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Hi folks
I'm not sure whether this is the first time I have ever actually started a thread post! Anyway, I started getting significant pain running down the whole of my posterior left leg and hip around the start of October. We, funnily enough, had our second son around the same time although there were crossfit sessions and bouncing around on the bike aspects too. Anyway it's been a pretty torrid time with it affecting my sleep and having to take dihydrocodeine on top of regular paracetamol and ibuprofen around 4 months, although thankfully I am now off the dihydrocodeine. I eventually paid for a private MRI as the GP felt there was nothing a surgeon would do anyway. It showed a "strategically placed" disc protrusion that is basically displacing but not compressing the nerve root at L5/S1. Hence the pain.
I almost didn't ride a bike for 2.5 months then did get out two weeks ago for a golfie ride. It didn't hurt at the time but then a couple of days later I started getting properly seized up again. I also did some zwift riding around the same time so it's hard to know what impact that also had. It's been incredibly frustrating. I just wondered if anyone else had been on a similar journey and how that turned out? I intend to keep trying to at least ride indoors and do some flexibility work but in all honesty I was doing that before the injury. It's kind of removed the means by which I escape for a while too which is really not helping my mental state having started in a new position of responsibility last August as well.
Anyway, cheers for any insights!
You may need to see a private physio to get some proper advice about managing it.
I broke my spine 7 years ago (car vs road bike). I had to seek private physio to get my back working properly as my muscles had tonnes of trigger points in them and were badly swollen around the breaks. NHS physio were limited in what they could offer, just exercises, and no manual manipulation.
It's the associated swelling in othe rmuscles that exasperates the situation. I had some strong pain killers for a long time. Still gives me bother, but I am missing half of my L1 !
Lots of threads on here, you are not alone!
When I had this years ago, I cured it through a combination of a book ("Treat your own back") and shortening the reach on my bike to reflect my age and lack of flexibility. At one point even walking upstairs was out of the question.
But that was a really long time ago, so there are likely people now with more recent experiences.
No problems now whatsoever.
Thump has a prolapsed disc in the L4/L5 region.
He's 16 and it came on suddenly last August.
Stops him from sitting and makes sleep very difficult.
Private physio referred him to the GP to NHS physio to Ortho / trauma at the hospital.
Got an NHS MRI just after Xmas and had the follow-up on Thursday.
It should resolve itself.
Also been prescribed nortriptyline to calm the nerve pain.
Gym work really helps manage the pain so he's to continue that.
I popped a disc a few years ago, not as badly as some, but bad enough that I couldn't stand or feel my foot for a while. It probably took me a long, long time to be able to walk pain-free, let alone ride, but I'm 95% better now, just have to be careful occasionally.
Basically, I found I just had to give it time and let it heal.
I found that it wasn't something I could push through. If I tried, it just hurt more and more. I had to avoid anything that hurt it. This meant no prolonged sitting, no riding for months, lots of walking when I was able to.
Stretching seems to help some people but did nothing at all for me, although I am pretty flexible. If anything, stretching would aggravate it.
Pilates, climbing (rock climbing, especially steep stuff), swimming, anything that worked my back muscles whilst also moving them, was the best thing for me by a country mile.
For riding, as mentioned by someone above, I now ride with a very high front end and short reach. I also ride standing as much as possible as sitting hunched on a bike is terrible for me. Dropping the nose of the saddle helps loads too. I really struggled to get back on to a bike, but others seem to say it was one of the first things they could do and really helped them.
It does heal eventually - I'm now back doing full Golfie days, Alps trips, full day rides (SDW etc) with no issues at all. Don't have any worries about falling when climbing and work a manual job outside every day.
Hope you're feeling better soon.
I developed a back problem a few years ago. A disc bulge; and the nerves were getting trapped due to the vertebrae getting too close together. I had pushed to get an MRI scan and a couple of days after the scan I had a call from a mobile number while I was lifting a 2800 x 600 x 18mm board onto my workbench. The caller identified himself as a neurosurgeon, "I'm looking at your MRI. How soon can you get to Stoke hospital? Don't have anything to eat or drink, pack an overnight bag and come straight to the Major Trauma Unit and a surgical team will be waiting for you".
Later that next night I was walking up and down the ward, pain free for the first time in months, trying to wee (that's a possible complication of the op I'd just had - Yes, the surgeon confirmed afterwards, that was the operation that most people refuse to have if they have the opportunity to read up about it and resign themselves to a lifetime of pain instead).
I went for my first mountain bike ride 10 days afterwards - gingerly - it stung a bit when I bumped into a tree stump - and now there's nothing I can't do that I used to. That includes Antur Stiniog, Bike Park Wales, 2 weeks windsurfing, Pilates (I'm in my late 60s) I think I may have taken a total of 2 paracetamol since.
However, when I showed the surgeon the sheet of exercises a NHS Physio had given me a couple of days earlier, which I refused to do because they involved a lot of bending back, he agreed with me that they were the worst possible thing for my Cauda Equina and I might have spent the rest of my life in nappies.
Be careful who to take advice from.