LUMBAR MRI results

Whats up friends,

Been out of the game for quite a while which explains my absence from the boards.

Started getting serious with my workouts again starting around October of last year. I’ve had minor chronic lumbar issues most of my life beginning from when I played highschool sports. They were quite minor at the time and have gotten progressively worse each year. I would say it was pretty manageable up until a few months ago when they started affecting my quality of life outside of the gym. I skipped out on a recent trip because I knew the travelling would absolutely kill my lumbar. The back condition has me quite frustrated at times, but I'm glad to atleast now know what i'm up against

So despite my absolute horrendous healthcare plan(self-employed), I sucked it up and sprung for the MRI. I’ve had two opinions so far and looking to get a lot more:

Opinion 1 from the assistant at the MRI lab: Your ****ed and need surgery
Opinion 2 from long time chiro: It’s not great but can be fixed w/out surgery and intensive therapy

So I’m coming to you bro’s who have been around the lifting and medical world long enough to interpret these results. I have taken off all physical activity except walking for the last few weeks until I can figure out my plan of action.
Do you think surgery is nessecary or can I fix this with physical therapy.?
I’ve been off everything for the last 4 years. Would there be anything could assist the healing such as HGH/EQ for example or would that be of no help? Any insight is very much appreciated.


Findings: The Sagittal imaging demonstrates normal anatomic aligment of the lumbar vertebral bodies. There is a slight loss of height and loss of T-2 weighted signal to the disc interspaces of L4-5 and L5-S1 indicative of multilevel degeneratie disc disease.

At the L5-S1 disc space level a small central subligamentous disc herniation mildly compresses the thecal sac in the midline
No other abnormalities. The conus medullaris as well as the osseous marrow signal of the lumbar spine are normal.

Impression: Small central small central subligamentous disc herniation L5-S1 with mild thecal sac compression in the midline. Diffuse annular bulg L4-5 slightly compressing the thecal sac.

Sorry to hear about your back trouble. I had the same two disc ruptured for 15+ years, and lifted, played competitive sports until almost 40yrs old, by doing therapy and chiro. In 2013 i had a major flare up or progression, to where my leg went numb and nerve damage was beginning to occur, muscle loss in the leg as well. Ended up having a 2 level microdiscectomy. With that being said, i had complications in recovery after about 45 days, to where they couldnt figure out what was wrong and had to open me back up to clean out more tissue around the nerve, due to I was in more extreme pain then before surgery. Fast fwd, it took about a full year after that for me to feel healed and "back to normal". I have a thread on the forums tracking my diet and weightloss, and have been able to get back to lifting and working out regular again. But, I do not squat, deadlift, or do clean n jerks with heavy weight at all. I am just not willing to roll the dice with my back. As that nerve pain is indescribable, and have no desire to relive it.
For me I wanted to explore every option available to heal and treat naturally before surgery, and was able to do it for a long time. It really depends on your dedication and resolve, pain tolerance. Hope my story helps and good luck bro.

Also, almost forgot if you go to youtube look up a Dr John Bergman. Hes got a vid named how to heal lumbar herniations and bulges etc. basically talks about how things do not happen in isolated environments meaning, the root cause for lumbar issues are probably located elsewhere in your spine, often times the cervical ( neck) region, and also talks about how MRI's are taken which can provide false indications. Def worth checking out

Thanks for the post AB, Ill check him out for sure. I think my first step is to PT the hell out of it. When i have other people stretch me it seems to help tremondously. So ill either have to get my PT to do that a lot for me or hire someone to. Its going to cost me a bit but worth it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daytrader

Whats up friends,

Been out of the game for quite a while which explains my absence from the boards.

Started getting serious with my workouts again starting around October of last year. I’ve had minor chronic lumbar issues most of my life beginning from when I played highschool sports. They were quite minor at the time and have gotten progressively worse each year. I would say it was pretty manageable up until a few months ago when they started affecting my quality of life outside of the gym. I skipped out on a recent trip because I knew the travelling would absolutely kill my lumbar. The back condition has me quite frustrated at times, but I'm glad to atleast now know what i'm up against

So despite my absolute horrendous healthcare plan(self-employed), I sucked it up and sprung for the MRI. I’ve had two opinions so far and looking to get a lot more:

Opinion 1 from the assistant at the MRI lab: Your ****ed and need surgery
Opinion 2 from long time chiro: It’s not great but can be fixed w/out surgery and intensive therapy

So I’m coming to you bro’s who have been around the lifting and medical world long enough to interpret these results. I have taken off all physical activity except walking for the last few weeks until I can figure out my plan of action.
Do you think surgery is nessecary or can I fix this with physical therapy.?
I’ve been off everything for the last 4 years. Would there be anything could assist the healing such as HGH/EQ for example or would that be of no help? Any insight is very much appreciated.


Findings: The Sagittal imaging demonstrates normal anatomic aligment of the lumbar vertebral bodies. There is a slight loss of height and loss of T-2 weighted signal to the disc interspaces of L4-5 and L5-S1 indicative of multilevel degeneratie disc disease.

At the L5-S1 disc space level a small central subligamentous disc herniation mildly compresses the thecal sac in the midline
No other abnormalities. The conus medullaris as well as the osseous marrow signal of the lumbar spine are normal.

Impression: Small central small central subligamentous disc herniation L5-S1 with mild thecal sac compression in the midline. Diffuse annular bulg L4-5 slightly compressing the thecal sac.

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I would go for option 2 for sure. Surgery is the last resort. Disc herniation, compression and bulge. Ok, first things first....Pain Management- keep pain under control by using whatever you have like pain scripts, tylenol, whatever. Second- Don't do any movements that cause the pain like bending over or squatting. Avoid ALL weight bearing exercises like squats, deadlifts and pretty much any standing or sitting exercise with weights. If you can exercise-do some isometrics. What you really need is DECOMPRESSION of your spine. This can be done at your Chiro's office or even just hanging from a chin bar for a few seconds at a time. ICE your back, it will help with the pain and also reduce swelling. Stay positive because it's no that bad. You can overcome this and heal it just takes time, patience and dedication. Best of luck.