Becky, I know your post now is four years later but I am 19 years old and I have the exact to the point symptoms you described. I have been diagnosed with several herniated discs in both my cervical and lumbar spine, on top of having spinal stenosis and irritated facet joints. The herniated discs are applying pressure of the disc . The position of the discs are leaning and applying pressure on my nerve branches causing me to lose sensation in specific fingers and certain toes. I have a severely bad stabbing pain in the middle of my thoracic spine, that hurts and prevents me from expanding my lungs to full capacity to breathe. I am still waiting approval from insurance to give my the green light to get an MRI on my thoracic spine. The bottom of my feet and back of my knee sometimes feel an intense burning sensation. I also found that my fingers, neck, and back all are very stiff and cause me to crack my joint to relieve pain. My right butt cheek is tingly and feel a pinching. And lastly my left eye is extremely susceptible to light provoked migraines. I am 115 pounds and I am 5'3 and Caucasian. I was wondering if you had been diagnosed with an underlying disorder/disease that caused all of these spinal problems. Please get back to me as soon as possible for I am in excruciating pain and muscle tightness.
I too have had 6 discs herniate over a 90 day period with no real reason why other than degenerative disc disease. I am anxious to get answers since this has caused so much pain in my arms, legs, feet shoulders and even wrists. There has to be a reason for this. Would a doctor care to respond to this forum with any ideas? This is a horrible way to live and i am a very active woman at 49. Thank you
Hi this is Becky_C again. Thanks for your replies. As for age and weight playing a factor, I'm 44 now, but my discs started rupturing when I was 35. I have weighed between 135-145lbs throughout my life. I'm at 140 lbs now. I walk a mile just about every day with my dog Jasper. She does not pull or cause me any stress when walking. For the most part I've always had sit down at a desk type jobs ( I did Accounting for 15 years ) so wear and tear should be pretty minimal. My Maternal Uncle lost Every Single Disc In His Spine by age 50 and my sister who is 5 years younger than me has had 5 discs in her Cervical and Lumbar spine rupture to date. I think the game of Genetics is at play here. I do fear that I too may lose all my discs. So far I've lost 7 and aside from my Uncle, I don't know anyone else who has lost so many discs by age 44. I will check out "risk factors" though, I have yet to enter those key words. Oh on a final note, I did use Chiropractors in my Thirties and Physical Therapy on and off for different discs, but neither of those treatments gave me any relief. The image I have posted is of my T8-T9 protruding and it was taken two years ago when the pain was minimal. I do believe the disc has since herniated over the past week and I'm hoping a new MRI scan will show that which would explain the terrible pain that I'm in now. Anyways, Thanks again. Becky_C
I have heard that risk factors include the usual risk factors for health problems. Obesity, smoking (I think this is a big one, but not sure why), exercise, general health and fitness. Obesity and fitness are very important because the disks have to withstand quite a bit of extra stress if you are overweight (even losing 30 lbs has made a big difference for me) and your "core" muscles support your spine and prevent it from collapsing on the disks.
I haven't done the research on smoking because I've never smoked. The weight has been a personal battle for me, so I know that one quite well ;) Interestingly, however, athletes are also at risk- there's a happy medium of fitness without overuse there.
Doing a pubmed search on "risk factors for degenerative disk disease" (this isn't a disease, just the name for the aging process) it looks like they are investigating genetic factors, so if you don't have risk factors, you may have just lost your game of genetic craps :(
Disc dissecting (sp) is common as we age, most of us will experience disc wear and tear as they dry out. A lot won't even know its happening to them. Have you ever tried decompression therapy? What conservative methods like chiro treatment, physical therapy, etc have you tried? Sorry your in so much pain, I hope your able to get your issues resolve!!