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Disc bulge

MRI shows 1-mm diffuse annular bulge at L4-5.  Can this be treated conservatively?  My husband is 31 and is off work for this problem.  Is this something that will heal?  I am thinking that 1-mm is not very significant.  Any information regarding this would be helpful.  Thank you.

Barbara05
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Avatar universal
\i too got injuried at work. What a horrible experience.  \i went from a healthy individual to a constant pain individual. \it really does a number on your mind too.  \i do need support that is why i joined this site. \i have l4-l5 minimal bulge disk with stenosis. \pain radiates down left leg and butt.
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Avatar universal
It is so funny that you would say about WC making you travel really far away all my appointment are at least 1 Hr away.I have to tell you my EMG did not hurt at all but after talking to you I will be scared of anyone from WC touching me.What state are you from any bad weather there? I am from Michigan and we are going to get up to12 in tonight That means I have to even be more careful then normal to try not  to fall I have a little limp when I walk how about you ?I hate it I'm 24 and somtimes I walk like a 80 yr old HAHAHA. Well please keep me posted with you I enjoy talking to you.
                                      L Sabyan
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Avatar universal
I had an EMG done also that shows problems with my right leg. I hope there is no stenosois that shows up and hopefully given time and some kind of treatment you get some relief. Thankfully I do not have stenosis. I am going to go for some massages in Jan. I hope that helps with the muscle spasms. I really trust the person I am going to see.Just do whatever your lawyer tells you to do. Eventually you will have to have evaluations done by both sides. Your doctors the lawyer finds for you and WC. The ones from WC are a joke. I just had one done. The lady poked me so hard with the pin I really thought she drew blood. They make sure you feel everything. You have all your medical evidence though to back you up and that does not lie. You just got your EMG done which is good to have. If I think of anything else I will let you know. I just loved when I was no longer needed and my position was given away. I creid like baby knowing I did not have a job anymore. Who the heck else wants to hire me now? They always ask if you have any physical limitations and I certainly have them now.
Take care and it is nice talking with you. I noticed our friend up top has not replied to anything we had to say. Oh well. I do not know if your WC is like mine but they make sure any visits I have to go to are real far away. I guess they hope you will not show up. Ilike how my WC doctors used to tell me to quit my job but yet they would not put me out of work even though I explianed to them there is no such thing as light duty. Did you ever hear that. I reinjured my self over and over again. It was a joke. Most of the time I went to work limping so bad I could hardly walk but that's OK. There was no way I was quitting my job. I provided the medical insurance for my family. So it only looks better that they ended up firing me after tme off for my injury. They didn't even want me anymore.
Chadry
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Avatar universal
Currently I have so much pain in my back and leg I had an EMG 12-14 and it showed My nerve is going crazy when they shock it the right was7 and the left{bad one} was 15 I can not sit or stand for a long period of time.I have to have a myelogram next week[merry christmas to me} and hopefully they will see why I still have so much pain They thought possibly spinal stenosis and then I would have to be on light duty to then I would be told to get packing.I got a lawyer and I meet with him monday I will not lose me home and life because I got hurt at work.Please let me know anything that might help me also please keep in touch    L.Sabyan
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Avatar universal
I have not yet got a settlement. I am through ant treatmnets for months now. There is nothing more than can do they say so I was declared MMI months and months ago. I can not do my job anymore so I was fired. I got a doctor on my own who took me out of work for a few weeks and that was all they needed to let me go. I have one more evaluation to go through with WC. I worked with special ed kids in a classroom as an Instructional Aide. The second year I was assigned to a girl with C.P. I am sure you can imagine all the lifting I had to do through out the day. Changing her, and moving her around into all her hifferent chairs and standers and stretching her throughout the day. I also had other duties in the classroom that sometimes invovled restraining emotionally distrubed students. My back just could not keep up with all the demands with my hadicapped student. I could no longer do my duties. Of course I was put on light duty but there is no such thing as I am sure you are aware of this. I was basically a caregiver myself. This was Jan. of 06 and still to this day I have so many problems with my low back and neck that I do not even know what i can do anymore. I can not sit, stand,walk, bend or use my arm for any extended amounts of time. So now i have to figure out where I go from here. I think we should expecting a court date sometime in the near furture. I know you have to go to several different appoinments to get your percentages and so on. I am on my last appointment in Jan. Write back and let me know about you and what is going on with you.
Take care,
Chadry
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Avatar universal
Glad I could help your morning go better,.Did work comp give you a settlement due to your injury.I have the feeling that I will lose my job to Who wants a caregiver who can't lift or bend.I hope things are going better for you with your injury as well
                              Lindsey Sabyan
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Avatar universal
I know exactly how you feel . I am in the same boat. WC was a joke. I lost my job in June. I am no longer needed due to my injuries. Good luck to you. I hope things look up for you.
Take care. By the way thanks for your post to this other person as well. Boy that really got me going this morning.
Chadry
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Avatar universal
I think you as a person soon feel   sorry for your self what kind of person has the nerve to come on a site like this and question back problems ??????I am on work comp and have been since july I hurt my self lifting someone I have had nothing but problems WC is not a joy ride I have been close to losing my home I may never go back to work....I feel pain for the person you write about and I hope he ends up owning the company.

                      L sabyan
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Avatar universal
First of all you could have come on here and not lied.SEcond of all there are no docotors on here to give a diagnosis, most of the stuff people write back is what they have learned. If WC is keeping this person out of work APPARENTLY they think there is a problem. WC does not let anyone milk anything. Ask all the people on here that have work related jobs and find out how many need to be out work or need some kind of treatment they are not getting. Ask how many people have lost their jobs because of their injuries and can not find another one or who try to work but can not because of the pain that docotrs say is an insignifant finding. I KNOW this first hand. My disc bulge is not supposed to be that bad at L4-5 but my pain tells me different. I have days on end that I can not even walk. I can not do most of the things I did prior to my injury. Everyday things that you probably take for granted like shopping, walking, sitting, bending, cleaning, doing the wash and sitting on a floor with the kids, unless of course they can help pull you up afterwards, painting your toenails, and the list goes on. NOT to mention all the other odd sensations that you get too. Pins and needles, numbness, Shock sensations and the all kinds of other good things in different parts of your body. I had to stop a third of the way through putting together a Christmas tree and lie down for 45 minutes because of the pain, so my point here is not to assume that this person is trying to pull anything. Let WC do what they have to do and if the person is not telling the truth I guess it will all come out. If it was a member of your family suffering instead of your pocket book maybe you would feel different. Remember he does not make the same amount he was making when he was working. If he really is in pain then I am glad to hear that WC is doing something for him, because that is not the case with most of us here. I have never wrote anything like this before on this forum but your post just really rubbed me the wrong way. You  came on here and played on the sympathies of some good people trying to make you feel better and it was very deceitful. This forum is here to give support and a sounding board to peolple who really just do not know what to do anymore. Maybe you should have directed your post to a lawyer instead. And you will find everyone's NORMAL is different. OH and by the way PT is not my idea of fun. I know I have been there many times and sometimes it just makes it worse. People out of work are not runnung around having fun. Many people have to be on some kind of medication just to make it through a day, and pray that they can find the money to get the medication they need. Actually I hope this person has a lawyer because he sounds like he needs one if you are trying to make things difficult for him. Just because the bucket was only 10 pounds doesn't make that much of a difference if it caused an injury. Maybe you should think about not letting people work alone so you can always have a witness present keeping an eye on your employees.
Chadry
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Avatar universal
Thank you very much for answering!  I'm glad to know that this finding may be just a variant of normal.  Actually, it isn't my husband, but an employee of our plumbing business who has been milking our workers comp insurance since August after stating he injured his back while on the job lifting a 10 pound bucket.  They finally did an MRI with the above finding and I was just wondering if this was anything significant.  He has been off work for 4 months and going to physical therapy. We question the validity of the claim as it was unwitnessed and his stories have been conflicting.  I didn't think a 1-mm bulge sounded too serious and wondered how long someone should be off of work for this.  

Barbara
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Avatar universal
Absolutely.
Very normal for persons 30+ to have disc abnormalities. In most cases disc buldges do not cause pain. Nerve roots have to be severely impinged to produce pain, if any.

Conservative treatment would suggest NSAIDs and normal healing time of a couple of weeks.
PT may be recommended but unless his pain can be absolutely diagnosed PT may not help.
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