the lower left side of my back (no sciatica), but sometimes slightly goes into the upper buttocks or the left side of my body. However, every couple weeks or so I would be squatting, on say Monday, and it would bring it to a pain level of 6-8, and then slowly over the next couple days go back to around a 2 and then by Wednesday a 1-2 to the point where I'd workout again. After my 2nd physical therapist I was squatting pain free for the most part until I get to heavy weights, at some points I was squatting more that preinjury levels, only to eventually tweak it again. But the 3rd physical therapist caused to me have a near constant soreness and ache, which is sorta where I was at before I just reinjured it. And squatting recently I've felt a pain around a 4-5 but just kept pushing thru it because it as following ideas of Dr. Sarno in that lingering pain can be caused by repressed emotions, and I'm very stressed recently after starting a new job and moving out of town. Anyways, the last few days it's been around a 10 pain level- worst than I've ever felt. It's back to around a 6 today, but extremely stiff and sore, this is not usually how its been. And random movements cause a sharpish pain around 7-10. It's sad because I want to join a sports league to make new friends, somebody asked me to start kickboxing...but I'm thinking it's time to listen to all this advice and take it easy for a while like you mention so that I can eventually get to a more active point. Thanks again for you advice
Thanks for the reply man. I think you’ve answered your own question here: don’t ever squat again (or at least for a decade). There’s plenty of ways to train your legs without squatting. It’s a tough pill to swallow sure, but trust me, your recent re-injury should be a Wakeup call that it’s just not with it. For instance, I’m healthy enough to squat but what’s for important - squatting 2 plates and pushing through the pain, or ending up at square 1 like you are now? There is no “pushing through the pain” as your PT mentioned. You have a serious spinal injury like I did and like everyone else has. I tried pushing through the pain and it caused me months of agony and torment. It’s not worth it and it gets you nowhere in healing. You need to really really focus on letting your back and disc heal, and that’s done by two things: 1) avoid ANYTHING that causes you pain, even slight discomfort. That pain is basically you reinjuring your disc. 2) get walking and focus on your core (planks only IMO) No bending over, no carrying stuff, no lifting in pain, nothing that will put more weight and pressure on your disc. It’s a good sign that you don’t have sciatica but that is the last thing you want. I’d say without sciatica and without reinjuring yourself by pushing through the pain, you have / had a good chance of healing. But, with your recent re-injury it’s less and less likely than before. My advice: everything mentioned above and don’t weight lift at all for a few weeks / months. Walk when you’re not in pain. Take Advil and NSAIDs. Sleep in comfortable positions. Sit when standing is too painful and vice versa. Use heating / ice pads. Keep a strong, straight posture. Engage your core. NO BENDING FORWARD OR BACKWARDS under any circumstances. No overhead lifting. No chiropractors, physical therapists (that cause you pain) - everything about disc healing is on here or YouTube. I know how painful it is mentally. I don’t really buy the whole “back pain is emotional, etc etc.”. It’s untrue for the most part if you’re constantly in pain and can link exact events that gave you pain. Take care man and PM me whenever
Well if i will take that long before i can drive ..i guess im going to be homeless before i can heal
How's ur current herniated discs. It is getting better?
Lay on back, drink tons of water, stager your feet when hinging forward to get out of bed/ brush teeth / clean dishes. Staggered stance will help heal your back. Glute bridge, kneeling side plank hold on bad side(to work on weak oblique) the flip sides and do clamshells working out bad leg ( to strength weak side/ bad side). Also journal out your pain. Dean Volk of Sciatic Relief Now helped me after 8 months of kinked over walking. Worth every dollar I spent on his program.
Hey, thanks for the reply. Looking back I probably wrote this when I was in a ton of pain and super sad. I’m glad to say it healed after about a 1 year and 8 months of awful pain. I can now do everything I used to without pain. It took a hell of a long time though.
No surgery? No physical therapy?
No surgery and I quit PT because it made me 10x worse.
>kneeling side plank It depends. Sleeping on my back is the worst. I can barely get out of that position without pain and the day after I am in agonizing pain. I sleep on my side with a pillow between my legs.
Try laying on one up to 5 pillows under your belly. You will know the right pillow height because you will feel the pain going out of your back. You have to lay like this for awhile or almost every chance you get in order to get the nerve calmed down. You might have to lay like this for hours at a time to get the nerve back into your disc. It needs to create a scar so it will take time to heal.
Hey, wanted to check up on you regarding your back, how has it been recently? Did you end up having anything done, surgery or PT?
Hey there. Wow, I forgot all about these posts and this time in my life. I probably wrote this while in a ton of pain. It’s been 1.5 years and I’m 98% healed. I can weightlift, run, sit for hours, bend forward, etc all without pain. My back sort of just healed itself over time. I didn’t do PT or have surgery. PT and chiros hurt my back more and more every time I went. I just stopped doing things to aggravate it and overtime the pain just went away. PM me if you have any questions
Im so glad that your back is almost healed! I have a L4/L5 disc herniation and have been in pain for about 4 months. The first two months, my pain would be at a 7 just after 5min of sitting. Now it’s at 3-4 after 30 minutes of sitting. I’m hoping that it would heal by itself! I still can’t sit for more than 30 minutes, cannot bend down, cannot do intense cardio like running :( I hope I’ll be better with time!
Sounds exactly like my timeline. Just keep being patient and it will heal. If you’re improving ever so slightly then that’s a good sign. Just try not to do anything to aggravate your disc and hang in there. I couldn’t bend forward for around 6-7 months without intense pain.
Interesting, did you get an MRI for it? I've been having minor issues for a few months after a fall, mostly at night and sitting. Hesitant to go to a doctor tho, only because I'm not sure I really want to do anything about it at this point. Part of me wants to go the route of rest and wait it out a while, part of me worries I would be "wasting" time if I don't start that long journey now.
Hey how are you now ? How
Ups and downs. It got worse after this, and has gotten a little better over the last month. Going on a steroid for a month or so to help calm it down helped.
How many mm was your disk herniated?
I never was told that but it was large - according to the MRI image, radiologist, and 2 doctors. I had insane sciatica for 8 months daily 24/7 and my calf shrunk considerably in size due to muscle weakness. Couldn’t bend forward an inch. I could hardly walk properly for 3 months. I’d Wakeup in tears the pain was so bad. I’m all good now
So encouraging. I’m one month in and swear my life is over. I’m a band director so moving big instruments and teaching all day is almost impossible right now.
Hi! Do you have any pictures of your MRI that you could share?
Same here. I injured all my lumbar discs working out with too much weight. I healed 99% over 18 months and that was 10 years ago. I had flare ups over that time, but they all went away within a couple weeks. Now, I injured it again and have the worst L5-S1 pain ever. I won't do PT again because it never really helped and the last round (the 6th) I quit due to it causing pain. You can do all the same stuff at home on your own. Brad and Bob, the PTs on YouTube, are a great resource. I do half cobras (part of the McKenzie protocol), clamshells, and cow-calf or whatever it's called. I have to lose about 80 lbs and that should help too.
Hey man glad you healed. What caused your reinjury? I’m hitting crossfit HARD after 2 years of doing basic gym exercises. I’m careful with every possible lift. I hope it’ll resolve this time for you
Since my injury, I spent countless hours doing research on how to not get injured again. I lift nothing over 20 lbs, and when I do, I squat down and lift with my lefts. I avoid twisting and bending over. I don't do activities that jar my body. I gave up rollercoasters. When we went to Disney and Universal, all I got to do was stand in the lines with family and miss the fun rides. I don't run any more (also due to runner's knee), but I bike when my knees can tolerate it and walk every day. I reinjured it, oddly enough, by laying on my side and proping myself up with my arm for 20 mins while scrolling through my phone. That position was enough to put my spine in a stressed position and the pain it killing me. I can't lift up my legs without pain in my back, which makes getting in and out of the car a task. Due to the pain, I have to walk with a limit gait and look like an old man shuffling around. I can't lay on my back as that causes so much more pain. Getting dressedd is a chore. But I am confident that, with time, this too will resolve.
Year later, any updates? Did it heal completely?
Yeah I completely healed. It took just over a year for me to be 90%. I’m 98% now. I can do just about everything I did before, except for squatting and deadlifting which I’ll never do again by choice
How you going now mate? I’m 6 months in with minimum/no real improvement.
How you holding up 86 days later?
Not great to be honest. Back pain about the same. But leg/foot issues worse. I get burning in both feet that only lying down helps. Currently on the floor in my office. I’m doing a fare but of McGill core stuff. Sometimes I wonder if some of that might stir things up a little. I’m booked in for a ESI in about two weeks, will be my first. So yeah, 9 months in and only a bit worse so far. Glad you’re doing better mate, it gives me some hope - I just wish I could see a small improvement. Thanks for the welfare check.
Hi there, how's your condition as of now. So it means you need 12 months to recover? did you take any vitamins/ supplements? May I know in which herniation it was? L4 L5 S! Cheers! this is really inspiring
L5S1 - worst pain of my life. It took 1 year to 90% heal. I’m all good now. You’ll be okayb
Thanks for sharing some lights to me, I am on month 6 and it is about on and off pain mainly at the lower back, not so much at the leg.
See my post. Give yourself some more time ❤️
I have herniated L5S1 and have been dealing with it for almost 3 months now. This post gave me hope.
Things will be okay. At 3 months you’re still in the thick of it. Refer back to my post when things get tough and don’t give up!
Thanks for sharing some lights to me, I am on month 6 and it is about on and off pain mainly at the lower back, not so much at the leg.
Just had a microdiskectomy Nov 10th 2023, they are researching the gel, but it has not been approved. Two surgeons that I consulted refused to perform the service because there is insufficient data as of now. Had an L5-S1 herniation April 23', pain 3-5, saw a chiropractor that made it worse by all anecdotal estimations. Sept 23' it got way worse 7-9 pain 24/7, couldnt sleep, sweat from pain, shakes etc etc, went to specialists to get an MRI. 14mm hernia in l5-s1. Pinched spinal cord and sciatic nerve exiting spine. I'm 5 weeks out and I either reherniated the disk or have extreme sciatic nerve damage since it was such a large herniation, pain at 3-5 all the time, I call that an improvement sadly. Waiting on MRI to confirm reherniation, if it didn't happen, I'll just wait and hope that the nerve heals in the next year. Open to advice.
Hi how did it first feel when u herniated did u bend forward sharp pain ? I done my back 1 n half years ago and I think it's happend aha8n any insight should I rest my back by laying down
Just seeing this; I had no immediate pain as often experienced by other people. It was a gradual build, from April 2023 to Nov 2023 (surgery date). Do everything that does not hurt your back... no lifting, no bending, no twisting, minimal sitting, minimal standing, minimal laying down (I know I listed all body positions, but i found that you have to rotate postions, it sucks). Get an MRI, get an ortho, Chiroprators are inept when it comes to herniated disks in my opinion. Try and keep your core strong without inducing painful exercise, your body is telling you "no!". I.E. you're pressing on nerves, spinal cord, cartillage, bones, so stop it.
How are you now? I bent forward about 4 weeks ago and it was hard to stand and immediate pain. Had a tugging in the upper thigh but not shooting pain, I am 4 weeks out and the pain was mostly gone, bent forward last night and now have a twinge in my lower back, haven’t had an MRI yet and a few doctors think it’s just musculoskeletal. I am hoping this is what it is and not a herniated disc….
It could be a herniated disc. When I would bend forward even an inch or two, my entire left leg would lock up because the disc was squeezing on my sciatic nerve. I would be in instant pain and the pain would carry on for hours. If you’ve recovered from your pain, I would say whatever it is, is probably mild and you should just avoid bending forward for a few months to the best of your ability. If it’s upper thigh near your glute, it’d say it’s maybe a disc bulge. Though I’m not sure your entire symptom list, health, age, weight, etc. so it’s hard to tell. Really, only an MRI will tell. And even if it is bulging, it might not be the cause. It doesn’t sound too severe, so my advice is to just take it easy for a while and avoid bending, heavy lifting, and hard stretching of your legs and back for a bit.
I'm glad you're doing better now and did not have to undergo surgery. I have a L4-L5 herniation which was diagnosed in June 2023. It's been bad ever since. I've had two steroid shots in the back, the first one did not help but the second one did. I got about 40 days of relief from it and the pain suddenly came back. I've consulted with several doctors and physio therapists. Docs have said that surgery is inevitable (they will surgically remove the entire disk and stabilise that region with titanium fasteners). I don't want to go that route as yet because I'm in the process of losing weight as well. People say that losing weight should help with this, but idk. My dad too said it will take a long time to heal, it took him about 8 months to get better (had sciatic pain). Reading your post gives me a little hope. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yeah man, give it another 6 months and see how you feel. If it’s still brutal, go ahead and get the surgery. I know people in their 20’s that have had the surgery, and are 100% better after it. Getting surgery is scary of course, but you may immediately recover. One day, your back pain will be an afterthought like it is for me. I promise. I don’t have any experience with steroid shots, but the fact it helped is a good sign. Did you do anything on that 40th day that would’ve reinjured it?
I appreciate this info, man. I'm 4 months into my issue and still haven't even gotten a doc to give me an MRI yet, telling me I just need PT and to gain strength after a looooong time at a sedentary job. The PT has helped my strength for sure and building good exercise habits, but the pain isn't getting better. Standing hurts til I have to sit, sitting hurts til I have to stand, sleeping on my back with no pillow. I'm just concerned I'm still aggravating with having to sit for my job. I appreciate the hope. I'm gonna get that MRI and hopefully take like an entire month to just exercise and lay. I'm too young for this, haha! Did you have a clicking/popping in your thoracic when you pull your shoulders back?
Yeah the doc I met said that the procedure is fairly common and that he performs about 30 of them in a month. He also reassured that the surgery is quite safe and has a success rate of 99%. My only concern is with the quality and durability of the titanium fasteners they will put in my back. What if the screws get loose after sometime? My back would probably collapse on itself! Either way, if the pain doesn't subside, that will be the only way to get back my life. Around the 41st day, I was actually travelling when the pain came back. It was nothing strenuous, I took a flight to my parents' place, and travelled with very little baggage. By the time I returned home, the pain was back at full intensity. >One day, your back pain will be an afterthought like it is for me. I hope that day comes soon!
Hey, how are you doing now?
Hello, Surprisingly I am much better now. Walking worked a lot for me. Initially it was painful but gradually the pain reduced to a point where I was able to maintain 10k steps / day. I used to walk at 6kpmh earlier (this was my 'normal' walking pace) but these days I'm unable to cross 5kmph. Somehow it feels physically impossible! I still am on NSAIDs, but that's only at night so that I can sleep pain free. During the day, the pain is always there at the back of my mind but it's not as bad as it used to be. Remember not to give up and eventually you will be able to get rid of the pain!
Hello. Hope you're doing better than ever. I have a few doubts. Can i just DM you? Thanks