Aren’t there some spine specialists on here?

I have to get my right ankle fused as it's becoming unbearable. My surgeon feels as though I was weight bearing on the previous repair far too soon. Under the other surgeons orders though... This caused most of the damage. My life has been changed dramatically by this ankle, the knowledge that a lot of my current situation was because of too much too soon makes me want to eat a bullet. Or hurt some mofos lol. Not all recoveries can just be muscled through.

 

Holy Shit!!!! MetalHead can do math. Who knew????

 

That is the part I will struggle with. I have this attitude of “I can do or beat anything, don’t fucking tell me I can’t.....just watch me....”

In this scenario, that could be my downfall. Even though I logically and rationally know better, it is hard to control that attitude/approach.

 

It's tough to swallow.

Here we go: Imagine Brian just built your superbike engine and got the bike ready to load on the Dyno. Then calls and says, "Chris, bike is ready but the Dyno is down, stack took a shit and it'll be a while, maybe months till parts are available. Pick up the bike so you can store it. But Chris... You absolutely can not ride it untill I map it. Understood? I need you to acknowledge that you understand me Chris...."

 

That's just brutal!

 

I have an older friend with that setup, cattle farmer. has had it for ten years. Still works every day. Hoping yours works as well. Good luck!

 

My neck and back got jacked up in a car accident ~4 years ago. One surgeon wanted to do disc replacement, I got a second opinion and that guy told me that I can recover better if I avoid that surgery. Acupuncture, massage therapy, and PT have helped me to largely recover. It’ll never be as good as it was but I managed to avoid the knife so I’m taking that as a win.

@Gorilla George Ask your PT if swimming is a good option for recovery. It’s one of the only things I was able to do early on in the recovery process.

 

Swimming, shit i didnt think about that. Good call.

 

I do know one thing i want to do.

He said i will be in one of those bigass turtle shell brace things to stabilize my spine for 5 weeks. Since only my head, legs, and arms will be sticking out, i want to find a place that can paint the brace to look like a turtle.

 

Since I have an actual keyboard and I'm sober now...

Early 90's, I'm young 30's and bought a dirtbike. Friend belonged to Saddleback East and I would go every weekend. After a while I noticed that my back would hurt on Sunday evenings but I didn't think much of it. We did a lot of jumping with our bikes.

That April my company held a fishing tournament for all the employees at Nolin Lake. My brother and I tow my boat down, looking forward to a party weekend. We party hard Friday night before the tournament and during that night the weather changed 30+ degrees to the worse. Rainy and mid 40's, and I slept on a shitty couch in a friends cabin. I woke with severe back pain but I soldiered on. As the morning goes on, I am debilitated to the point that I'm lying flat on the bottom of my boat and can hardly move but hell if I'm stopping. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and he got help loading the boat back up and getting me back to Louisville. I had to lay on my stomach in the bed of his truck for the ride home because I could barely move. We get to my house, I somehow make it into my bed in the worst pain I've ever been in.

The next morning I can not move at all. I'm frozen. My wife calls an ambulance and they have to take me out of the house on a stretcher board because a gurney wouldn't fit. I then spent 5 days in the hospital while they tried to determine exactly what was going on with me. Ends up the same as many have described; compacted and herniated disc at L4-5. After discharge I was sent to the Louisville Spine Clinic (I think that's what it was called) who were supposed to be the best in the city. The doc looked over my file and within minutes said. "oh, this is no problem...we'll simply fuse you spine." Uh, OK doc, exactly what does that mean and what will that do to my life? Can I still play hockey? No. Can I ride motorcycles? No. Tell you what doc...I'll get back to you.

That's when I headed to my 2nd opinion. When I told the second doc where I'd been the first words out of his mouth were, "you went to the back butchers?!" This new doc prescribed three rounds of epidurals over a 6 week period and a re-education for me on how to treat your back in the future. Pretty basic shit like improve your posture, lift with your knees and don't slouch in chairs when you sit. Things we should all be doing in the first place.

I still have episodes. If the weather changes drastically I can feel it in my back. I've had my back go out doing stupid crap like putting on my socks or stretching in bed in the morning the wrong way. It's never been as bad as that first episode, but it finally caught up with me enough that I had to quit hockey. Oh I could still play but if I can't do it to the level that I expect out of myself then I'd just as soon not participate. But that one simple decision bought me another 25 years of a normal life.

 

Don’t forget the TMNT mask to go with it.

 

I'm shocked !!

 

Which explains why I like you.

 

Shit...and I thought it was because of my fuzzy like warmth.

 

Foraminal openings are the openings made between vertebra by the little "bridges" that go from the vertebral body to the spinous process.....the "fin". Its where the spinal nerves exit the spinal cord and then branch out after that. Decreased disc height reduces this space. And there is more there than just the spinal nerves, so it can compress everything there, fat, blood vessels, the nerve. Facet joints are the posterior joints that attach one vertebra to the others above and below. In the thoracic spine, they overlap like shingles on a house, and make for better lateral movement. In the lumbar spine, they run parallel vertically and make for better flexion and extension.

For the OP, I am sure you have exhausted all forms of non-surgical, but if not, a couple of things to try would be:
Decompression Traction. https://www.webmd.com/back-pain/guide/spinal-decompression-therapy-surgical-nonsurgical#1
Not the inversion traction, but an actual decompression traction table where they secure in the pelvis and have a strong pull for say, 30 seconds and then relax partially, and repeat for 20 mins. Decompression traction made a lot of claims above and beyond, and got some providers in trouble for citing that the therapy was "NASA approved" (because NASA was finding that weightlessness in space was taking care of chronic back pain in astronauts, but it was quite the extrapolation and got some providers fined for making claims). But it's worth a try. If decompression traction helps, home inversion traction can be done to assist or help between visits.

Another option is McKenzie extension exercises. https://www.spineone.com/mckenzie-method-back-pain/
It will hyperload the posterior part of the spine, but most of our problems now are from being flexed at the hips all day. This, you would want cleared by your therapist or doctor depending on how your x-rays and MRI look for the posterior aspect of the spine (facet joints).

Third is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/cognitive-behavioral-therapy/about/pac-20384610
Yeah, it's like it sounds. It's more of a mindset, but it's gaining a ton of traction with results for people with chronic pain and is worth a try. I sat in a conference last year with one of the foremost authorities on CBT and I was impressed.

Other people have mentioned yoga, and flexibility work, which are viable options. I have been pointing people towards Dr. Kelly Starett's book "Becoming a Supple Leopard" or his website, "The Ready State". He works hard on mobility and correcting the numerous movement and imbalance faults we ingrain into us with repetitive motions.

I know others have said "no go" with spinal surgery, but in some cases, the surgical procedure outlined really might be the only fix, depending on the damage. They would be restricting movement at the L2-L3 area, but the good thing is that the body can adapt pretty well. Your spinal levels above and below that will adapt so you won't "see" much limitation. It really is a single level. I have seen people with complete Harrington rods in their back live a normal life. But as was also noted previously, core strength then becomes key. You don't want increased mobility at the levels that will be compensating for the motion loss without stability. That is just asking for more problems. And don't just think about the anterior core for the 6 pack. Think lateral core and even posterior core (Birddog exercises). Paloff Presses, or Paloff Holds. Anti-rotational exercises.

Good luck.

 

Think of the cost benefit to your employer, Not just your personal fitness. Them helicopters and boats ain't cheap.

 

@Gorilla George
Like you I have major issues with my lower back.
I don’t have a few discs any longer, discs that were fractured, compression fractures, stuff pressing on my spine causing pain, numbness, etc etc.
After my last big crash at the track I broke my wrist. When I went in to see,my now father in law, who is an orthopedic surgeon he had not only looked at the wrist but the mri or ct (I Can’t remember which they did of different parts of my body after the crash) he literally said “Aaron fuck your wrist have you seen your lower back?”
His words... “you really don’t have one it’s a got damn mess”.

I’ve met with lots of doctors I’ve been on every anti-inflammatory drug, pain relief pill that non-narcotic etc. None really work. Well narcotics do but we all know that slippery slope.

Bottom line is I’m looking at a major surgery at some point and an extremely long recovery process. With all of that there isn’t a doctor that will say for sure it will be remarkably better.

I am really good friends with people who had similar surgeries and they did recover but it was the most painful recovery I’ve seen. My one friend almost ate the end of a barrel I’m not joking. None of them are 100%.

Like others have said get at least a second opinion. If you can put it off I would put it off.

I don’t run anymore just too much pain . My left leg goes numb if I stand for more than a couple minutes. With that being said I still can run if I need to and I just plow through the pain. Cycling has been a life saver for my cardio. I do all road can’t risk falling down with the mountain biking stuff.

My opinion. put it off for as long as you can. I’m 48. One of the issues is that most of these are only good for “X amount of years” so if you out live the parts you could end up needing another surgery.

Basically I’m at a point where I don’t want to be so old when I get the surgery I have trouble recovering but also not so young I out live the parts. Where that fine line is is definitely debatable.

Ride safe,
AAron

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

The only issue is the chunk of disc that broke off, and is lodged in there, making my right leg numb, and not work correctly.

As far as the discs being gone, that’s been happening for years. I’ve managed to deal with it. If it was only that issue, I wouldn’t be bothering with it.

I knew my back was fucked, but I just dealt with it. It wasn’t until this recent injury, and the subsequent lack of function in my right leg that pushed me to surgery.

He showed me the chuck of disc on the MRI. It has to come out, or my leg will continue to get worse. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have surgery and would just continue to deal with it.

The joints have to come out to get the disc fragments out. Since they are fucked anyway, might as well reconstruct those 2 joints in the process. No sense in putting ruined shit right back in.

 

Damn I love this beeb.