Has anyone experienced a spinal disc bulge, hernia, and/or or stenosis/radiculopathy and how long did it take to recover?
Has anyone experienced a spinal disc bulge, hernia, and/or or stenosis/radiculopathy and how long did it take to recover?
Turns out I have a disc bulge between two of my cervicals and it's pinching a nerve, which is very very painful and weakening my arm and finger sensitivity.
I'm not here asking for advice, rather to get an idea of what's down the road for me depending on the type of treatment I'll end up following. I am seeing a doctor, I have an appointment tomorrow. I also had a CT scan done.
So basically if you've had something similar anywhere on your spine I'd appreciate to know about it. Did you recover fully? How long did it take? What treatment did you follow? Did you complement it with anything such as specialized exercises, acupuncture, massage or else?
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Took about 3 months. Mine was 2 disc bulges pinched a nerve that ran down my leg. At first The whole front of my left thigh felt like a big steam burn. The area got smaller slowly and by 3 months it was just a thin line, about a finger width from the top front of my thigh to knee that is just numb to this day.
The pain in my spine was roughly along the same time line.
The treatment I had was just over the counter pain medicine and then physical therapy to strengthen muscles around the area, apparently more muscle makes it less likely to compress and pinch a nerve again.
Yup, strengthening the back muscles is the most important part. I got rid of my lower back pain by sitting like this for half an hour (sometimes more) after I wake up: https://lowbackpainprogram.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/how-to-sit-to-relieve-back-pain.jpg
At the start it's a bit hard before the necessary muscles toughen up, but after a couple of days it's no problem at all and that sitting pose is quite enjoyable. Thats the only lower back strengthening I do daily and for the past six months I feel the best I felt since I injured my lower back so I highly recommend it.
Woah... I've caught myself sitting like that unconsciously for years and kept thinking it was bad lol... That position is my go to on bad days. Never thought about it actually putting things into a good state.
Excellent.
Do you switch sides or stay in the same position the entire time?
Switch sides every so often. When I start in the morning I can do about 5 mins on one side, but after a couple of switches I can stay like that for 30 mins. When you don't feel comfortable switch.
Thanks!
So if the knee is still numb- you didn't recover fully, is that correct? Was this recent or a long time ago?
Will keep in mind the muscle strengthening, I'm sure I'll get a referral for a physiotherapist at some point.
At least for me, even though I've recovered full movement and only have minor to moderate pain after activities which stress the area - the pinched nerve was damaged for long enough that I will have surface numbness on parts of my leg for the rest of my life.
I don't know if you're the same person using a different account, but, for how long was the nerve damaged so that it was unrecoverable? Days, weeks, months?
Nah, sorry, different person than you were initially responding to. I was out to breakfast and just wrote that quickly on my phone.
It was pinched for about 3-4 weeks before my physical therapist finally realized what I'd told him at the start - that my calf was literally paralyzed. He was like, "Oh... that's, that's not good. You need to go to the spine doctor like, immediately." (Dude sucked, but it was the very beginning of COVID so my options were limited.)
Got me in to see the spine doc the next day and I got emergency cortisone injections by the end of the week.
I got usage of my calf back, and significant reduction in pain. But I never got back the full amount of feeling in the right two toes of my right foot, that side of that foot, and stretching up to about mid shin height on the same side. I have pressure sensitivity still. And even touch, kinda. It's like when a limb is asleep. But fuck it I'll take that over the feeling of daggers and lava I had before.
