Herniated Disk

[Soccerover]

Hello,
I'm 37 years old, 2 years ago i herniated may disk between L5 and S1. First I had lots of pain, especially on my left leg. I experienced numbness on my left calf and under my feet and also weakness on my left leg.
After a month and half they gave me streroid, this took care of the pain. The numbness went away after 3 months. But what still remain after over 2 years is the weakness on my left leg and now little bit also on my right leg. I don't have almost any pain due to the sciatic nerve. Sometime some stiffness in my lowerback. So what worry my is the weakness. I have hard time to run, after a mile i'm starting to experience cramp on both of my calfs, and when i'm done with the running, it takes 4 to 5 days to recover!
Therefore my question is, is a surgery gonna help me, will it take away the load on the nerve by removing the herniation. Will a surgery help me to recover my strengh on my legs? Again, I don't have almost any pain running down my legs, just the weakness.
I really appreciate any advice is wellcome, thank you,
Patrick

[penwill65]

You will know when its time for surgery , believe me. Ive suffered for years, with fms , and cervical disk degereration and back .......Just had a foracic herniated disk, i could not bend over , couldnt put on shoes, my rib cage was killing me, i died if i had to sneeze or cough , couldnt set it hurt to lay . I had to have surgery done i had no choice of the matter.......But its been 6 weeks and im still in a great deal of pain, but i can manage to put on my shoes at least. I dont want to go through that type of pain again , having fms , which intensifies pain greatly, made it almost unbareable , so if your not in a great deal of pain i would ,avoid surgery, and take damn good care of your self.

[Soccerover]

I'm just curious, how acupuncture can help for a herniated disk? I'm sure it's does somehow, but I just don't understand physiologically how!
Thanks, best regard,

[Soccerover]

Thanks,
I'll try for a little while the extension table before taking any futher step.
Regard,

[Zak_Han]

I still think that,Don't rush! if inverting table doesn't work,try acupuncture,as operaton is last choice.

And about  extension table treatment,it also take time.

[Soccerover]

Thanks for your comment,
I’ve tried some physical physiotherapy and also using an extension table (I have an inverting table at home), but neither one seems to have helped a lot.
My problem is that my herniation is not big enough to create excruciate pain that would required an immediate Surgery, but big enough to impair my ability to do any sports that involve some running.
So I will try to intensify the use of the extension table, to see if this can really help and if not I would seriously contemplate the surgical option.
Again thank you, I’ll keep you posted on how it is evolving.

[Zak_Han]

Weakness mainly due to poor blood circulation around nerve root, reasons is nerves may be oppressed, why don't you feel pain? ,Because such a minor oppression, can't make soft tissue damage around nerve root, so no serious inflammation which can lead to pain.

You can try physiotherapy or traction, if still not improved, then surgery, of course,surgery can help,but  there are many unpredictable problems,consult your dc.

Good luck!