Herniated disc...

[Hotchef181818]

Any of you guys ever have one?

Ive vey been in considerable pain the past few days and barely able to walk so my doc scheduled an MRI for earlier today. Well the report came back and I have a large herniated disc with a fragment that is touching the nerve. I'm supposed to see a spine surgeon in the am to decide a course of action but holy shit does this hurt. I'm averaging 1000mg of hydracodone/4hrs in addition to anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers. I've never been so uncomfortable in my life.

So have any of you been through this? What should I expect tomorrow ?

hopefully this makes sense, I'm a little loopy at the moment.

[UncleDave]

Been through it twice. If you have surgery you won't bee 100% for close to a year.

[Robb]

I never have but a good friend at work did. Hit him out of the blue, he just was going through his morning ritual getting ready for work and could tell something was wrong. He missed a couple weeks of work, had some cortizone and physical therapy and came back after two weeks. A little slow at first and he says he still has some nerve damage on one side, he can't walk on his heals, but otherwise he's back maybe just shy of 100%.
Hang in there and best of luck.

[Hotchef181818]

I'm going to agree with Dave here. I've been dealing with 2 bulging discs for years. I've had some injuries that kept me in bed for 2 weeks but had 95% recovery. This is a whole different animal.

I never have but a good friend at work did. Hit him out of the blue, he just was going through his morning ritual getting ready for work and could tell something was wrong. He missed a couple weeks of work, had some cortizone and physical therapy and came back after two weeks. A little slow at first and he says he still has some nerve damage on one side, he can't walk on his heals, but otherwise he's back maybe just shy of 100%.
Hang in there and best of luck.

[RMAC757]

I'm going to agree with Dave here. I've been dealing with 2 bulging discs for years. I've had some injuries that kept me in bed for 2 weeks but had 95% recovery. This is a whole different animal.

Definitely get more than one opinion

[jerrymrc]

See more than one surgeon. Least invasive other stuff first. Once you start there is no going back.

[killianak9]

See more than one surgeon. Least invasive other stuff first. Once you start there is no going back.

^^^^ This

Best wishes for you! I am trying to manage a bulging disk that is also pinching my sciatic nerve. The pain and random loss of feeling in my left leg sucks to say the least.
I'm getting a second opinion from a sciatica specialist. As mentioned before , the meds your given might not work and try to get them dialed in, I went through three different combos to finally get results.
Thoughts and prayers for you

Keep us posted

[UncleDave]

There was no way your friend had a fragment loose in there if he recovered that fast with a shot of cortisone.

[Hotchef181818]

Dave, any tricks to minimize the pain? I'm taking hydracodone, a muscle relaxer, anti inflammatory and icing it. I'm dying though and need to get through the night, appt is at 11am tomorrow.

[CHA-LEE]

I don't know if this helps or not, but I had ZERO luck with using muscle relaxers for disk issues. For me using muscle relaxers actually made the pain worse because the little muscle control I did have to try and maintain a comfortable position was lost and it would end up putting me in a more disk/nerve pinching situation.

I had the best luck with anti inflammatory meds (Alieve, Advil, etc) then when it got super painful I would hit the hardcore pain meds.