Lumbar Discectomy

[Catherine_Cullen]

It’s looking increasingly likely that I’ll need a discectomy to resolve persistent weakness and pain from a ruptured lumbar disc. I have no other complicating back issues, it seems, which is good.

Has anyone had this surgery and returned to riding? Can you tell me anything about the time line, or other advice? Many thanks in advance. I was at a horse show when the injury occurred, but it kind of came on over a couple days so I’m not sure if riding caused it or not. But I really really want to get back to riding soon!

[Whiz_Kid]

I had a diskectomy in Jan, there are many threads on surgical/non surgical back and disk interventions. Get it done so that you can start healing, the longer the nerve is compressesed, the longer your recovery will be, I had complete paralysis with foot drop in my left leg. It was an acute injury, but the nerve tore. I started walking on my horse about 8 weeks after surg. It has been 5 1/2 months and I still have a numb, but fuctioning left leg and the foot drop is still presesnt. I did recently find out that the disk reherniated…whether that was from riding or not, I dont know. Good luck, rest and take care of yourself.

[Calvincrowe]

Been there, removed that! Best thing I ever did. Surgery for me was so easy, outpatient surgical center, in at 6am, out by noon. No complications, tiny scar. I did have pain from osteoarthritis later, and the PT was not fun, but massage was my best friend. I returned to riding and have had no issues from it. Running is a different story-- that I don’t do much of. Sitting for long periods (driving) makes my back sore as well. Work on getting and keeping your core strong, it really helps. Good luck, you’ll be very pleased with the results.

But…as my surgeon told me, it doesn’t always work for everyone, so be prepared for that tiny possibility. I exhausted all other options (PT, etc.) before opting for surgery.

[Catersun]

The chance that it won’t work is a bit larger than tiny… I see a fair number of clients who it has not worked for and in those cases sometimes they were better off before the surgery. I would highly suggest exhausting all non surgical options before choosing surgery, and then only with a neurosurgeon.

*note that I have a pain management massage therapy practice so would see a higher volume of people still in pain from the surgery than I would people that it worked for, just sugggesting that when it goes wrong it goes really wrong.

Have you tried using an inversion table?

[Catherine_Cullen]

I have not tried an inversion table. I don’t know if I believe that would help - on the MRI the herniation is big, not something that looks like it would go back in if I relieved some pressure. I’m not actually in pain. No pain meds except advil after I finished a steroid pack, nothing even close to requiring narcotics. Certainly minimal back pain, and really only if something happens like I sneeze and trip at the same time. But I haven’t be DOING anything since it happened a month ago, so I don’t know. The problem is just the persistent numbness/weakness in my leg and foot.

I really like my surgeon, and he won’t do the surgery until we’ve exhausted the other options. I still have to try steroid injections, but to be honest, they freak me out more than the surgery. Of course I have no valid reasoning for that. But because of the weakness, I don’t want to put off the surgery so long that I risk a permanent problem in my leg/foot.

Thanks to everyone for your advice!

[Calvincrowe]

I did PT to “reduce” the bulge of my herniated disk, core strengthening exercises, massage, caudal epidural injections (needle up your tail bone under fluroscope—wheee!), injections directly into the disk to reduce the inflammation, etc. Nothing helped reduce the sciatic pain and the numbness and tingling in my left leg. I had some limited success with prednisone, but you can’t live on that.

I had a wonderful neurosurgeon who worked with my orthopedic surgeon at an amazing ortho/sports medicine group in the PDX area. If they’re good enough for the Trailblazers, they’re good enough for me!:lol:

[whicker]

Another option to think about

Since you are in my neck of the woods, you might want to check out stem cell for the disc. I have written about it, so there are threads through the “search” button at the top of the column. The guru that has done a super job for me is Dr.Mayo Friedlis. His website, treatingpain.com , has an excellent introduction to regenerative procedures. He has helped many world class riders and is a horseman himself.

Please p.m. me if you would like to talk about it. There is another guru, who is excellent, that I can tell you about, too. He is doing something slightly different. We found him through Mayo’s help.

I was severely injured and I am now back doing “normal” riding, preparing for foxhunting and eventually some low level eventing. The response times are getting better all the time and I don’t hurt.

[ladipus]

I had a lumbar micro discectomy at L5- S1 one week ago …I’m still having terrible sciatic nerve pain as I had compression from my huge herniation I know it’s only 1 week post surgery but I’m feeling very overwhelmed and scared that the pain isn’t going to get better …and even more upsetting is worrying about my future riding …I’m starting PT tomorrow…trying to stay positive & hopeful …I was told at minimum 6 weeks no riding …we shall see …I’m taking Gabapentin for my nerve pain , as well as oxycodone & ibuprofen…still having so much pain …I’m so upset

[Farys]

I had discectomy surgery in 2014. I had been dealing with my herniated disc since 2012. I was walking with a cane, I had foot drop, I was numb from my bum all the way down to my calf. My right foot was completely numb. I couldn’t sit, stand or lay down for any length of time. Most of the time I was only able to sleep for a few hours in a recliner. I was on so many pain killers including morphine. While waiting for my surgery, my surgeon told me that I was at very high risk of losing bowel and bladder control so I had to be very careful in the weeks leading up to my surgery.

I went into surgery at 8AM and I was home and resting in my own bed by 1PM the same day. I was off all the painkillers within a couple of days.

I distinctly remember waking up from surgery and feeling absolutely no pain for the first time in two years. I regained all sensation in my leg immediately and had slight numbness in two toes for about 2 weeks.

I was back on a horse 6 weeks later with absolutely no pain since. It took me a long time to be able to do sitting trot (probably 2 years) due to the scar tissue at the incision site. My lower back was quite stiff for a while but I have not had any pain since. I did experience horrible leg cramps at night while I was sleeping for about 2 years post surgery. I would only get them on the days that I had not ridden. My doctors couldn’t explain why this was happening but they have gone away for the most part.

Back pain is debilitating so please go into your surgery with positivity and an open mind. While I know my experience was 'best case scenario", discectomies have an extremely high success rate and the procedure is not overly invasive. I was terrified going into surgery but coming out, I realized it was the best thing I could have done.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[spook1]

Hello
I had micro diskecomy at L5S1 in May of this year. Best thing I have done! The first week I thought I would never be the same and had made a bad mistake…after the first month things got better rapidly. I am glad I did it. I am stiff but not painful and feel I could ride fine if I could be a bit loose/relaxed however my horse slab fractured his knee a month ago so I haven’t be able to ride due to that. Good Luck!