Bulged Disc

Just found out today I've probably got a bulged disc in my lower back. Anybody had this and have any idea how long I'm out for? Or should I just ride through it?

I'm sorry to hear that... but holy crap... the timing of your post is ironic. I just learned I have a bulged disc in my neck -- literally found out from the doctor yesterday, then spent about an hour in an MRI machine last night...

From what I've been told, you should not ride through it -- and doctors will recommend surgery. I've been told to refuse the surgery and try to just really take care of yourself and do the physical therapy... wait to see if it improves with PT. If not, then look into the surgery.

But I still have my follow-up early next week, so I don't know what the doc will say about mine. I don't think it's very bad... so I imagine PT will be all I need.

I had a bulged disc in my neck 20 years ago. (barefoot fall..........I'm really old) I decided against surgery. I was back to slalom skiing in 6 months and pain free in 1.5 years. Sorry to tell you, but that is a serious injury that takes lots of time to heal.

Do a search for "herniated disc" or "lower back pain" on this forum, you'll get all kinds of discussion about this injury.

About 7 weeks ago I fell riding after carrying a bunch of stereo equipment early in the morning, hurt my back to where I could barely walk, rested for 4 weeks, went to chiropractor, it wasn't helping. So I then went to the doctor, got an MRI, found out I had a herniated (bulged) disc in my L5 S1 (which is the lowest disc in your back). I'm now in PT (3rd week) and it is helping a lot, even though I'm laying on my back as I type this (I rode last night and probably pushed it a little too hard)

I've been riding, but trying to take it really easy for the last 3 weeks. I'd suggest you get into physical therapy now, rest, and prolong surgery as long as possible. I'm confident I can get rid of the pain by letting myself heal and strengthen core muscles...I really hope anyway. Good luck and hang in there!

I had a herniated disc L4-5 and had surgery 12 years ago. I now get cortisone shots every 3 months ( I tell the doc to just keep me riding!) I also had a herniation in L3/4 but had an IDET (intradisc electrothermia) and that has worked great. They insert a wire and coil it in the disc then put heat to it. The heat shrinks the bulge back in. That worked better than surgery and it is minimally invasive. Check into it...I would highly recommend it.

Go ahead and ride through it....if you want to end your riding or any physical acitvity for a long time, possibly for ever. My lower 3 discs are blown. I had surgery on the L5-S1 3 years ago and it gives me a good excuse to be the best boat driver ever (I'm too skeered to go big anyway). Seriously though, I want to be able to play with my kids as I get older and I feel it every day. Your back will fail you if you don't heed the warnings. On the bright side, if you only feel pain in your back, that's a good thing. If you feel it in your legs, usually surgery and/or cortizone are indicated. I hope the best for you.

Wow, I didn't know it was that serious.
Thanks for all the input!
So the next question arises. If riding is out, is riding in the boat during recovery a bad thing too due to the bouncing around, or is it OK?
Also, what about surfing.....I think I've found a new respect for it in the last couple weeks

Or how about a hydrofoil? Seems to me that would put even more strain on it, but I've seen some posts during my searching referring to it. Any thoughts?

Depending on the pain level I would think riding in the boat would be fine. If you have pain in your leg, the injury is very serious. That is typically something that doctors would look for before recommending surgery.

The year I graduated high school I herniated my L5/S1 disk. The pain was constant and at times unbearable. I had an epidural injection followed with a lot of physical therapy. I had the injection roughly midway through the summer and was back to full strength within 4-5 weeks. The physical therapy was aggressive because I was heading to college to play D-1 volleyball and needed to be healthy.

I would say that depending on the severity, physical therapy is the best route if the doc thinks it is an option. They gave me the injection to kill the pain long enough to build up the muscles in my back that were weak.

Regarding the riding in the boat. I remember before I had the injection, I didn't want to do anything that would cause me to sit in the same position for too long. The most comfortable place was laying on the ground with an ice bag on my back. Any sudden jolts were incredibly painful. However, if riding in the boat doesn't hurt I'd say go for it.

I have close friends that were able to help their disc problems with therapy. Another friend had a cortisone (sp?) shot directly into the disc and she is doing wonderful. She was doing therapy and on tons of pain pills but none of it helped until she got the shot.

Try to make having surgery a last resort.

I would stay away from any major activity until you feel better. You wouldn't want to make worse.

Darin, I had a similar injury about 5 years ago. L4/L5 bulging disc. Tried physical therapy for several months with little improvement and finally had 2 cortizone injections (about a month apart from each) before I felt like 100% again.

Never had back problems before. Through physical therapy, the one thing you are trying to do is strengthen your core and at the same time concentrate on exercises that put your back into natural alignment...meaning nothing that involves a bending over motion. I was told this is the opposite of what you want to do as you are trying to get the disc/surrounding "stuff" to float back into alignment within the spinal column. So exercises that "arch your back BACKWARDS" were the focus during therapy.

Your case could be different, but thought I'd share in case you are getting similar diagnosis.

Funny you post this as I'm heading to work out at PT right now for my back, but all I can say is get used to adopting a wake to wake style of riding. Landing in the flats will destroy your back as it did mine last summer. I can now ride pain free but try to take tricks up and not so much out.

Darin, I was told I could do anything that didn't cause increased pain or soreness afterwards. I do ride but just cut around, ride switch, butter slide, etc. I would say you can wake surf, if it doesn't hurt, surfing is not to strenuous on your body and is a good way to keep your sanity through an injury.

I like JDyer's post, my symptoms are similar...hope my PT goes as well as it does for you! I'm going into my 3rd week.

Sounds like a lot of riders are having this same problem. I love to hear the success stories...keep them coming!

Just got back from the Chiropractor. He's thinking he'll be able to get me back in shape in a few weeks, but I've got a really good friend telling me to check with a real doctor before really doing anything.

Anybody have any thoughts?

I'm not an expert, but I don't think dealing with a bulging disc is a chiropractor's specialty.

Inflamation has to come down as it is most likely putting pressure on surrounding nerves...causing the pain. Disc needs to resume to normal alignment between the vertebrae.

Yes, I had it 2 1/2 yrs ago from a skiing accident. We have a personal trainer at work. He put heat w/ probes on my back for about 2months. I used ice at night at home. You need to start doing press up (lay on your stomach and press up w/ your arms. Legs stay on the floor and hold as long as you can). You need to strengthen you core area. It took me about 6 months before I could do this. Swimming pool is good. Just walk around, do side steps for as long as you can take it. You WILL hurt, when it starts to hurt STOP, slow down. You will be able to increase daily. I had to have the shorts until the pain decreased enough to start exercising. GOOD LUCK. sorry so lenghty. That was the most pain I have ever been in. Just remember, when you start to feel good - DON'T over do it. After a 1yr I decide to go out and ski again and re-injuried myself and had to go through it all over again.

I had a bulging disc a couple of years ago. Worst pain of my life. There is a fairly new procedure that had me back and almost pain free in a few weeks.
They take a cortizone or some type of steroid and inject it into the outer membrane of the spinal cord. Sounds scary, but it's fairly routine now. It's a few grand if you don't have insurance.
If you see a doctor, they can refer you to a specialist that does them.
I've talked to other people that had the same thing and I think it's the only way to go.
If your chiropractor says he can help a bulging disc, run.

My friend who had two bulging discs in her neck went to a chiropractor and he really messed her up. Her "back" doctor said that was the worst thing she could have done. The only thing that helped her was the cortisone shot the administered in the disc. She is as good as new now.

Wow, I've heard about the cortizone shot, but didn't know it helped that much. When I talked to him earlier today, he told me without an MRI he couldn't tell for sure if was bulged, but with the symptoms, he was fairly certain. As for feeling, I'm doing a lot better w/a lot of ice and taking it easy.

So as opinions go, when should I stop going to the "quacktorpractor" and get to a doctor with a cortozone needle?

Chiro only made my herniated disc worse. He promossied that he would be able to fix it. I ended up under the knife because the leg pain was so bad.

So should I head for a regular doctor or look up a specialist?

Darin, your a really close friend and my two children are looking up to keep riding with you, so if you don't go and see the DOCTOR I told you about or any back DOCTOR, well then I will come over there and drag your ..... there myself!!!
Give me a call today I want to make sure your gonna call her.

typically you need to go to your regular doctor to get a referral to a specialist. From there if you pass on the chriro route, your options are PT or epidural (or some of the other alternative injections mentioned above). Those have to be in addition to you treating your back well. Statistics say 90% of bulged discs heal without surgery, I wasn't in that group but hopefully you will be.

Just food for thought. When I had my epidural done, my doctor (a very close family friend) recommended that I not see a chiropractor again. He said that they do good work on many problems, but a herniated disk is something that needs a doctor's attention.

His practice actually specializes in the spine. If you were in the East Bay area I would fully recommend him.

Darin regarding your question about a specialist. I would recommend seeing a spine specialist. They normally have a the lead on the best PTs for your injury as well as most current treatments.

"Chiro only made my herniated disc worse."

I do agree w/ this, the treatment are not the way to go. But they should have the HEAT & STEM treatment that will help you. This is probes and shocks that they put on you to help the muscles relax.

Darin,

First of all, what are your symptoms? Are you having leg pain, numbness, weakness, ect or are you just having back pain? Secondly, if you do have a bulging disc, the course of treatment will vary according to the level, direction, and size of the bulge. This usually will require MRI to get the appropriate imaging of the disc.

I would suggest getting into a spinal specialist either directly or through referral and they will guide your care appropriately. Hopefully you can get better through non invasive means,( i.e. PT, appropriate rest, antiinflammatories, etc) but it may take more aggressive treatment such as an injection, or surgical intervention. This will depend upon the severity of the bulge, and your response to noninvasive treatment.

Follow the guidance of your physician, be patient, and let us know what happens along the way.

Also make sure the Doc rads the MRI completly - you do not want to mistake a bulging disc for a ruptured disc.
Mine ruptured L5/S1 and have not had surgery. It's been 4 years, took 1.5 to even think about riding a bike again. Now I ride as hard as I can, taking care NOT to crash. Lots of advil and an occasional muscle relaxer to keep everything right. Lots of core training. Couldn't imagine taking a wake board crash again.....w2w only and easy spins maybe.
Good luck to you, they're all different........}

Thus far, I've been getting along really nicely. Things have gotten a lot better with ice, rest, and streaching. Good enough I actually drove 2 hrs last night without any pain! Very psyched.

As for my symptoms at the time. There was extreme pain from my lower back, which sometimes hindered me from doing things like standing up from a squatted, crouched over, position. There was pain which shot down the outside of my left leg to my foot as well depending on what I was doing, but this has also subsided. The x-rays, while you can't see the actual disc, looked promising. It didn't seem like anything was too out of place.

As for now, I'm gonna keep taking it easy for a couple more weeks, with lots of ice, and a steady diet of glucosamine (don't think I spelled that right). If I revert at all, I'm going straight to the doctor though, no questions asked. I told my chiropractor yesterday I wasn't coming back because they don't work with my Insurance, they weren't too happy, but I don't really care.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts on what I should, or shouldn't be doing right now, let me know! I think I got lucky and didn't have it very bad, but again, I don't want to do anythign stupid and mess it up right away!

Darin,

I really think you should consider going to a specialist and getting the MRI... If it were me (which...I guess it is since I have the same injury??), I would rather have the doctor tell me that it's not serious, than to eventually find out it was more serious than I thought, and realize it's too late -- that I could have already done long-term damage that bothers me for the rest of my life. And since insurance covers it... what's the point??

At this point for me, I've decided it's just not worth it for me to risk a serious long-term neck injury. So I'm sitting it out and playing boat driver until I know more. My follow-up appointment for MRI results is on Tuesday. I don't think mine is serious either (no shooting pains or anything, just occasional back aches and pains), but it's just not worth risking it.