Prolapsed disc and riding?

sonny73

Back in October I woke one morning with chronic shoulder and neck pain, to cut a long story short I had it looked at by my Dr and then by a specialist and following an MRI scan in mid December (the results of which I got today) it was revealed the pain was due to a quite badly prolapsed disc below the 5th vertebrae; mid neck.

It's getting much better now and the pain has mostly gone and I was told by the specialist it was ok to try riding again in around another month's time and if it didn’t hurt at all ongoing, then it was fine to continue.

My question to you is has anyone else had similar problems in the past, to find they have been able to continue riding in any decent capacity? I know things like this can vary from person to person, but I would be interested to know if anyone has had a similar experience and carried on riding ok?

neville

Sonny,

I had a prolapsed disc a few years ago. Mine was a bit lower and caused by too much canoeing. But I can relate to your pain and wanting to get back on the bike. It does get easier and my riding hasn't been affected by it.

At the time my back was agony and I couldn't face riding/any sport. I didn't see a specialist due to long waiting lists but I sorted it out by seeing a chiropractor, it was fixed by the time I came to see the specialist! I know that Chiropractors generate a split decision on whether they are any good but I swear my mine.

I can still feel a weakness in the area where it was, so it is important to strengthen the muscles around it.

Hope the above is helpful.

Nev

Slow Downcp

I had the same problem, but between either 2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th vertabae - I went to Physio, followed their exercise etc but made no difference. The disc popped back in of it's own accord, but there was pain for some time due to nerve/tissue damage. Once I could stand without crying though I was back gentle cycling and it eased off in no time at all. As long as you're sensible and back off if it causes pain.

SeanT

I know what you're going through, I had a bulging neck disk and the pain is excruciating.

Mine went wrongly diagnosed until my symptoms were so bad I was partially paralysed.
Amazingly though I did recover without medical intervention, I went on a 6 month waiting list for an Operation, but by the time the appointment came up I'd recovered to about 75% mobility and decided not to have the Op. I started cycling again and slowly continued to recover this was 10 years ago and I've been cycling ever since. I had a second MRI a year later which showed the same bulge but my symptoms were still improving. As far as I know the bulge is still there, but I only have slight symptoms now.

If your specialist has said you can ride your bike try it. I wouldn’t go for a aggressive racing position to begin with, but if you have a mountain bike try that. I think the worst thing for neck pain is to stop moving your neck, a big part of the pain, so I’m told, is that the muscles have gone into spasm as a protective reflex. I've had a couple bouts of neck pain over the years and my strategy is to hit it with Ibuprofen to reduce the pain so I can get it moving again, this has always worked for me, I’m back to normal within a day or two.

Anyway good luck with your recovery, It took for me to get my confidence back but now I'm happy to do all my pre prolapse activities, baring bungee jumping.

Speed_King

i have got pain in my lumber region, this may mean i have sciatica or lumbago due to how i sleep i get pains in the morning and late evening but when it comes to riding i just go normally, my advice keep enjoying your riding!! but cherish and listen to your body

keep on treking!!

Gary

sonny73

Chaps, thank you for all of the replies, very interesting to hear others experiences and I have to say your positive stories have filled me with hope that I may lead a happy riding life again; and I will heed your words of wisdom and 'listen' to the body when I eventually do give the bike a go again.

And as I'm a roadie I will just have to see how I get on with the position I guess and take it very easy at first.
Cheers

dennisn

I have had c4, c5, & c6 vertebrae fused together for a good 15 years now. All this due to disc problems, intense pain, etc., etc. The disc's were ruptured(prolapsed) and pressing on various nerves. No fun at all and I am entirely sympathetic with your plight. As near as I can tell about all you can do is listen to the doctor, do whatever you can that doesn't
make it worse, and if it gets so bad that it adversely affects your life and work then I don't see much choice but to go for the OPERATION. It's been 15 years now since my fusion and I'm still out there riding and am pain free(well, as pain free as you can be at 60). Don't mean to sound gloomy, as there are many people who have worked through
this type of thing and gotten better. Just relating my case. I remember once, asking the doctor "when will you operate?". His reply was "you'll tell me". Sure enough, about a year later, something happened and my back/shoulder felt like someone had hit it with
a car. It was the disc going "really bad". 2 weeks later, after surgery, I felt better than I
had in quite a while. With the exception of having to wear a crazy looking neck brace
for a month or so. Best of luck to you. Do what you can to put up with it and hope it gets better with time.

Dennis Noward

sonny73

dennisn wrote:

I have had c4, c5, & c6 vertebrae fused together for a good 15 years now. All this due to disc problems, intense pain, etc., etc. The disc's were ruptured(prolapsed) and pressing on various nerves. No fun at all and I am entirely sympathetic with your plight. As near as I can tell about all you can do is listen to the doctor, do whatever you can that doesn't
make it worse, and if it gets so bad that it adversely affects your life and work then I don't see much choice but to go for the OPERATION. It's been 15 years now since my fusion and I'm still out there riding and am pain free(well, as pain free as you can be at 60). Don't mean to sound gloomy, as there are many people who have worked through
this type of thing and gotten better. Just relating my case. I remember once, asking the doctor "when will you operate?". His reply was "you'll tell me". Sure enough, about a year later, something happened and my back/shoulder felt like someone had hit it with
a car. It was the disc going "really bad". 2 weeks later, after surgery, I felt better than I
had in quite a while. With the exception of having to wear a crazy looking neck brace
for a month or so. Best of luck to you. Do what you can to put up with it and hope it gets better with time.

Dennis Noward

Cheers Dennis and that’s another really interesting and motivational tale. How did you find the surgery and recovery though? As that was motioned to me as what is done in chronic circumstances and it sound like a pretty hardcore procedure; so I have much admiration for you and for that matter anyone who even contemplates going through that.

dennisn

Sonny73 wrote:

dennisn wrote:

I have had c4, c5, & c6 vertebrae fused together for a good 15 years now. All this due to disc problems, intense pain, etc., etc. The disc's were ruptured(prolapsed) and pressing on various nerves. No fun at all and I am entirely sympathetic with your plight. As near as I can tell about all you can do is listen to the doctor, do whatever you can that doesn't
make it worse, and if it gets so bad that it adversely affects your life and work then I don't see much choice but to go for the OPERATION. It's been 15 years now since my fusion and I'm still out there riding and am pain free(well, as pain free as you can be at 60). Don't mean to sound gloomy, as there are many people who have worked through
this type of thing and gotten better. Just relating my case. I remember once, asking the doctor "when will you operate?". His reply was "you'll tell me". Sure enough, about a year later, something happened and my back/shoulder felt like someone had hit it with
a car. It was the disc going "really bad". 2 weeks later, after surgery, I felt better than I
had in quite a while. With the exception of having to wear a crazy looking neck brace
for a month or so. Best of luck to you. Do what you can to put up with it and hope it gets better with time.

Dennis Noward

Cheers Dennis and that’s another really interesting and motivational tale. How did you find the surgery and recovery though? As that was motioned to me as what is done in chronic circumstances and it sound like a pretty hardcore procedure; so I have much admiration for you and for that matter anyone who even contemplates going through that.

Well, for the surgery you're asleep, so no problem. I guess it is sort of a hardcore procedure but I really needed someone to stop the pain near the end. Felt like I had a knife stuck in my armpit. The only thing that hurt after surgery was my right hip, where they had taken bone to be used for the fusion. No problems as of yet although every once in a while I get a bit of pain in the area but nothing like it was. I feel good(so far). Hope yours
gets better with whatever treatment or therapy you're doing. I put up with my fair share of nagging pain for 3 or 4 years and it was not a ton of fun, but bearable with some sort of hi-tech aspirin they gave me. I even thought it might be getting better. Oh well, so much for me thinking. If and or when it needs operating on you will know it(at least I did). Hopefully, with a bit of time you will heal up and the problem won't bother you again.
Only go for surgery when you simply can't take it anymore. Best of luck.

Dennis Noward

sonny73

dennisn wrote:

Sonny73 wrote:

dennisn wrote:

I have had c4, c5, & c6 vertebrae fused together for a good 15 years now. All this due to disc problems, intense pain, etc., etc. The disc's were ruptured(prolapsed) and pressing on various nerves. No fun at all and I am entirely sympathetic with your plight. As near as I can tell about all you can do is listen to the doctor, do whatever you can that doesn't
make it worse, and if it gets so bad that it adversely affects your life and work then I don't see much choice but to go for the OPERATION. It's been 15 years now since my fusion and I'm still out there riding and am pain free(well, as pain free as you can be at 60). Don't mean to sound gloomy, as there are many people who have worked through
this type of thing and gotten better. Just relating my case. I remember once, asking the doctor "when will you operate?". His reply was "you'll tell me". Sure enough, about a year later, something happened and my back/shoulder felt like someone had hit it with
a car. It was the disc going "really bad". 2 weeks later, after surgery, I felt better than I
had in quite a while. With the exception of having to wear a crazy looking neck brace
for a month or so. Best of luck to you. Do what you can to put up with it and hope it gets better with time.

Dennis Noward

Cheers Dennis and that’s another really interesting and motivational tale. How did you find the surgery and recovery though? As that was motioned to me as what is done in chronic circumstances and it sound like a pretty hardcore procedure; so I have much admiration for you and for that matter anyone who even contemplates going through that.

Well, for the surgery you're asleep, so no problem. I guess it is sort of a hardcore procedure but I really needed someone to stop the pain near the end. Felt like I had a knife stuck in my armpit. The only thing that hurt after surgery was my right hip, where they had taken bone to be used for the fusion. No problems as of yet although every once in a while I get a bit of pain in the area but nothing like it was. I feel good(so far). Hope yours
gets better with whatever treatment or therapy you're doing. I put up with my fair share of nagging pain for 3 or 4 years and it was not a ton of fun, but bearable with some sort of hi-tech aspirin they gave me. I even thought it might be getting better. Oh well, so much for me thinking. If and or when it needs operating on you will know it(at least I did). Hopefully, with a bit of time you will heal up and the problem won't bother you again.
Only go for surgery when you simply can't take it anymore. Best of luck.

Dennis Noward

Cheers Dennis, that's much appreciated and it's really interesting to gain a bit of personal insight from someone on such a matter. I hope you enjoy many more years of good pain free riding; and the same goes to the rest of you that kindly replied.
Sonny

dennisn

Slow Downcp wrote:

I had the same problem, but between either 2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th vertabae - I went to Physio, followed their exercise etc but made no difference. The disc popped back in of it's own accord, but there was pain for some time due to nerve/tissue damage. Once I could stand without crying though I was back gentle cycling and it eased off in no time at all. As long as you're sensible and back off if it causes pain.

+1 for ".....sensible and back off if...."

Dennis Noward

dennisn

SeanT wrote:

I know what you're going through, I had a bulging neck disk and the pain is excruciating.

Mine went wrongly diagnosed until my symptoms were so bad I was partially paralysed.
Amazingly though I did recover without medical intervention, I went on a 6 month waiting list for an Operation, but by the time the appointment came up I'd recovered to about 75% mobility and decided not to have the Op. I started cycling again and slowly continued to recover this was 10 years ago and I've been cycling ever since. I had a second MRI a year later which showed the same bulge but my symptoms were still improving. As far as I know the bulge is still there, but I only have slight symptoms now.

If your specialist has said you can ride your bike try it. I wouldn’t go for a aggressive racing position to begin with, but if you have a mountain bike try that. I think the worst thing for neck pain is to stop moving your neck, a big part of the pain, so I’m told, is that the muscles have gone into spasm as a protective reflex. I've had a couple bouts of neck pain over the years and my strategy is to hit it with Ibuprofen to reduce the pain so I can get it moving again, this has always worked for me, I’m back to normal within a day or two.

Anyway good luck with your recovery, It took for me to get my confidence back but now I'm happy to do all my pre prolapse activities, baring bungee jumping.

".....spasm as a protective reflex.....". I can relate. It seemed that my right side trap muscle
stayed in a constant state of spasm. Hurt almost as bad, being like that, as the pain from the bad disc's.

Dennis Noward

softlad

I had a partial prolapse in my L2/L3 about three years ago - caused by nothing more strenuous than walking out of MacDonalds - strange but true. At the time, I had several days in bed, a course of Diclofenac (highly recommended), Cocodamol (not recommended - it bungs you up) and some physio. A few months after that I was back riding motocross and cycling.

Every now and then, some of the pain comes back and bites you on the ar5e (almost literally, in my case), but a couple of days worth of Diclofenac usually does the trick. Every 6-9 months or so, I reckon on some kind of recurrence, although these are nowhere near as serious or debilitating as the original injury.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a fairly painful recurrence after two solid days of MTB at Nant yr Arian and Brechfa. My own fault really, over-doing it as always. Again, a few days worth of diclofenac did the trick and I was back on the bike the weekend after...

ESC

I was diagnosed with a prolapsed disk between C5/C6 in April last year and although not what I would call killer painful it did keep me awake at night for nigh on two months with pain in my chest, elbow and hand and a noticeble weakness in my left arm, after seeing both a physio and chiropractor which made not one iota of difference I was refered to Atkins Morley Hospital following an MRI for a procedure called a foraminotomy. 9 months on and I'm at about 90% fit pre prolapse with the recovery still on going, been out on the bike and surfing and snowboarding without any drama so for me the right call to have surgery and a wake up call that you don't bounce as well when you hit 40.