I'm a healthy and athletic 36 years old man. I've player soccer since I can remember. I love sports. My real problem with a herniatic disc started back on November 17,2011. I was in very good shape. Exercising 3 to 4 times a week. Running and lifting weights. A month before my injury, I participated in duathlons and the Tough Mudder competition, just to give you an idea. But that morning of 11/17/2011 when I bent down to pick up my wallet from the floor I felt a pinch on my lower back. I was barely able to stand up straight afterwards. After several days the pain continue and was getting worse and worst. The pain was so bad that I had to take time off from work because I was not able to walk straight.
I visited an orthopedic doctor right away, X-rays didn't show any issues. He recommended PT. After a few weeks of PT sessions and home exercises the pain was still there. I went back to the doctor and I requested an MRI. I got back home from the hospital and put the CD with the images on my computer. I was able to see the L5 disc touching the nerve right on my computer screen. After he saw the results, he decided to give the cortisone injections a try to ease the pain so I can continue with PT and give the herniated disc time to recover. He mentioned that many patients recover within 6 months because the body try to heal itself.
The first injection (February 2012) helped a lot. Pain was 80% gone. I was able to go back to a semi normal life. When I went back for the second injection (March 2012) two weeks later my pain increased. Now I was at a 70% but I decided to deal with it because I was told that I can only have 3 injections a year. So I hold back to have my third shot. Meanwhile I was trying PT, Chiropractors and Yoga. After 3 months the cortisone start to wear off and pain was increasing. This was a sign that all the PT, chiro and Yoga sessions were not working. I even replaced my office desk to a stand up desk so I don't have to spend a lot of time sitting down. I tried to hold back the third injection as much as I could dealing with the pain. On August, I went back for my third cortisone shot. The outcome was not what I expected. Pain increased again plus now I'm not able to sit down. There is a sharp pain when I'm sitting down on my right buttocks. I told this to the nurse after two days went by. They gave me a forth injection without luck.
Here is when I seriously started to look into surgery. I had already opt-out all my options and time is going by. I want to move on with my life and all the things I love to do. I make an appointment at the Spine Research Institute to see if surgery was an option and I was referred to a spine surgeon.
After discussing my options I scheduled my surgery for December 6th, 2012.
More to come.....
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