Prolapsed(slipped) disc + sciatica- its finally defeated me

Not had personal exprience but the GF of a mate had similar if not quite so severe. After a layoff and physio she is riding mtb again. Good luck!

kevinn123 wrote:

I had a prolapsed disc approx 12 months ago - stoped running and cycling, had physio for a whiie - still have the odd twinge - but doing my core exercises religiously every morning has really helped - now (after 6 months of not doing a lot) I'm back to commuting to work every day and I'll be running a marathon next weekend.

So yes you will lose fitness but you canget it back again!

Briefly, what sort of core exercises do you do each day?

bc

I also suffered a prolapsed disc at the end of Dec last year - MRI showed wear and rear between 4th & 5th vertebra and prominent protrusion at this level which caused pressure on the L4 nerve (hurt like hell!).

Had few days of work but kept as mobile as possible, some physio and core exercises, stretching, and the situation eased so resumed cycling. I do take care and ensure I have breaks and stretch on longer bike rides (40-60 mile) and so far so good. Back to daily 17 mile round trip commute and was able to complete 100 miles for Macmillan Bike ride in July.

Will not try impact exercise i.e. running, as I do not want to push my luck - quite content with cycling 90 - 130 miles a week.

Sympathise with your current situation, but things can improve - good luck.

not gonna do details but i have a catalogue of back issues mechanical,neurological and some inherited including both the issues you refer to. My advice would be bin the running totally. Depending on how stable it is golf maybe a bad idea. I dont walk for more than hour ever and cannot stand still for more than 10-15 minutes without a fortnight of agony to follow. Id secon the chiropractor - i still see min weekly and id also take advice ref stretching and spinal mob ecercises. Whilst i cannot sit in a car for more than 2 hours i can ride my bikes for up top 6 hours. It just has to be done in a slow incremental way. Last year i probably road 1000 miles in total (if that) and this year im over 5000 already including 5 century rides, time trialling,racing,sportives etc. Ive just had to ride little and often with slow progression, changed to riding much smaller gears at high cadence and insure i dont work too hard in the cold or wet. Finally i count 100 revs seated 50 standing when im on a climb because it makes you rest your back and change position. Dont give up. My first ride in October was 5 mins on a turbo, then 7,9,12,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55,60 prior to my first easy road ride. Just make sure you structure it and dont over do it to avoid that boom or bust thing. Also flip your road stem to bring the bars up a little higher and pull the bars back a little. Confort first! I did reduce to a 80 mm stem flipped and a year (and 2 other stems later) im on 100mm stem and did my first 45 mile ride with the stem the right way up this morning without any issues. Baby steps fella, quash the enthusiasm for now and you will be flying by march.
Good luck!

brother in law had a prolapsed disc, tried everything without success
eventually had it operated on - think they cut it off , the bit of disc thats sticking out i mean

he's been playing golf again without bother for ten years, didn't cure the shanks though

In 1999 I had a very severe double prolapse at L4/L5 and L5/S1 discs.

After 3 months of agony was operated on by neurosurgeon. Trimmed L4/L5 and left very little. Left the one below alone.

After 6-8 months of setling down (it took that long for the nerves to recover from being trapped) I was back to sport.

I still have to be careful and sometimes get muscle spasms and the odd sciatic twinge, but doing the Raid Pyraneen next year, cycle 140 miles a week, play cricket and football and am fitter than I was before the op in 1999.

Am now 39.

You have a very common injury and will get over it, so keep patient and hang in there.

found this ...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/core-strength/SM00047&slide=13

from there mainly...

Segmental rotation
bridge
Quadruped
plank
Superman

Best thing the Physio did was to show me how to do these properly


- just keep plugging away - it may not go away but it will get better

Really interesting reading this. About three months ago I started to get lower back pain which developed into sciatica right down to my ankle. Went to the gp who sent me for x rays which were returned saying there was nothing wrong with me.
However at the beginning of september the pain became that bad that I returned to the doc and he referred me for physio. I could no longer go to work.
In the meantime I paid for a session with another local physio who basically said that I had a slipped disc and showed me some extension exercises and showed me how to maintain posture self managing the situation. The exercises which I believe are the Mckenzie ones, did seem to help relieve some of the pain short term. The overall pain symptoms stayed the same. The worst was and still is getting up in the morning. The pain is okay on waking but as soon as I stand up out of bed the pain is excruciating. The only relief is to get into extension position by lying on my front and taking painkillers.
After waiting another three weeks I went for some physio as referred by Gp. After doing a few tests including a straight leg raise he confirmed that it was a prolapsed disc. This was two weeks ago. He told me to continue the mckenzie exercises and return the following week.
It is worth mentioning that during this whole time I have made an effort to walk every day and have tried cycling but was scared that it would aggravate it. Sometimes walking is a real effort and quite painful.
Last week I returned for more physio. Again he tested my progress my doing a straight leg raise which hadn't improved being less than 30degrees. As well as diong the extension exercises he has now given me another one to mobilise the nerve. He mentioned that it was a bad case and if there was no improvement then I would be able to get a MRI scan with a view to surgery, which I really dont want.
At the moment on the postive side, the pain is getting less severe in my leg and much of its strength has returned. The pain although still bad appears to be centralising again to my lower back. However my straight leg raise remains the same. Getting up in the morning is still hell.
Like yourself I am worried about the long term and am being a keen cyclist and runner am like a caged animal staying in all the time. Just thought I would share my story and will let you know if I find something that speeds up my recovery. I am still hoping one day I will start making better progress. Fingers crossed.............

Thanks for advice. I havent ran for ages. like you say the constant impact cant help things heal and it scares me to think that i could do more damage.Can't say that I havent been tempted to have a try though! I know that its just not possible at the moment and am stuck with walking and using stepper machine.

I burst a disc in December 2004 : L5/S1.
I didn't realise I'd done it, I just thought I'd pulled something, so I ran a cross-country race on it. This perhaps wasn't the best idea, in retrospect... :shock:

I went through lots of physio, chiropractic, osteopathy.
It improved things but I was still in chronic pain. Lots of referred pain all the way down my right leg to my ankle.
A spinal steroid injection helped temporarily, but only temporarily.
It's debateable how much the various treatments helped and how much the improvement was simply due to my back setting down.
It will settle down, but it takes ages, really ages, and is difficult if you're an active type of person (an inactive type of person probably wouldn't have burst their disc in the first place...)

I tried tentatively to run several times, every couple of months, but it was painful doing it and very bad afterwards, so clearly not a good idea.
But I found I could cycle pretty well. Did a couple of centuries with my back like this, even though long distance/duration rides did become painful I had to stop and stretch.
Swimming was OK too, although I found it very dull.

After 18 months though I had the disc removed and now have an artificial titanium/polypropylene disc.
This has resulted in me getting back to doing everything again - long car or aircraft journeys are now OK with a couple of ibuprofen, running is OK although I'm sticking to running Halfs as a maximum and will never do another marathon, I do sportives and TT's in a pretty aero position (I think aerobars are great, they take the weight on your elbows rather than straining your back...).
But even with the replacement disc, my back still isn't back to 'what it was before' : even though I can now do everything again, I'm used to a background level of chronic discomfort. Only when it becomes pain do I reach for the ibu's, but never need anything stronger.
They said that after the op I should give it two years before I'd get the maximum recovery and they were right, things did improve steadily and slowly. It's now 2 1/2 years post-op, so presumably wht I've got now is where I'll stay.
I do lots of sciatic nerve stretches and core strengthening exercises, although really should probably do more pilates and core work.

The disc is a doughnut-cum-hockey-puck shaped thing, filled with gloop of the consistency of toothpaste.
It's designed to be a shock absorber between the vertebrae and to physically hold them apart, as the nerves for your legs, etc exit the spinal chord through the gaps between the vertebrae.
You rupture/prolapse/burst the disc by a split forming in the disc wall and the gloop squirting/oozing out.
The gloop is not designed to be loose in the body, it's a major irritant, your body then goes into something called 'inflammatory cascade' because of this gloop, which you treat with NSAID's like diclophenac.
But the split in the disc doesn't heal very well as there are no blood vessels going into it, so even if the split heals, it's still weak and you can easily reopen the split, causing more gloop to come out, more inflammation.
Evenntually the disc will be empty and squashed flat, like an empty balloon : now it can't provide the shock absorbing function any more, and it's also not maintaining the space between the vertebrae, so the nerves coming out between them are pinched, giving the pains down your legs.

Running or other impact sports are not a good idea at all - you'll squidge even more gloop out of the disc causing inflammation, the vertebrae can actually knock against one oneanother, and the nerves can get pinched.
Twisting sports like golf or tennis can equally re-spit the disc or pinch the nerves.

I had a full disc replacement, an alternative is disc removal & fusion, others above have had micro-discectomies where part of the split bit of the disc is removed so it doesn't pinch the nerve.
But surgery is a radical solution - much better to do the physio's MacKenzie exercises, do the pilates core-strengthening stuff and see if you can't get the disc to heal.

I have a similar complaint. The physio work was working slowly - too slowly for me. I decided to get a sports massage. The guy who I found is a cyclist, understood my problem, give me a cracking massage and some exercises. I have had 2 sessions and can now run again as well as cycle - complete transformation.

doog442 wrote:

thanks or that

in the 3 days since i have been doing pelvic floor exercises i have noticed a massive improvement...i would say that 50% of the pain has gone....ive done a quick bit of research and this may indicate piriformis syndrome rather than a slipped disc....i wonder if this exercise has released the nerve :?: or perhaps im just clutching at straws.

quite amazing really,feel better today than i have for months.

Hi Doog
could you let me know what your pelvic floor exercises are and what to do? It could be that you are doing the same ones as me but I would like to learn some new ones, especially after reading how they have improved things for you.
thanks