So Gower,
What did they tell you your limitations would be once you heal 100%?
Yeah, don’t do the DRX route, they’re a rip off, and shady characters all around, I could tell you the whole story, but it’s too long. I’m in a smaller town in Ohio and we charge $70/treatment, and depending on the situation we recommend 6 to start, and after that based on improvement. Anyplace that forces you to sign up for a 20 visit plan steer clear of. It may take you 20 visits, but my highest number of visits was 12, granted I had a few that it didn’t help, but you’ll notice a difference within the first 3-5 visits, and if it isn’t helping by then, start thinking a different route. See if any of the ART providers have decompression in their office, or call around. There are 4 offices in our town of about 40,000 that have decompression, in SD, there is probably a similar if not better ratio.
I had a 10 mm herniation in my L4/L5. Was in a car accident and it was initially 7mm. Went to Chiro for years to treat the pain. Did traction in that time, but not on a fancy DRX machine. The Chiro helped but didn’t treat the injury. Obviously it got bigger and worse. This went on for 5 years. I was told by the first neurosurgeon i saw to wait to get surgery until i could’nt stand the pain any longer. I got to that point a year and a half ago.
I researched several places. The Laser Spine Institute was one that offered non invasive surgery in an outpatient setting. Only problem is they don’t take insurance. I finally found a place that offered non-invasive Disc Lamenectomy. This is where they make a small incision in your back muscle and stretch or dilate the incision to get to your back. They then cut away the part of the disc causing the problem. This offers very short recovery and so far 100% success. I feel like new. Due to age and years of back problems I am not back to my pre injury athletic ability but I can squat/deadlift without any pain.
The best part is I walked out of the hospital that night. Took some help but I was walking. First week of recovery sucks but three weeks later I was on the football field coaching.
If you have any specific questions please ask. I know the pain you are in and there is no reason to live with it with today’s methods.
Viking it should be better than ever, 100%! Just getting back into thing now, although I am still having some discomfort where they nerves are waking back up to normal. Pretty sure I had the same thing as calebsmitty. Although the last pic wasnt meant to happen lol because I was lucky enough to get an infection!
Yeah I didn’t have that much swelling or an infection. I didn’t have any brace put in or any fused disc. Just a partial lamenectomy which is non invasive. It is becomeing quite popular for back procedures.
Caleb-It sounds like you had a decent recommendation, to wait until you couldn’t stand the pain, but the popularity of a procedure shouldn’t have any factor in a life altering decision. Regardless of if you can squat and deadlift sans pain, a partial laminectomy still destabilizes the spine much more than a partial discectomy, or microdisc and as such, chances are that having a back surgery at 32, and trying to return to presurgery status, he will likely be under the knife again before he checks out for good.
All I care about is that people make an informed choice and get multiple opinions, rather than jump down the back surgery rabbit hole without asking the right questions.
Viking- I’ll put a couple feelers out to see if there are any recommendations for someone in the San Diego area from a conservative end of things and let you know if I hear anything back.
[quote]calebsmitty wrote:
I had a 10 mm herniation in my L4/L5. Was in a car accident and it was initially 7mm. Went to Chiro for years to treat the pain. Did traction in that time, but not on a fancy DRX machine. The Chiro helped but didn’t treat the injury. Obviously it got bigger and worse. This went on for 5 years. I was told by the first neurosurgeon i saw to wait to get surgery until i could’nt stand the pain any longer. I got to that point a year and a half ago.
I researched several places. The Laser Spine Institute was one that offered non invasive surgery in an outpatient setting. Only problem is they don’t take insurance. I finally found a place that offered non-invasive Disc Lamenectomy. This is where they make a small incision in your back muscle and stretch or dilate the incision to get to your back. They then cut away the part of the disc causing the problem. This offers very short recovery and so far 100% success. I feel like new. Due to age and years of back problems I am not back to my pre injury athletic ability but I can squat/deadlift without any pain.
The best part is I walked out of the hospital that night. Took some help but I was walking. First week of recovery sucks but three weeks later I was on the football field coaching.
If you have any specific questions please ask. I know the pain you are in and there is no reason to live with it with today’s methods.[/quote]
Thanks a lot for your post. Great to hear about your success. How long has it been since your surgery?
[quote]Theface wrote:
Caleb-It sounds like you had a decent recommendation, to wait until you couldn’t stand the pain, but the popularity of a procedure shouldn’t have any factor in a life altering decision. Regardless of if you can squat and deadlift sans pain, a partial laminectomy still destabilizes the spine much more than a partial discectomy, or microdisc and as such, chances are that having a back surgery at 32, and trying to return to presurgery status, he will likely be under the knife again before he checks out for good.
All I care about is that people make an informed choice and get multiple opinions, rather than jump down the back surgery rabbit hole without asking the right questions.
Viking- I’ll put a couple feelers out to see if there are any recommendations for someone in the San Diego area from a conservative end of things and let you know if I hear anything back.[/quote]
Thanks, TheFace… I have been doing a lot of research in the SD area and have resorted to trying to “make a deal” with some Chiros here. My normal Chiro has started putting me on the traction table for free because his table is dated. I will continue with him until I can find someone willing to go pay as you go per session and give me a decent price. Any input would be great, although I think my herniation is too large to recede with traction… Im still gonna give everything I can a try.
[quote]GoWeR wrote:
Viking it should be better than ever, 100%! Just getting back into thing now, although I am still having some discomfort where they nerves are waking back up to normal. Pretty sure I had the same thing as calebsmitty. Although the last pic wasnt meant to happen lol because I was lucky enough to get an infection![/quote]
Infection sucks, heres to a speedy recovery.
Thanks means a lot, Getting back to having a life now!
I have decided to undergo spinal decompression. Financially it is expensive, but I am at a place in my life where I can afford it. I will undergo 15 sessions of traction in an effort to recede my 7-8mm herniation. I spent an hour in traction today and left the office feeling an inch taller. The clients of the office I chose have had an enormous number of powerlifters, bjj practitioners, and other athletic types that have had success in this process. I have already spoken to several and seen MRI evidence. So I am hoping for the best and will get a second MRI at the end of the treatments in order to see if I would have been better off spending the money elsewhere. This will be my attempt to avoid a surgical procedure and I will update once the second MRI is done.
I had surgery about 2 years ago now.
I agree with FACE. Exhaust all other posibilities first. I felt I had done what was available. I just didn’t want to waste a bunch of money on a temporary fix.
My problem with decompression therapy is it isn’t cheap and it won’t fix the problem in the long term. I was given options by my doctor but none of the options cured the problem. They were temporary fixes. Surgery was the only option that was going to make the pain go away for good.
I am aware that I will probably have to have surgery again in my future. I actually have a buldge on my right side that will need to be taken care of but I will take that posibility for the way my back feels now compared to the pain I was in before. My quality of life sucked. It was a strain on my life and my family’s life.
My herniation started at 7 mm. I could handle the pain but it sucked. At 10 mm when I decided to go ahead with the surgery I was at 10 mm.
With Insurance surgery was cheaper than what decompression therapy would have been.
My herniation started at 7 mm. I could handle the pain but it sucked. At 10 mm when I decided to go ahead with the surgery I was at 10 mm.
With Insurance surgery was cheaper than what decompression therapy would have been.
[quote]calebsmitty wrote:
I had surgery about 2 years ago now.
I agree with FACE. Exhaust all other posibilities first. I felt I had done what was available. I just didn’t want to waste a bunch of money on a temporary fix.
My problem with decompression therapy is it isn’t cheap and it won’t fix the problem in the long term. I was given options by my doctor but none of the options cured the problem. They were temporary fixes. Surgery was the only option that was going to make the pain go away for good.
I am aware that I will probably have to have surgery again in my future. I actually have a buldge on my right side that will need to be taken care of but I will take that posibility for the way my back feels now compared to the pain I was in before. My quality of life sucked. It was a strain on my life and my family’s life. [/quote]
I agree that decompression is expensive, but I talked to several people (in mine and worse situations) who underwent it. If it buys me some time that I can be back to doing things I enjoy than the cost will be worthwhile.
Do you follow MMA at all? Below is a link to Shane Carwin’s back surgery.
I have also been following the recovery of baseballs Rafael Furcal. Does anyonw know who his surgeon was?
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080703&content_id=3057644&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la
Nevermind, found an article that meantions him.
[quote]calebsmitty wrote:
I had surgery about 2 years ago now.
I agree with FACE. Exhaust all other posibilities first. I felt I had done what was available. I just didn’t want to waste a bunch of money on a temporary fix.
My problem with decompression therapy is it isn’t cheap and it won’t fix the problem in the long term. I was given options by my doctor but none of the options cured the problem. They were temporary fixes. Surgery was the only option that was going to make the pain go away for good.
I am aware that I will probably have to have surgery again in my future. I actually have a buldge on my right side that will need to be taken care of but I will take that posibility for the way my back feels now compared to the pain I was in before. My quality of life sucked. It was a strain on my life and my family’s life. [/quote]
Sorry for the confusion “Make the pain go away for good.” Followed in the next line by “I am aware that I will probably have to have surgery again in my future” Hence your pain did not go away for good- Yes or yes?
Semantics maybe, I just have to deal with the “Back surgery is the only “permanent” fix” when it really isn’t argument on a weekly basis, and often these people end up in the pain clinic then to disability then to SS draining the system. It makes it that much more frustrating due to the fact that they can often be restored to function without surgery.
But I’m glad that you are currently experiencing pain relief and are not in the pain clinic on a weekly basis, and are a functioning member of society, so this tirade is not necessarily directed toward you, just more of a catharsis for my disappointment with the general state of health care and the all too common outcome of many back surgeries.
[End Tirade]
I recovered from a disc herniation without surgery. My bad one was at L5-S1. A friend of mine suffered a severe herniation which caused weakness where she couldn’t walk normally, her foot would drag. But she also recovered without surgery.
I avoided surgery because I found two studies comparing surgery with conservative therapy, and in my view the risks of the surgery outweighed the benefits. Also, I had learned about more effective forms of conservative therapy (e.g., McGill). If surgery were compared to the BEST conservative therapy, I believe conservative therapy would prove superior.
It’s really interesting how I’m always hearing about people going to doctors who claim these success rates so much better than the ones reported in scientific literature. I would never let some doctor claim a success rate without showing me the data…what is considered success? What measurements and ratings/scale are being used? How long is followup?
I do not believe that spinal decompression is effective or worth the money.
I also do not believe that either chiropractic treatment or ART is effective for disc herniations. I spent about $1000 on ART for my back pain, and it was a total waste of money.
I believe that no one can do anything for you that’s better than what you can do to decompress and stabilize your own spine with the right movements and positions, and avoid compressing/reinjuring it during the time it needs to heal – ~6 months.
Good stuff andersons. I definitely agree with you on taking the conservative approach when possible. I myself have recently recovered from a disc herniation as well taking a conservative approach (corrective exercise, time for recovery, and two sessions of ESI).
Andersons, can I ask what size your herniation was and in what direction? From a professional standpoint, once symptoms reach a certain point and a disc bulge reaches a specific size, surgery can be the better option depending on the person’s goals. People can respond very differently to the same sized bulge so the same course of action will not be the better option for everybody.
But again, I definitely agree that a conservative approach should first be strongly considered and attempted before surgery.
[quote]andersons wrote:
I recovered from a disc herniation without surgery. My bad one was at L5-S1. A friend of mine suffered a severe herniation which caused weakness where she couldn’t walk normally, her foot would drag. But she also recovered without surgery.
I avoided surgery because I found two studies comparing surgery with conservative therapy, and in my view the risks of the surgery outweighed the benefits. Also, I had learned about more effective forms of conservative therapy (e.g., McGill). If surgery were compared to the BEST conservative therapy, I believe conservative therapy would prove superior.
It’s really interesting how I’m always hearing about people going to doctors who claim these success rates so much better than the ones reported in scientific literature. I would never let some doctor claim a success rate without showing me the data…what is considered success? What measurements and ratings/scale are being used? How long is followup?
I do not believe that spinal decompression is effective or worth the money.
I also do not believe that either chiropractic treatment or ART is effective for disc herniations. I spent about $1000 on ART for my back pain, and it was a total waste of money.
I believe that no one can do anything for you that’s better than what you can do to decompress and stabilize your own spine with the right movements and positions, and avoid compressing/reinjuring it during the time it needs to heal – ~6 months. [/quote]
Thanks Andersons,
I am curious about how big your heriation was in MM? Also, were you suggested sugery by doctos? In general, what type of therapy/how long did you undego it? I just find it hard to believe a hernation will recede on its own after a certain size, no matter how many times you do Mc Kenzie extensions. I am very interested in all experiences, especially sucessful ones like yours
Also, in an upate, I have undergone 7 spinal decompression sessions and feel pretty fantastic. I also have been doing some physio and feel quite well and am optomistic. I will get a second MRI, that will tell the true story.