Ruptured Disc Advice Please

[jimipresley]

I recently resolved the issue with the pain by basically doing some work and have stopped sitting at the computer for too long. I have stopped all sittups to instead work on a small beer gut. Its was coming along nicely, but then the summer sort of stopped and now its gone down again. Oh well. Pain free though, which is great. Doing a lot of work on my car has helped.

Great news, sulavaca, great news!

[pqkdzrwt]

Read this book. It changed my life. The amazon comments reflect my on experience regarding this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain ... 0446392308

At the very minimum it will explain why doctors are confused that problems with discs dont correlate with pain level. I was at a point where I could barely walk around for half an hour without being in agony, I was desperate because nothing was helping, then I came across the book in Pages in Taipe 101 and thought what the hell, I will read anything at this point! (:

[Captain Coconut]

ben_gb

DO NOT use that McKenzie method book!!! If it worked for you, ok, but that is dangerous advice he gives in there. I followed it exactly and damn near paralyzed myself.

[ben_gb]

ben_gb

DO NOT use that McKenzie method book!!! If it worked for you, ok, but that is dangerous advice he gives in there. I followed it exactly and damn near paralyzed myself.

Well, everyone is one different, so you cannot really make generalisations.

I was first put onto the Mckenize exercises (and the book) by my physiotherapist in London. It was my specialist spine doctor who referred me (after diagnosing my back problems) precisely because the physio used the McKenzie method. The exercises may not have been appropriate for you (as you mentioned earlier, you have a genetic back problem so what is suitable for you, may not be right for other types of back problems and vice versa).

Additionally, judging from the comments on Amazon, it is clear that the exercises in the book do work for a lot of other people.

As I said before, it would be best for the OP to go to a physiotherapist (and maybe a spine doctor) who can take him through appropriate exercises for his specific situation. Actually, I probably should have made this point stronger in my original message... anyone should get a professional opinion before trying any type of exercise to fix back problems.

Anyway, I hope you manage to find ways to improve your back problems.

[sulavaca]

I seem completely without pain now. I took to doing more work on cars and it seems to be stretching me out quite a bit. Haven't had a twinge since. Thanks.

[Ducked]

I did go to a hospital appointment to check my nervous response times. They use electric impulses to trigger muscle reactions, and then measure the speed of reactions with a computer. I hate to say that I cancelled the procedure after the first minute. I couldn't stand that feeling of progressively strong shocks being sent into muscles which I had no control over. WEIRD!

Yeh, I’ve been having NCV tests regularly for a couple of years now and still havn’t got used to it. Stick my finger nails in my palms every time. However, what I like about it is:-

(a)Its done by technicians rather than doctors, my confidence in doctors (especially neurologists) having been eroded by an intensive course of life-threatening negligence a while ago.

(b)It gives you actual data (if you can get hold of the results), which can be hard to come by, medicine being more an art than a science.

There’s a particularly unpleasant variant involving electrode needles inserted quite deep in your calf muscles, but fortunately I’ve only had that once, the first time. They apparently lost the data from that session, and denied I’d had the procedure, though I showed them the holes.

Good news about your back. Keep up the good work. Keep down the bad work.

[MJB]

There’s a particularly unpleasant variant involving electrode needles inserted quite deep in your calf muscles, but fortunately I’ve only had that once, the first time. They apparently lost the data from that session, and denied I’d had the procedure, though I showed them the holes.

I had this done about 10 days before my surgery, while there was still hope of a non-surgical option. Except mine went from the meat of your palm (my, that was pleasant) up to the shoulder. I ended up with a floating disc replacement between C5 and C6. I'd had back problems for the last 26 years on and off, from a car accident that began two decades plus of on and off agony that culminated with a pinched nerve, rendering the right side of my neck, shoulder, arm, hands and fingrs into a hogmash of pain, twitching, numbmess, tingling and other weird symptoms, with a final climax of rapid loss of control in areas I'd rather not mention.

Any attempt at physio just made it a hundred times worse, and the pain was ramping up daily. The people that saw me in the days before I went under the knife can attest to how poorly I was faring. I couldn't drive, turn my head, move my neck. My right shoulder was nearly 5cm higher than my left, and the pain shooting down my arm was nearly overwhelming. Drugs didn't do a damn thing. I had no sleep for two straight weeks as finding a comfortable position was impossible.

The third Neurosurgeon I saw only confirmed what the other two, and my original doctor had told me...This will only continue to get worse, and surgery was the only option. I could fuse, or do the floating disc route. After reading several articles regarding recovering time, maintaining movement, etc...I elected the floater route. It was expensive though, 300k against 70k for the more traditional fused disc.

The morning of my surgery, I was so frozen up that the hole my head was supposed to lie in on the operating table? I couldn't even even lean back that far, or anything even close...So they knocked me out with a pillow under my head and went to business cutting into my throat...

Woke up with a nasty closed throat, a tube hanging out of my neck and my morphine...But by the second day, I was already feeling better, and the first night at home I slept for 11hours straight, something I'd not been able to do for a very, very long time. There is still some residual numbness, and I get sore on occasion, but for the most part I am a new man. It's been three weeks since the surgery, I've been back to work for two, and am well on my way to regaining my strength.

They took this X-ray on Friday...

[jimipresley]

Great news, MJB! That stuff can be mighty debilitating.

I'm quite happy to have minor paralysis in one of my legs rather than suffer that excruciating pain.

Seems like your surgery worked out fine. Rehab treatment should rectify most of the side-effects.

[Ducked]

Seconded.

How did you get the imagery?

I've found it VERY difficult (ie impossible) to get anything out of NCKU other than a photocopy of the handwritten case notes, which I think they are legally obliged to provide.

Nothing from the computer-based information system(s) has so far been available, but maybe I havn't been persistent enough.

[Mother Theresa]

Ouch, talk about scary disc injuries. Check this out, from last Sunday's NFL.