Bulging Disc: Surgery or not?

[Iggy82]

About 2 years ago, I started feeling classical symptoms of sciatica - pain radiating down my right leg, all the way to the knee, mostly on the side of the leg. This happened right after I made about 10 consecutive jumps. A year later after that episode, I had MRI done. It showed that I had 2 bulging/herniated discs and 1 herniated disc. The bulging/herniated discs are at L1-L2 and L2-L3 position. The mildly herniated disc was at L5-S1 position. My leg pain is always there, however, its severity is on and off. It's never extreme, such as inability to get out of bed or not go to work. However, at times it's distressing resulting in inability to exercise at gym or do various physical activities fully.

I am 25 years old and sports has always been a somewhat large part of my life. I have a gym membership for 10 years, I play basketball, tennis, soccer and other sports recreationally. This pain has inhibited some of those activities and I had to cut out many of the exercises that I used to do in the gym (squats, back rows, military press and etc.)

Recently I had 2 epidural injections done, about 3 weeks apart. The first one helped for about 10 days and the 2nd one I had done less than a week ago and the pain has already come back almost fully.

I have seen 2 surgeons and both recommended surgeries after first trying more conservative treatment. I have been prescribed by one surgeon to undergo a PT course for 6 weeks. While I didn't start it yet, it's unlikely to help in my view.
The first surgeon recommended a laminectomy and the 2nd one microdiscectomy.

Is it worth going through one of these surgeries given my age and somewhat nagging pain, should PT fail (as I predict it will)? If so, how successful are these surgeries in terms of pain relief? Will I ever be able to go back to gym again at at least 80% of how I used to? In other words, do the benefits outweigh the costs of recovery, pain and some risk?
Is PT any help in situations like these where the pain is chronic and according to MRI and X-Ray, I have some bone spurs and somewhat degenerated discs?
Thank You for your time and attention,
- Igor

[masanderson]

You may already doing this but just in case. Do you take stool sofeners and or laxatives, I try to take a Senokt every day that I use the narcotic pain meds, if it progresses to diahreha, I stop for a day or so untill that has gone away. If you take Metamucle (sorry about my spelling) anyway if you take any bulk type laxitive you need to drink lots of fliuds, but you still should be drinking lots of fluids anyway, to keep your stool soft so you won't have to strain. If you can walk try doing that as much as you can, to stimulate the bowels to keep moving. Good Luck.

[masanderson]

You may already doing this but just in case. Do you take stool sofeners and or laxatives, I try to take a Senokt every day that I use the narcotic pain meds, if it progresses to diahreha, I stop for a day or so untill that has gone away. If you take Metamucle (sorry about my spelling) anyway if you take any bulk type laxitive you need to drink lots of fliuds, but you still should be drinking lots of fluids anyway, to keep your stool soft so you won't have to strain. If you can walk try doing that as much as you can, to stimulate the bowels to keep moving. Good Luck.

[marasmommy]

I had a laminectomy in 2000 for l5 s1.. it takes some time for the nerves to calm down. give yourself time and don't be discouraged.I have been very lucky, and would do it again in a heart beat. I could not walk, my left leg would drag, and then I started to lose control of my bladder. Be patient. I am now facin g surgery for c5-6. good luck.



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[hjg72]

Hi there.  I'm in pretty much the same boat with you.  I will be 40 next month but was in an auto accident last year which earned me two herniated disks in the C6 and C7 area.  To make matters worse, I already suffered from optical migraines and degenerating disks in three sections of my back... guess what the combination of budging disks in the neck and migraines do?  They make the debilitating migraines occur three to four times a week lasting anywhere from 12-48 hours each time.  Sometimes it seems one solid migraine for weeks... I've even lost a lot of weight because I can't keep food down with these migraines!

So far I've had two epidurals and one RFTC   I can say, while it lasted, the RFTC was awesome.  The only draw back is that the nerves do grow back.  They say this generally takes  anywhere fom 6-12 months.  My pain started coming back gradually after only five months which was the beginning of this month.  At this point, I am having major diffculty sleeping again, pain every day- all day, and have started back to all the pain meds and patches to cope.

I go back next month to the orthopedic surgeon to see what his recommendation is- I'll let you know.  I don' want surgery, but if it allows me to function at least halfway normally, I'll do it.

[vgro1252]

All pain med clinics are a whack!! They just want your insurance money, they are NOT interested in fixing the cause of your pain.  Get a referral to a neurologist and have all your MRI, Xray, and CT records with you when you go to the appointment.  Insist to them you do NOT want to live on medication the rest of your life.......IF NASA CAN SEND A MAN TO THE MOON, THEY CAN FIX YOUR BACK!!!!!

[baygil99]

Hi have been reading all the comments left by everyone and I can relate,I am 43 and I have been injured for 12 years. I was injured working for a company that made customized men's shirts and one day I could not walk so I went to the er  and found out i had 2 torn disks L4/L5 and 1 bulging disk. I went to the insurance company and they refused to repair the disks and the years went by until I had to find my own doctor and after 2 to 3 years my orthopedic doctor could not do anything else for me because the disks had become so damaged they could not be seen on a MRI so it was left up to me to have surgery to remove them so the other disks would not detiriorate . I was at the point were I could barely sit,stand,walk,sleep,clean,sit on the floor,dance exercise,pick up mu son,cannot lift anything over three pounds my back is completely shot.I have had all the epidural injections all the physical therapy all the medications tens units,hospital beds walkers canes and I am still no better off due to those first few years of the insurance company putting off and leaving my disks to damage to no repair even after having a Laminectomy  with a decompression and becoming totally disabeled. I do not recommend surgery  because the pain is no better after than it was before the surgery.