If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
My scale said 190 yesterday. It was a good day. In fact, it was a good weekend. Saturday morning, Pam got up and went for a run and headed to work for a bit. Then, when she returned, I hit the gym since I chose not to wake up Friday morning. I ran six miles and lifted weights in 1.5 hours, showered, hit the grocery store, and headed home to be with the family. I also ran 3 miles on Sunday afternoon and had a great meal with some friends from the Portland area who we don’t get to see enough. It was a very balanced weekend–except we didn’t get any yardwork done.
As I’m sitting here on this cold, dark, wet Oregon morning, still sweating from the gym and drinking a hot cup of coffee I am decidedly happy with my fitness routine of the last month or so. I have balance, rhythm, and momentum. Three things that really help me to stay motivated. The only thing that is working against me at this time is my darn back.
I’ve decided, with input from my doctor, wife, and my friends (who are also doctors), that I do indeed have a herniated disk in somewhere in my lower back. The pain just above my right butt cheek that is relieved when bending over and the gnawing, aching sensation that I have down into my right butt cheek and across the front of my groin and thigh are very common symptoms of herniated disks. I don’t have numbness, tingling, or muscle weakness, but I do have that “electric shock pain” in my lower back when initiating movements such as rolling over in bed and rough housing with the kids.
So as you can see, I’ve been doing a little bit of reading on the subject and what it comes down to is this: 80-90% of herniated disk problems heal themselves without surgery! I am not a good candidate for surgery because my back pain isn’t limiting what I can do or how I can live my life (other than my workouts at the gym). I could be in pain for a while–most disk problems fix themselves within 2 months but some take up to a year. I’m rapidly closing in on the 2 month window.
For now, I’ll continue to explore the non-surgical options for treating herniated disc problems as outlined on the Mayo Clinic’s website about herniated disks. I’m actually using the ones in bold.
- Pain medications
- Cold therapy, heat therapy or both
- Electrical stimulation
- Bracing
- Hydrotherapy
- Traction
- Stretching
- Dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises
- Aerobic exercise using pain-free activities
I’ve also got a physcial scheduled for a week from today. If things aren’t improving by then, I may get a referral to an orthopedic specialist and/or a physical therapist.
J.D.
7 responses so far ↓
1 DR // Nov 10, 2008 at 10:08 am
Have you tried acupuncture & chiropractic?
2 macdaddy // Nov 10, 2008 at 11:02 am
3 Darren // Nov 10, 2008 at 11:55 am
My sympathies: my wife is recovering from a pair of herniated discs that required surgery to correct. Here’s what we learned after nearly a year and a half dealing with the pain, and about 3 months now recovering from surgery.
1. Avoid surgery if you can; if you can’t, talk to a neurosurgeon. A “micro-discectomy” has a better recovery rate than other types of correction. My wife was up and walking the day after the surgery!
2. Absolutely avoid chiropractic. My wife tried it, but it made the problem worse. This led to a fair amount of research on my part, which revealed that chiropractic almost always carries more risk than benefit for most back issues. Physical therapy and massage do just as much good, and with a much lower risk.
3. Avoid “non-traditional pain management” like acupuncture. The side-effects of these treatments on the root cause of your pain — herniation and swelling of the surrounding tissue — can cause nerve damage. My wife was using an herbal pain remedy, but had to stop at the request of her doctor due to the sciatic nerve damage it was precipitating.
4. Do a lot of research before trying the cortisone shot, if that’s recommended at some point. It has wildly variable effects on people, and I found that the doctors didn’t do a very good job explaining the chance of success vs. the annoyance of the side effects. At least the risk is quite low. The shot didn’t work for my wife, and the side effects (nausea, metabolism changes, etc.) ended up not being worth it for the small chance of success.
4 Andrew is getting fit // Nov 11, 2008 at 4:38 am
I hope your back issue clear up.
5 Kelly // Nov 11, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Hi, sorry to hear about the herniated disk. I had one about 5 years ago, and it was 6 months of misery before it cleared up. After trying PT, OTC pain meds, oral cortizone, chiro, and heavy narcotics, all to no avail, a steriod epidural finally did the trick.
Don’t go near the chiropractor, I was in more pain than before I went, and they tried to put me on a $3000 healing plan. No thanks!
6 Leah // Nov 11, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Interesting . . . your symptoms sound similar to mine, and what I have is rotated vertebrae due to weak core muscles (specifically, the transverse abdominis). The only difference in your pain from mine is that my pain travels between vertebrae in my back.
In any case, PT was fabulous for me. I learned a lot of exercises for strengthening my core and back, and I notice the return of pain when I drift away from my stretching and exercises.
I hope paying attention to your pain and continuing to work on strength works well for you! my mom had back surgery on a herniated disc years ago, and it didn’t do a whole lot to help the pain.
7 Libby // Nov 17, 2008 at 10:47 am
I hope your back starts feeling better soon! I’ve had a lot of experience with physical therapy for these sorts of problems - I’ve been in it since early 2000.
If you end up going to a physical therapist, from my own experience I recommend one who does a lot of manual therapy, and not one who is going to try and make you stretch and exercise your problems away. The sort of things you want them to perform are:
Hands-on Therapy
Myofascial Release
Craniosacral Therapy
Joint Mobilization
Therapeutic Exercise
This sort of therapist will be able to help guide your spine back into the proper alignment and reduce pinched nerves.
Strengthening is important - but if you do it without correcting the underlying problem first, you can actually make things worse.
My physical therapist is http://www.corephysicaltherapy.com/ — they’re not in your area, but they might be able to recommend someone who is.
Leave a Comment