Bulging Disc - Help

[George N]

My 20 year old daughter has a bulging disc. She's awfully young to have this problem...it probably happened doing cheerleading in high school. She has gone through "agrgessive" physical therapy recommended by an orthopedic doctor in the Bay Area. We live in Northern California. Does anyone know the best place I can take her for this problem or best website for info?

Thanks

 

[farfar8806]

I had a "bulging" disc for over 3 years. I can only talk about my personal experience and try to clear up some of the mystery and the many questions that you probably have.

The condition is more commonly referred to as a disc prolapse or slipped disc. This covers both bulging and herniated discs. Bulging discs and herniated discs are quite similar, the main difference is that a herniated disc has actually broken down and the tough sidewall of the disc has been breached and the soft inner material known as nucleous pulpus has partly squeezed out.

The result is pretty much the same in that the disc starts pressing into the nerves causing pain both in the back and very often in one or both of the legs. Pain in the leg is also usually accomponied by a feeling of pins & needles and sometimes numbness and loss of sensation. In serious cases loss of bladder and or bowel control are present. The leg pain and pins and needles etc is known as sciatica. Sciatica is not a condition in its own right but rather a symton of the bulging disc causing referred pain.

Now the hard part, what to do. You can search on the internet and read hundreds and hundreds of pages about sciatica and prolapsed discs. There are many different views and opinions on this subject. In terms of your options thay are as follows:

1) Do nothing. Carry on with as normal a life as possible. Statistically over 90% of disc prolapses clear up on their own accord. This can take months or even years.

2) Several weeks of complete bed rest. This is frowned upon by many as the general feeling is that the patient should remain active and bed rest starts to weaken the core muscles that support the back. It is these nuscles that help prevent disc prolapses in the first place. Having siad that, resting the back can give the disc an opportunity to shrink back.

3) Surgery. The most common surgery is a discectomy. The discectomy involves making a 1 to 2 inch vertical incision on the patients back in line with the spine, over the area of the bulge. Muscle and other tisuue is then seperated to expose the disc and the bulging part of the disc is cut away to relive pressure on the nerves. Most patients are walking within 24 hours of surgery and can go home after 2 to 3 days. this is followed by 3 months of gentle rehab including physiotherapy and areturn to normal life is expected in 95% of cases. The dangers are infections, nerve damage and the possibility of making the situation worse.

I had a bulging disc in 2004. The pain and sicatica weren't too bad. the pain rated at about 4 out of 10 and the pins and needles was only about 2 out of 10. I carried on with as normal a life as possible. After 3 years I hurt my back again and made the bulge worse. the pain wnet up to about a 6 and the pins and needles went up to about a 4.

I went and saw a surgeon and decided to have the operation. That was 6 weeks ago. I am now virtually pain and sympton free and building up the strength in my core muscles. I can walk 3 miles a day and I am expecting to go back to work in 4 weeks time. I must point out though that I have read many items on the internet where the surgey has not worked and has made the situation worse.

I live in the UK so cannot recommend any doctors in the US. You do not mention how bad the pian is biut my advice to you and your daughter if the pain is not too bad then try and give her a body a chance to recover on its own. She is still very young and the prospect of back surgery at 20 is not great. There is no need to rush into surgery, (unless ther bladder or bowel are affected).

If you have any questions please ask. You can send a personal message or post your questions on this thread.

 

[dearjonny]

http://www.acatoday.com/search/memsearch.cfm

link is for the american chiropractic association's membership search.

Chiropractic is the treatment of choice for disc injuries. I would advice finding someone who knows and will teach McKenzie-type exercises; and I'd look for someone who would treat with flexion distraction therapy (as an option anyway, treatment choice will vary patient to patient).

Surgery can work, but has a reasonably high incidence of failure, or even exaccerbating the problem; it is also a dramatic approach which I would advice leaving until all other treatment options have been exhausted; sadly, beyond chiropractic & exercises/physio, maybe acupuncture; there aren't many other options to try first though.