Glad you seem to be doing well with it.

My herniated disc has so far ruined my life/lifestyle. I am a very active 36 year old male, I (used to) ride dirtbike on weekends and love playing with my 3 year old. I haven’t picked up my son in almost a month now, everyday he asks me if my back is better, then gets bummed out when I tell him no.
I can’t sit for more than 30 seconds straight. So I sit on the floor on my knees for dinner. I can’t drive more than a kilometer. The only thing I can do that actually feels relatively comfortable, is pace around the house for 18 hours a day. I sleep for 1 or 2 hours, then wake up because I rolled onto my side (I have to sleep on my stomach, otherwise the pain is excruciating) or something. Once awake, the pain kicks in and I am awake for at least an hour. My doctor prescribed Gabapentin and Tylenol3 for the pain, which did help with the nagging afternoon pain I felt, but nothing he prescribed works on the pain I experience when I wake up. After my 2 hours sleep, I wake up to the feeling that someone is tearing the muscle out of the back of my right leg, I have this pain for about the first hour after I wake up. Lucky for me, I was experienced in smoking marijuana before my injury, THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT RELIEVES MY MORNING PAIN. Why it’s not more widely used for this purpose is totally beyond me, I’m not saying people with pain should start, I’m just relaying what worked for my pain. My Doctor has yet to prescribe any treatments for my problem, he feels it’s better to wait for WCB, this is why I am going to get a new doctor this week. And WCB is taking their sweet time coming to a conclusion about my claim. I can re-roof a house in 2 days by myself, yet it takes them 3 weeks to look at a CT scan.

It’s been about 7 weeks and I finally understand what it means when they asked me about the pains coming down the limbs etc.

I am also starting to have the feeling that some people just think that I am imagining up the pains and possibly figuring that I am too lazy to get back to work.

Nice to find a place where I could find people who knows what it means when we use phrases such as in bad pains and having difficulties walking.

Again, thank you all!

http://ratology.blogspot.com/

I did some internet research and it was amazing how little information was available for alternative eastern medicine. Most of the comments from the websites said bedrest, light excersise, chiro or PT, anti inflammatory’s. I was very dispointed in the research. The theory I developed after talking to many people and reading was the body wants to heal itself. If you can allow the body to free itself from some of the pain, the muscles will loosen up, blood and O2 can get to the disc to bring nutrients and hopefully breakdown the disc material on the nerve. So the question was how can you get the body to relax to allow this.

I have been going to a Rolfer(structural integration) for the past 5 years. She is able to understand where my pain is(it was moving around for me - foot, calf, hamstring, butt cheeks, side of thigh) and find out what muscles or discs are locked up causing this pain. She then would “release” them to again allow my body to recover naturally versus fighting the mechanisms it puts in place to protect damaged discs(tight muscles, locking discs so they stop moving et).

I have also tried acupuncture therapy, I have gone once and felt pretty good pain relief. They also send electrical impulses into the back needles to helps shrink the herniated disc. He said if I do not feel noticiable results in three sessions then to stop. So far I am encouraged.

I have also been using infra red laser therapy from my rolfer - it is new technology that helps shrink swelling and brings blood and 02 to the area you put the laser on.

I am going on my 5th week, I had a slow and steady recovery for the first 3 weeks, from not being able to sit to sitting for 30-60 minutes. The pain in the leg also had improved. Over the past 10 days I have had two set back. Like mentioned before I think I inflamed the nerve by reaching and sitting poorly, it has taken 3-4 days to recover from this. I do take a perc and muscle relaxant in the evening after work-i too want to end these soon. I work about 6-7 hours a day - I am looking to getting the kneeling chair. Any experience with this chair and it success for herniated disc pain?

I remain hopeful this strategy will work - Rolfing, Infra red, Acupuncture, stretching, walking, and rest. I tried an inversion table but stopped for a while, was not sure if that infamed the nerve or not.

I am curious about other treatment success, have you experienced a roll coaster recovery of good and bad days, and just optimism about healing without surgery.

Thanks for writing about your experience. It’s helpful to be able to compare notes.

Sounds like you’re feeling better by now - congratulations on your recovery!

I’ve been off work three weeks and the MRI just revealed it is because the L5 disk herniated.

I go back and forth that I can go back to work (because I really need to for money’s sake) but I’ve noticed that I can’t really do anything for more than a few hours, and that will have me off my feet the entire next day.

This has never happened to me before and I just don’t know what to do. My chiro has me doing electrode therapy for now, but did tell me today that injections may be possible if that doesn’t work. He also said that surgery is an option, but something that is way at the bottom of the list.

So it’s been scary and I haven’t been able to find “real life” experiences to help me.

This blog was it. Thank you SO much.

It’s good to finally hear from someone with similar problems. I thought I was writing to nobody, but I continued as I thought when I’m better it will be good to reflect on, and if it ever gets bad again I can re-read and pick up my own advice

Yes, off work for 2 months, and I’m in IT, so sitting is a major problem, and the money going out is more than the money coming in.

Initially I was surprised not more people suffered with the same condition, I mean we’re talking about a very small space in the spine, and most people have some form of disc bulging… but I’ve found out that being vocal about the problem has all of a sudden made a lot of people either say they had a similar problem years ago, or they know someone going through it right now. So there are a fair few people out there suffering, but because they don’t have a cast like someone with a broken leg etc it tends not to be spoken about… weird, I think there is some funky stigma about people with back problems, and being whingers.

Thanks again for the comments and I hope you improve fast (as you’ve read, I know how shit it is)

Regards,
Matt