Lower Back experience needed.

[lovbyts]

So you would recommend someone with a L5-S1 bulge w/ sciatica getting surgery (microdisceptomy)?

No not necessarily if it just bulging and the sciatica can easily be fixed without surgery. I'm saying like in my case it was not just bulging, it was ruptured and pieces of the disk was causing the sciatic pain. Everyone is different. Mine was debilitating to the point I would have ended it vs living like that. I have a fairly high pain tolerance and 2, 10mg vicodine, 2 10mg morphine and I dont even remember what else several times a day didnt do much of anything to touch the pain.

I would first use ice first and foremost. If you get any relief from that in a couple of days then more than likely you wont need surgery. I would also try decompression to see if that helps but if you get an MRI and it shows it's actually ruptured I think there may be no choice. In my case there was not and it fixed the issue 90+% immediately.

I could not even stand or sit long enough to take a sh*t. Really I would have passed out from the pain before I could pass anything. Not much fun. I'm just saying dont take surgery out of the equation, it's not always a bad thing and like most anything you usually only hear about the problems because most people who have success with things just go on with their lives while those who have problems like to complain and let the whole world know.

How many people do you see on this board who say Hey, I feel good today, I'm happy, I have no problem or my cycle went great? You/we normally only hear from those who are having a problem.

[M302_Imola]

No not necessarily if it just bulging and the sciatica can easily be fixed without surgery. I'm saying like in my case it was not just bulging, it was ruptured and pieces of the disk was causing the sciatic pain. Everyone is different. Mine was debilitating to the point I would have ended it vs living like that. I have a fairly high pain tolerance and 2, 10mg vicodine, 2 10mg morphine and I dont even remember what else several times a day didnt do much of anything to touch the pain.

I would first use ice first and foremost. If you get any relief from that in a couple of days then more than likely you wont need surgery. I would also try decompression to see if that helps but if you get an MRI and it shows it's actually ruptured I think there may be no choice. In my case there was not and it fixed the issue 90+% immediately.

I could not even stand or sit long enough to take a sh*t. Really I would have passed out from the pain before I could pass anything. Not much fun. I'm just saying dont take surgery out of the equation, it's not always a bad thing and like most anything you usually only hear about the problems because most people who have success with things just go on with their lives while those who have problems like to complain and let the whole world know.

How many people do you see on this board who say Hey, I feel good today, I'm happy, I have no problem or my cycle went great? You/we normally only hear from those who are having a problem.

Totally true...thanks for the feedback. I have yet to have a MRI, but I've been dealing with sciatica for almost 4 months now. I recently switched chiro's and the new guy is way more thorough and know's his shit. As of this week the sciatica has faded some so I'm hopeful things will continue to progress and I won't be in pain much longer. I thought I knew what pain was but nerve pain is totally different. It literally felt like I had a knife in my leg while sitting and bending over to tie my shoe was a nightmare. Things are at least better now. Oh and the chiro has been doing decompression treatment on me and I've been using gravity boots to hang upside down after my workouts to decompress the spine.