Bad Back Blog - Herniated Disc

G’day,

Well again it’s been a while since I’ve given an update of my herniated disc and sciatic leg pain, and the last few months have been a huge roller coaster ride again.

Basically earlier this year I had a few slight improvements, as in the pain went away when I’m sitting, and there has been significantly less pain while walking within a 5 minute time span. I still suffer excruciating leg pain if I go for more than 5 minutes, but it resets itself if I sit or squat for about 30 seconds.

Basically I’ve been toying with the idea of surgery for a while, and you can see a page I put up (link in the right hand panel)… basically there are a few video’s off of youtube of back surgery, and one of the interesting ones is a new minimally invasive discectomy.

Anyhow, I made an appointment (for Sept 07) with my orthopedic surgeon (Gary Speck - Melbourne, Victoria), and had pretty much resigned to the fact that the residual pain I had left was going to be resolved by surgery.

In the meantime I’ve continued to have treatment on a cox bed (www.coxtechnic.com) anywhere from twice a week to once a fortnight.

Then about 2 weeks ago something changed. I’m not sure what it was, but something has changed. My walking within a 5 minute timeframe is completely normal, and the pain in my leg after 5 minutes seems to be diminishing day by day.

I still have a bit of pain if I move in weird positions etc, but in bed there’s no pain, I can sleep with my legs straight !!!!!

Basically I’m starting to feel a lot more normal.

Now before I get carried away, I’ve had similar periods like this where I thought I was getting better, and then it gets worse again, I’ve said before, the whole condition comes and goes in waves… in the early days the waves were in hours…a few hours of terribleness, and a few hours of thinking I’m getting better. Over the last 12 months the cycles have become longer, for instance I’ll have a day of goodness, and a week of not so goodness.

And I think recently I’ve been in waves that are lasting weeks or months, and that’s where I’d resigned to the fact I needed surgery. But now there’s a bit more light at the end of the tunnel.

So I’m still going to go through with the appointment in September and get the surgeons opinion, and I’m guessing I’ll have another MRI….. is anyone interested in seeing my initial scan 12 months ago, and the new one (post a comment if you are)?

I’m really hoping that over the course of the 12 months the disc buldge has reduced, and with the continued use of the cox bed it’s relieved the pressure off of my nerve.

I still continue to take some anti-inflammatory medication, in my case it’s Mobic 15 mg.

I’ve experimented again with Voltaren (it’s cheaper) to see how it went, but again it really upsets my stomach, although I must admit I felt it did a pretty good job on reducing the amount of pain in my leg (ie reducing inflammation in my back).

As the amount of pressure reduces on my nerve I feel the pain changes in my leg. I get less pain radiating down my leg, and every now and then I get a tingle in my toes etc. I’m also finding I’m starting to get a bit more muscle spasm in my lower back. The secret here is having a good anti-inflammatory heat rub - I’ve got something called axe oil that seems to do the job nicely. Having someone to rub it in, and rub the muscles also helps BIG time. If you don’t have someone who can rub it in for you, pay for it… it’s worth it.

When it gets bad I continue to use the heat pads, and ice packs, although I must admit I use it a lot less from when I first started. When I first got the pain I used a heat pad that made it worse, again, when you first get back/leg pain use ice packs only. for the first week or 2, then slowly move to using heat and cold.

These days because it’s more muscular I tend just to use heat.

I’m completely off of the walking cane, and I think that was a big thing for me heading in the right direction. I started to limp less, the antalgic lean is completely gone, although I always worry if I’m on public transport etc that nobody is going to give me a seat cause they don’t think I’ve got a ‘condition’…. the cane was really good at showing people you have a condition, and they’d happily give up a seat for you… normally you didn’t even have to ask.

As I do a bit more walking I notice I get a bit more upper back pain, but part of that is just endurance.. my upper back hasn’t had to support me standing up for more than a few minutes in the last year. So it’s to be expected… some basic gym work will fix that up, along with a good massage

So I’ve got my back surgeon appointment in a few weeks, and I’ll give you an update then.

Cheers
Matt

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 2:17 pm and is filed under More Herniated Discs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.