ruptured disc and IC

Hi there!

I've never had a back surgery, but when I worked as an occupational therapist asst. I had many patients who had different procedures.

Steroid injections work differently on each person. Some get immediate relief that last months, some get relief, but it only last a few days, and some told me they didn't think the injection did anything for them.

The people I treated after they had a back surgery had various degrees of difficulties, but keep in mind I was seeing only the people who needed therapy and that usually meant something had gone wrong, etc...

Some of these people had increased pain, had to wear various back braces/corsets while sitting or standing for a while to protect the incision sites, and to keep from rotating thier trunk area while they healed. Some lost some range of motion after surgery.

The best advice I can offer anyone considering any surgery for pain is simply 1). try all the other non-advasive procedures first. 2). don't assume a surgery will take the pain away 3). really consider and research, and ask your doctor questions before having the procedure.
4). Know that it can take weeks to months to recover fully from surgery. (Some people who get standard hip replacement surgery, etc. say that it took almost a year to really feel recovered, and have greatly increased mobility). 5). sometimes people end up getting an infection in thier surgery site, and that can add to the recovery time as well.

I'm sorry if this causes you extra worry. I've just seen so many people who thought a surgery would give them a cure, and it didn't. I'm sure, though, that there are several people who do benefit greatly.

Hope this helped some.

Veronica

I read the old posts on this but I'd be interested in updates from any who pursued this link. I have a ruptured disc at L4 and L5 to the left and ruptured to the right at S1. It's interesting to me that the only things that have helped me much are related to nerves-TENS unit and the SANS unit. While I'm not going to jump into a back surgery, I was offered the option of an ESI (epidural steroid injection) at those nerve sites to decrease inflammation and see if bladder symptoms improves. Seems like a nice benign option to even see if this is an avenue to pursue. Has anyone done? There is also a newer option than microdisc surgery where a needle is inserted and some current through that that reduces the disc but isn't a surgery. Has anyone done any of these options with any sort of long range improvement? Interested in any stories pro/con.

Announcement