Comments on: Herniated Disc L4 L5 update

By: Alexis

Alexis — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:19:31 +0000

I have just gone through a herniation at L4-L5. I was screaming in pain for 12 hours in the ER. I have NEVER known such pain. I have had 3 natural births and none of them were close to that!!!!. I have had one epidural injection and am looking forward to the 2nd one, my leg pain is the worst, I have a compression on my femoral nerve so I have numbness in my thigh and down to my calf. I have not taken any pain meds as i don’t want to get hooked on anything and create another problem. i will take an aleve in the am and 2 mg of valium at night if i am having trouble sleeping. I have opted not to have any surgery as the majority of people i talk to that have had any back surgeries are saying dont get cut on let it heal on its own and wait it out they wished they would have!! so 2 months into recovery i am getting a little better, i will still get injjection number2 as it did help some..I will pray for you guys as i am in the medical field and see a lot of human suffering, i care about people and have been really humbled by this experience and will practice much more empathy when i return to work take care

By: Sam Jones

Sam Jones — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:03:40 +0000

Hi,
Thanks for your blog. Really helps. Doctors too “busy,” most physical therapists and support staff too incurious, unobservant to provide solid info so far. Mild rear-end car accident, I was in passenger’s seat, xmas 2007. 1 or 2 days not too bad, then 2 weeks shrieking lumbar pain with sharper still blasts of pain, then specialist (orthopedist) in top east coast city practice, spontaneous “improvement” to just bad pain led doc to say here’s your home “PT” sheet (including damaging touch-your-toes stuff, it turned out), 1 1/2 mos. of PT, still in pain, staying the SAME for last month, level 2 always, w/level, say, 5 spikes. WHAT WORKS to help HEAL THE DAMN THING, in your belief? i have to sit for work, use support, get up, stretch, but not really “living” now… MRI shows “very” mild protrusion at L4/L5 into nerve area. obviously the culprit. that and/or associated annular tear (not visible on MRI). can’t take NSAIDS (allergy). refused steroid (a chiro told me it is “bad for healing of connective tissue”) your thoughts at this point? thank you — s.

By: Johnny5

Johnny5 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:15:12 +0000

Thank you for your postings. I have had problems similiar to yours for the last 3 years. Its off and on, and right now, I am recovering from another “attack” which happened about 2 months ago. I can give you some of what I learned, which is BE CAREFUL. You don’t want your disc to screw up further. I went for a solid YEAR with zero pain, until I started a jogging program. I ran about 2 months, and the pain slowly but surely returned. This is just one example of something that I did wrong. Good luck, and I hope to see an update soon.

By: MM

MM — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:56:24 +0000

Matt,

I have been checking out your blog once in a while during the last few months. The reason being, I too got a herniated disc and I appreciate your blog and the info that you have posted here.
I am going through some of the sufferings caused by herniated disc and believe me, I totally understand what those pain means.

Anyways, Good to know that you are getting better.
Life’s good and things will be back to normal. All the best !