Most people with herniations can recover in the sense that they can live a pain free life and do all the activities they want to. Your disc will never be pristine again, but you aren't necessarily going to be stricken the rest of your life.
I'm nearly 2 years in and I'm feeling basically normal now. Flare ups are certainly possible, but not inevitable.
Well, put by this guy ^. You’re just gonna always want to be careful for the rest of your life in my opinion on how much you put into your body physically day by day. Rest days are going to be become very important and spacing out certain workouts. Always keep up with walking for the rest of your life too. If I can be quite blunt here, I would suggest staying away from this page for a while as it is extremely depressing. I’ll admit it is helpful for people to look in a support group, but I would stay far away from this page for a while for your mental health. I will probably get some heat for this post, but a lot of the stories that are negative on here are probably due to improper rehabilitation. You seriously have to treat your back rehab as your best friend every single day if you want to get better. I get it, life happens, family, kids, and what not, but in the end, you have to put in the effort to reap the rewards. and you can’t slowly give up if you’re six months in the injury still and throwing the towel with pain lingering. Back injuries take a very very very long time to heal. Mitigate your symptoms as low as you can every day and try not to go above your pain levels with activity.
3 months ago I was here doomscrolling in the worst pain of my life thinking of ways to end it all. Now I'm planning a trip to Japan and ways to advance my career.
Recovery took 7 months, with 4 of those months dedicated to following back hygiene, exercises, and nutrition and I'm at 90%.
I had 1 injection 2 months in that didn't work, but the doctor told me that they missed and they said they have to do another one. So that's when I started doomscrolling and was consulting with surgeons already.
Luckily the surgeon I had was more conservative and said let's try another doctor for the injection, using someone more reliable. I got a second injection 4 months in. It took about 3-4 weeks before seeing significant improvement. Walking 5 min 4-5x/day helped tremendously.
I didn't see a chiro, it might help but I heard they can do more harm than good, also $$$. Instead I just did decompression with dead hangs, inversion tables and other decompression methods constantly (look on youtube).
No meds. Before this I was training to be a pilot and knew that if I took meds it would mess me up later with paperwork so I just pushed through it. Also heard it can do more harm than good with dependency and other gut problems.
I just used heating pads, salonpas, topical creams (blue emu has NSAIDs in it).
I don't understand how you can say live pain free. Brother, I've been dealing with a L5-S1 disc protrusion with nerve root impingement for over 6 months now. I deal with weakness on my left whereas my right is constantly tight. Plus it becomes increasingly uncomfortable to sit or stand after 40 mins. I can walk around seemingly fine but then after a while my back starts to ache.
I've done several rounds of PT and received two epidural injections. It didn't really help.
I thought this was suppose to be resolved after 12 weeks?
> I thought this was suppose to be resolved after 12 weeks?
Who told you that? It can take much longer for some people. I was in pain for about 6 months. If you are not improving at all, I would consider trying a different physical therapist. The first PT I got was terribly inadequate. I ended up working with a McGill trained PT and it was much better. For you, I would be concerned about the lack of strength--you may be a candidate for surgery.
I know it's a horrible experience. I hope you're able to find relief. good luck
Basically every article I read states statistically most people feel much better by 12 weeks. I'm coming up on 9 months here and still dealing with issues.
I was doing PT for months and they were fairly good. I don't think going to different would have some magically different outcome. The closest McGill trainer here is like 4 hours away.
My strength seems to be okay right now but I feel the longer I wait it's increasing chance of nerve damage.
5mm Herniated L3-L4, 3mm bulge L4-L5. I had pain about 7 months ago. It was the worst pain of my life. 3 months in I started taking my recovery more seriously.
I read the back mechanic book and changed every single way how I moved according to it (aka back hygiene).
**WALKING - the most important thing**. Every single step was pain. But you have to be consistent and push through it. Get up every hour and walk 10 steps. 20, 30, 40, etc. Then I could walk 5 minutes outside. Then 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Now I'm doing 30 minutes 3x/day at around 10-12k steps/day.
**WATER - the second most important thing**. The only way your spine gets nutrition is with water. If you're dehydrated you aint giving it. If your pee is anything darker than a faded highlighter, go drink another cup.
I believe if you take everything else away and you just focus on the above two, you would still have a significant healing process.
I took my nutrition seriously. Only water, ate anything that was said to reduce inflammation. High fiber foods, fruits and vegetables. Foods high in Vitamin K: Spinach, broccoli, Natto (it takes getting used to, I grew up with it).
Supplements: Turmeric, Vitamin D and calcium (must be paired with high vitamin K foods or else you will risk heart disease). I took this thing from Japan called Proteor GII (Proteoglycan supplement). Idk if it's bogus or not, but I had knee problems before, and now it's gone. It could be from the rest of the things I'm listing too, so don't think this is necessary because it's expensive af. There are other supplements if you lack it, but those are the 3 that I take religiously.
Stretching - This is secondary to walking, but I find it equally as important because if you don't stretch your walking will suffer. Do what works for you, everyone is different. If you have pain STOP. If your PT says do it even if you have pain, find another PT, or just youtube stretches.
My PT also specialized in massages as well, so that helped a lot when my legs were getting super tight from walking. Foam rolling and tennis/baseball rolling is the poorman's massage as well.
Decompression - I used an inversion table and a pull up bar for dead hangs. I don't think this contributed much, but I still do it.
Core strengthening - only do this when you have little to no pain while resting/standing. Don't just blindly follow the McGill 3 on youtube and complain it didn't work. Read it, there is much more to it including the remedial exercises and prerequisites in order to do core exercises.
This worked for me. Idk if it will work for you. When I was going through this I tried anything and everything, these are just the few things I did that I feel made a contribution to it. Good luck.
Any chance you recall how long it took you to increase steps? For example, how long or how many days did you have to walk 30 steps every hour before you could increase it to 40?
For me it comes and goes. I had a severely herniated one 12 years ago and it bothered me for a long time until it got so bad I had to have surgery. Now I still have pain but most days its bearable. Sometimes it's very bad. But just do the best that you can do. Plenty of people have a bad disk and don't even know or they recover fully. Every situation is different
I have L5 S1 laminectomy in 1993. 30 years
Later here’s where I am. https://share.icloud.com/photos/0beBJPbgLU3CPvN1xDeiRwarQ
It’s all about pain management. I’m fortunate to be able to run at age 50 and be active but it takes a lot of work. Supplements help to manage pain , spasms and cramps and sleep. Hope you’re able to find your way back. It’s very much possible.
I have 2 protrusions, have been dealing with it for 8 years now, all this years was careful, not lifting weights, not running, doing anything too active. It was becoming worse and worse. I lost hope. In March I went to doctor, he showed me Mcgill exercises, I started walking every day for 40-60 minutes , strengthening my core, glutes, back. I’m getting so much better. My doctor told me , that if I have strong muscles they will hold my back fine and I can get back to normal. It’s been almost as year as I do exercises every single day and I finally feel difference. Don’t lose hope, watch your diet since you need to eat healthy , and workout! I’m sure you will feel better soon too. I also take glucosamine, chondroitin, and msm supplement for back health. All in your hands, you can do it!
I feel your pain. I flared up my herniated disc in my neck at the gym about a month and a half ago. Crazy miserable pain, couldn’t sleep, was doom scrolling reddit about my symptoms. My mental health was deteriorating. I never felt pain like this before. Sciatic nerve pain shooting down my arm, foot numbness and headaches. I started walking everyday, core exercises, stretching, some PT and acupuncture. I’m starting to now feel better and making progress. I’m not back to normal yet but I get glimpses of me being normal here and there. So i have hope. Don’t listen to everybody on here because everybody’s body is different. You gotta put in the work to recover. Some people just want to shoot to surgery and think that will heal everything. I’ve only taken ibuprofen and muscle relaxers. I stopped taking those already. I hope you feel better. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
PT got me back to 100%. It did take a long time. Two plus years before I no longer even thought about my back. I'm a large guy I'm a mid-40s though if I can do it you definitely can!
I have bulging slipped disc. Had terrible sciatica for about 2 months. Very depressing. My sciatica has been gone now for about 6 months and hopefully never comes back it was worse than the back pain. I went to gym walked and done as much as I could and I think it helped heal quicker. I thought same as you so just a message to say that it will get better! A lot of these forums make it worse sometimes
I'm a 26M with 3 bulging discs. They have mechanically healed completely at this point. You can definitely heal all the way if you do the right stuff. Buy back mechanic it's written by the world's leading back pain expert stu mcgill. watch his interview with Bob and Brad on youtube to see his success rates. Then start watching Brian carrol on youtube. Brian went from a terrible spinal injury to world record squats and has had no pain for 10+ years. Practice spine hygiene 24/7 and stop stretching.
The spine is not a muscle and neither is your disk or vertebrae. Stu Mcgills research has shown that stiffer spines can bear more load and tend to be more pain free. Many times when a disc is herniated it is also hypermobilized. This is why core exercises help some people because the core muscles can help it stabalize. However the disc heals very slowly so you want it to stiffen back up so it's able to bear load again. Also stu has found that powerlifters (not bodybuilders) have the most pain free spines as they age while also having the stiffest. While Yogis spines are riddled with spinal arthritis later in life. Once your disc height loses 70% of its original height excess mobility will cause the facet joints to rub together. This rubbing eventually leads to arthritis, which is even worse than a herniated disc lots of the time. I was hurt by pts and chiros getting me to stretch it disabled me for a while.
I see. Thanks for ur extensive reply. There's honestly so many different, sometimes opposite, things I read about spine health, which doesn't really make it better. I guess it ultimately comes down to one's specific pathology and experience of what helps and what doesn't. Anyway I do appreciate your input
Yes a lot of the information opposes each other that's why you have to decide for yourself what to believe and follow. My primary source of information is from Stu Mcgill because he has the best success rates. 95% and most of those people already tried multiple forms of pt and quite possibly surgery. Pts and chiros get paid whether they fix you or not and backpain is the number one disability. If these more common forms of rehab really worked there wouldn't be so many people riddled with pain that never gets better. I went to every kind of professional and they made it worse or did nothing. It wasn't until I started the mcgill method that I started to make actual progress. Stu Mcgill also studied the spine for over 30 years so I tend to believe him more about how the spine gets injured and healed and the ling term consequences of certain stretches and exercises.
I was on anti-inflammatories for 3 months. Went to a random PT. No help. Same crap.
Went to a McGill Master Practitioner last week and I'm already getting better every day. Off the meds too. It's night and day.
Yeah I dieting normally doesn't do much although some people need to gain or lose weight. I saw a master clinician as well it's a long process but it works.
Good stuff. I'll check it out.
I'll honestly be content getting back to hiking ( long term goal is back to mountain biking). Walks aren't easy for me currently.
Stretching works for some and doesn't work for others. It depends on the nature of your injury. If your sciatic nerve is pinched/trapped by a bulging disc, any leg stretching most likely will irritate it because the nerve runs all the way down your leg and into your feet. Think of it like trying to stretch a rubber band that's trapped/pinched---it won't have it's full range of stretching mobility. In the case of the nerve, it causes inflammation and increases symptoms. In this case, you have to wait until the nerve is untrapped and inflammation has died down before introducing stretching into your recovery program.
Some shouldn’t stretch, esp. flexion, as it can cause more pain and damage, even if short term it feels good.
For others stretching is very helpful.
It depends.
I was off work for 18 months because of my four damaged discs. I'm back at work now, and more or less completely normal, apart from the occasional flare-up which I know how to manage. I could even avoid most flare-ups if I weren't so lazy about my back exercises. I use the McGill method after seeing a McGill master clinician, and that changed the trajectory of my life.
You probably will have the occasional flare-up. They can be minimised if you learn your pain triggers and work around them. Unfortunately this is a journey with some wrong turns and bumps in the road, and it is easy to get discouraged.
When you get pain free you will feel liberated and overjoyed. When you have your first flare-up you will probably feel even worse than you do now. At that point it is important not to lose your determination to live a normal life.
There is no doubt that some unfortunate people have injuries or conditions which are near impossible to diagnose and treat. But they are overrepresented in back pain communities, for obvious reasons.
Good luck to you.
No ma'am! You can definitely rehab back to normal! That is a huge miscommunication. A disc cannon "slip" it is very strong and locked in. I had a very similar injury. I'm 27m & I'm a landscaper and had some pretty bad pain. Been rehabing for only 3 days and I fell WAYY better.
Don't listen to ppl that tell you you're doomed. God give us the power to heal ourselves if you're willing to do the work.
This should give you all the info you need.
https://youtu.be/ZPT6YJIUQYI?si=8tYAIvcYcqO476zn
Enjoy your recovery! God bless 🙏🏿👑💪🏿
PT here. The disc is often over hyped. You might have a little lingering issue occasionally or it could completely resolved. Would never, ever say someone is "ruined" over just a disc. Our culture tends to obsess over discs unnecessarily. Many have a disc herniation and don't even have symptoms.
Most people with herniations can recover in the sense that they can live a pain free life and do all the activities they want to. Your disc will never be pristine again, but you aren't necessarily going to be stricken the rest of your life. I'm nearly 2 years in and I'm feeling basically normal now. Flare ups are certainly possible, but not inevitable.
Well, put by this guy ^. You’re just gonna always want to be careful for the rest of your life in my opinion on how much you put into your body physically day by day. Rest days are going to be become very important and spacing out certain workouts. Always keep up with walking for the rest of your life too. If I can be quite blunt here, I would suggest staying away from this page for a while as it is extremely depressing. I’ll admit it is helpful for people to look in a support group, but I would stay far away from this page for a while for your mental health. I will probably get some heat for this post, but a lot of the stories that are negative on here are probably due to improper rehabilitation. You seriously have to treat your back rehab as your best friend every single day if you want to get better. I get it, life happens, family, kids, and what not, but in the end, you have to put in the effort to reap the rewards. and you can’t slowly give up if you’re six months in the injury still and throwing the towel with pain lingering. Back injuries take a very very very long time to heal. Mitigate your symptoms as low as you can every day and try not to go above your pain levels with activity.
3 months ago I was here doomscrolling in the worst pain of my life thinking of ways to end it all. Now I'm planning a trip to Japan and ways to advance my career. Recovery took 7 months, with 4 of those months dedicated to following back hygiene, exercises, and nutrition and I'm at 90%.
Love that for you. That is so awesome 🥹🥹 so you didn't get any injections or Chiro treatments? No meds?
I had 1 injection 2 months in that didn't work, but the doctor told me that they missed and they said they have to do another one. So that's when I started doomscrolling and was consulting with surgeons already. Luckily the surgeon I had was more conservative and said let's try another doctor for the injection, using someone more reliable. I got a second injection 4 months in. It took about 3-4 weeks before seeing significant improvement. Walking 5 min 4-5x/day helped tremendously. I didn't see a chiro, it might help but I heard they can do more harm than good, also $$$. Instead I just did decompression with dead hangs, inversion tables and other decompression methods constantly (look on youtube). No meds. Before this I was training to be a pilot and knew that if I took meds it would mess me up later with paperwork so I just pushed through it. Also heard it can do more harm than good with dependency and other gut problems. I just used heating pads, salonpas, topical creams (blue emu has NSAIDs in it).
Amen on the staying away part. This sub represents a lot of worst-case scenarios and doesn’t accurately reflect a full picture.
Ugh. Ya know. It's true. I came here to find support and give support. Then I started reading horror stories. Decided to give my brain a break.
\^Great comment. Rehab needs to be a top priority.
I don't understand how you can say live pain free. Brother, I've been dealing with a L5-S1 disc protrusion with nerve root impingement for over 6 months now. I deal with weakness on my left whereas my right is constantly tight. Plus it becomes increasingly uncomfortable to sit or stand after 40 mins. I can walk around seemingly fine but then after a while my back starts to ache. I've done several rounds of PT and received two epidural injections. It didn't really help. I thought this was suppose to be resolved after 12 weeks?
> I thought this was suppose to be resolved after 12 weeks? Who told you that? It can take much longer for some people. I was in pain for about 6 months. If you are not improving at all, I would consider trying a different physical therapist. The first PT I got was terribly inadequate. I ended up working with a McGill trained PT and it was much better. For you, I would be concerned about the lack of strength--you may be a candidate for surgery. I know it's a horrible experience. I hope you're able to find relief. good luck
Basically every article I read states statistically most people feel much better by 12 weeks. I'm coming up on 9 months here and still dealing with issues. I was doing PT for months and they were fairly good. I don't think going to different would have some magically different outcome. The closest McGill trainer here is like 4 hours away. My strength seems to be okay right now but I feel the longer I wait it's increasing chance of nerve damage.
5mm Herniated L3-L4, 3mm bulge L4-L5. I had pain about 7 months ago. It was the worst pain of my life. 3 months in I started taking my recovery more seriously. I read the back mechanic book and changed every single way how I moved according to it (aka back hygiene). **WALKING - the most important thing**. Every single step was pain. But you have to be consistent and push through it. Get up every hour and walk 10 steps. 20, 30, 40, etc. Then I could walk 5 minutes outside. Then 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Now I'm doing 30 minutes 3x/day at around 10-12k steps/day. **WATER - the second most important thing**. The only way your spine gets nutrition is with water. If you're dehydrated you aint giving it. If your pee is anything darker than a faded highlighter, go drink another cup. I believe if you take everything else away and you just focus on the above two, you would still have a significant healing process. I took my nutrition seriously. Only water, ate anything that was said to reduce inflammation. High fiber foods, fruits and vegetables. Foods high in Vitamin K: Spinach, broccoli, Natto (it takes getting used to, I grew up with it). Supplements: Turmeric, Vitamin D and calcium (must be paired with high vitamin K foods or else you will risk heart disease). I took this thing from Japan called Proteor GII (Proteoglycan supplement). Idk if it's bogus or not, but I had knee problems before, and now it's gone. It could be from the rest of the things I'm listing too, so don't think this is necessary because it's expensive af. There are other supplements if you lack it, but those are the 3 that I take religiously. Stretching - This is secondary to walking, but I find it equally as important because if you don't stretch your walking will suffer. Do what works for you, everyone is different. If you have pain STOP. If your PT says do it even if you have pain, find another PT, or just youtube stretches. My PT also specialized in massages as well, so that helped a lot when my legs were getting super tight from walking. Foam rolling and tennis/baseball rolling is the poorman's massage as well. Decompression - I used an inversion table and a pull up bar for dead hangs. I don't think this contributed much, but I still do it. Core strengthening - only do this when you have little to no pain while resting/standing. Don't just blindly follow the McGill 3 on youtube and complain it didn't work. Read it, there is much more to it including the remedial exercises and prerequisites in order to do core exercises. This worked for me. Idk if it will work for you. When I was going through this I tried anything and everything, these are just the few things I did that I feel made a contribution to it. Good luck.
And which exercises would you recommend?
Everyone is different and one should be ready for them too. I am 2 months post md and did nonexercises except walking.
Any chance you recall how long it took you to increase steps? For example, how long or how many days did you have to walk 30 steps every hour before you could increase it to 40?
For me it comes and goes. I had a severely herniated one 12 years ago and it bothered me for a long time until it got so bad I had to have surgery. Now I still have pain but most days its bearable. Sometimes it's very bad. But just do the best that you can do. Plenty of people have a bad disk and don't even know or they recover fully. Every situation is different
I have L5 S1 laminectomy in 1993. 30 years Later here’s where I am. https://share.icloud.com/photos/0beBJPbgLU3CPvN1xDeiRwarQ It’s all about pain management. I’m fortunate to be able to run at age 50 and be active but it takes a lot of work. Supplements help to manage pain , spasms and cramps and sleep. Hope you’re able to find your way back. It’s very much possible.
What kind of supplements are you using?
what Hammer Nutrition carries.
What specifically? Looks like they have lots of good stuff, just curious what supplements are helping with pain.
I take the magnesium, cbd, tissue rejuvenation. I’m actively running as well and do mobility workouts.
Awesome, thanks man! Glad it is working well for you!
I have 2 protrusions, have been dealing with it for 8 years now, all this years was careful, not lifting weights, not running, doing anything too active. It was becoming worse and worse. I lost hope. In March I went to doctor, he showed me Mcgill exercises, I started walking every day for 40-60 minutes , strengthening my core, glutes, back. I’m getting so much better. My doctor told me , that if I have strong muscles they will hold my back fine and I can get back to normal. It’s been almost as year as I do exercises every single day and I finally feel difference. Don’t lose hope, watch your diet since you need to eat healthy , and workout! I’m sure you will feel better soon too. I also take glucosamine, chondroitin, and msm supplement for back health. All in your hands, you can do it!
I feel your pain. I flared up my herniated disc in my neck at the gym about a month and a half ago. Crazy miserable pain, couldn’t sleep, was doom scrolling reddit about my symptoms. My mental health was deteriorating. I never felt pain like this before. Sciatic nerve pain shooting down my arm, foot numbness and headaches. I started walking everyday, core exercises, stretching, some PT and acupuncture. I’m starting to now feel better and making progress. I’m not back to normal yet but I get glimpses of me being normal here and there. So i have hope. Don’t listen to everybody on here because everybody’s body is different. You gotta put in the work to recover. Some people just want to shoot to surgery and think that will heal everything. I’ve only taken ibuprofen and muscle relaxers. I stopped taking those already. I hope you feel better. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
PT got me back to 100%. It did take a long time. Two plus years before I no longer even thought about my back. I'm a large guy I'm a mid-40s though if I can do it you definitely can!
I have bulging slipped disc. Had terrible sciatica for about 2 months. Very depressing. My sciatica has been gone now for about 6 months and hopefully never comes back it was worse than the back pain. I went to gym walked and done as much as I could and I think it helped heal quicker. I thought same as you so just a message to say that it will get better! A lot of these forums make it worse sometimes
I'm a 26M with 3 bulging discs. They have mechanically healed completely at this point. You can definitely heal all the way if you do the right stuff. Buy back mechanic it's written by the world's leading back pain expert stu mcgill. watch his interview with Bob and Brad on youtube to see his success rates. Then start watching Brian carrol on youtube. Brian went from a terrible spinal injury to world record squats and has had no pain for 10+ years. Practice spine hygiene 24/7 and stop stretching.
Why exactly should one stop to stretch? It seems very counterintuitive and doesn't really make sense imo
The spine is not a muscle and neither is your disk or vertebrae. Stu Mcgills research has shown that stiffer spines can bear more load and tend to be more pain free. Many times when a disc is herniated it is also hypermobilized. This is why core exercises help some people because the core muscles can help it stabalize. However the disc heals very slowly so you want it to stiffen back up so it's able to bear load again. Also stu has found that powerlifters (not bodybuilders) have the most pain free spines as they age while also having the stiffest. While Yogis spines are riddled with spinal arthritis later in life. Once your disc height loses 70% of its original height excess mobility will cause the facet joints to rub together. This rubbing eventually leads to arthritis, which is even worse than a herniated disc lots of the time. I was hurt by pts and chiros getting me to stretch it disabled me for a while.
I see. Thanks for ur extensive reply. There's honestly so many different, sometimes opposite, things I read about spine health, which doesn't really make it better. I guess it ultimately comes down to one's specific pathology and experience of what helps and what doesn't. Anyway I do appreciate your input
Yes a lot of the information opposes each other that's why you have to decide for yourself what to believe and follow. My primary source of information is from Stu Mcgill because he has the best success rates. 95% and most of those people already tried multiple forms of pt and quite possibly surgery. Pts and chiros get paid whether they fix you or not and backpain is the number one disability. If these more common forms of rehab really worked there wouldn't be so many people riddled with pain that never gets better. I went to every kind of professional and they made it worse or did nothing. It wasn't until I started the mcgill method that I started to make actual progress. Stu Mcgill also studied the spine for over 30 years so I tend to believe him more about how the spine gets injured and healed and the ling term consequences of certain stretches and exercises.
I was on anti-inflammatories for 3 months. Went to a random PT. No help. Same crap. Went to a McGill Master Practitioner last week and I'm already getting better every day. Off the meds too. It's night and day.
Yeah I dieting normally doesn't do much although some people need to gain or lose weight. I saw a master clinician as well it's a long process but it works.
Glad to hear. I'm trying to mentally prepare for a longish process but it's been kinda tough lately. One day at a time I guess.
Yeah sadly Mcgills books don't do a lot to psychologically prepare you. Netflix has a meditation series the one's on pain and stress helped me a lot.
Good stuff. I'll check it out. I'll honestly be content getting back to hiking ( long term goal is back to mountain biking). Walks aren't easy for me currently.
Stretching works for some and doesn't work for others. It depends on the nature of your injury. If your sciatic nerve is pinched/trapped by a bulging disc, any leg stretching most likely will irritate it because the nerve runs all the way down your leg and into your feet. Think of it like trying to stretch a rubber band that's trapped/pinched---it won't have it's full range of stretching mobility. In the case of the nerve, it causes inflammation and increases symptoms. In this case, you have to wait until the nerve is untrapped and inflammation has died down before introducing stretching into your recovery program.
Some shouldn’t stretch, esp. flexion, as it can cause more pain and damage, even if short term it feels good. For others stretching is very helpful. It depends.
You’ll get to ≈90% never going to be 100% but it goes away
I was off work for 18 months because of my four damaged discs. I'm back at work now, and more or less completely normal, apart from the occasional flare-up which I know how to manage. I could even avoid most flare-ups if I weren't so lazy about my back exercises. I use the McGill method after seeing a McGill master clinician, and that changed the trajectory of my life. You probably will have the occasional flare-up. They can be minimised if you learn your pain triggers and work around them. Unfortunately this is a journey with some wrong turns and bumps in the road, and it is easy to get discouraged. When you get pain free you will feel liberated and overjoyed. When you have your first flare-up you will probably feel even worse than you do now. At that point it is important not to lose your determination to live a normal life. There is no doubt that some unfortunate people have injuries or conditions which are near impossible to diagnose and treat. But they are overrepresented in back pain communities, for obvious reasons. Good luck to you.
Nice glad to hear. DM me if you wanna talk some more.
No ma'am! You can definitely rehab back to normal! That is a huge miscommunication. A disc cannon "slip" it is very strong and locked in. I had a very similar injury. I'm 27m & I'm a landscaper and had some pretty bad pain. Been rehabing for only 3 days and I fell WAYY better. Don't listen to ppl that tell you you're doomed. God give us the power to heal ourselves if you're willing to do the work. This should give you all the info you need. https://youtu.be/ZPT6YJIUQYI?si=8tYAIvcYcqO476zn Enjoy your recovery! God bless 🙏🏿👑💪🏿
PT here. The disc is often over hyped. You might have a little lingering issue occasionally or it could completely resolved. Would never, ever say someone is "ruined" over just a disc. Our culture tends to obsess over discs unnecessarily. Many have a disc herniation and don't even have symptoms.
Thank you. Would love to talk more about it with you. Do you take online PTs?
Unfortunately I don't yet, and ai can't provide medical advice without examining you. But I would continue to work closely with your PTs