[Closed] Surgery for a herniated disc - Who's had it and how are things now?

I had a microdiscectomy in 1994. It sorted me out very well. Took a while to recover properly as the nerve had been under pressure for months. 20 years on and it's still ok. Done 2 12 hour solo races this year with no issues and plenty of other long rides. Obviously not everyone is the same and maybe I've been lucky. If you have it done, take your time to recover and do the exercises you'll be told to do. I found swimming to be very beneficial. Good luck with whatever you do.

I dodged the knife in 2012 and have been taking it easy since the injury happened in 2011.

I was going down the NHS route and my surgeon had no compassion whatsoever, which didn't inspire me much. I'd been in agonising pain for over 8 weeks and serious pain for over 12, therefore surgery was the only option in his view.

I came on here and got mixed feedback, like you might get. 3 weeks to Pre-Op and complete rest and mind bending painkillers and the pain started to lift.

At the Pre-Op we decided not to do it as I was improving and the scar damage could have some long-term pain implications.

If I'm careful and really diligent with exercising and not overdoing anything then the pain is minimal/non existent.

Good luck with yours.

My climbing buddy had it 15 years ago; they took out a rib, deflated a lung and went in from inside. He took a while to recover from the insult to his body but it was very successful and he now leads a normal, pain free life.

I was in pain for seems like a year, tried physio, pain killers, injections etc but didn't help. I had micro-surgery and immediately felt better. Then after a week or so the pain came back. I was really depressed but then by magic it went away again. I was off work 6 weeks, and now it's fine, no pain, no scar. Occasionallyi get the old bad twinges in my leg that you're probably familiar with, but otherwise fine. Best of luck with yours!!!

Exactly the operation I'm waiting for OP.

I've had sciatica caused by disc damage on and off since 2006. I've had the injections, caudal epidurals, facet joint, nerve root blocks. The pain is always there, except for a 18 month period around 2008-9, when the first epidural worked.

March this year my back just threw the towel in and said "I've warned you enough, your still not listening. I'm going to stop working and force you to fix me"

Another MRI tomorrow, to get a clearer picture because my symptoms have got worse and are now affecting my waterworks, and then the consultant next Friday. His recommendation 2 weeks ago, and if nothing dramatic has changed since the last MRI in May, was either more intense, localised injections as a short term fix, or surgery for a long term and possible permanent fix.

I'm opting for surgery.

kudos100/bigblackshed,

I share your pain and concerns but would like to share my experience. About 15 years ago I was barely able to walk more than 15m before my leg would just fold underneath me, and as for the pain, expletives were used for just about every movement. I tried physio, osteopaths, chiropractors and a whole array of drugs but nothing helped. Surgery was suggested more than once but I always said no. What changed my mind was the depression, I wasn't able to do anything and I started hating myself for being the way I was so I thought if I'm unable to do anything now if I choose surgery and it goes wrong then I still won't be able to do anything, but if it goes right...................

15 years later I have had maybe one or two twinges but other than that I cherish every moment, ride as much as I can (not as much as I want to but we've all got to work), walk everywhere and hate wasting any opportunity to do something instead of sitting in front of the TV. Don't get me wrong, the recovery was hard, but from the moment I woke up after surgery and realised that the old pain was gone, albeit replaced by something worse for a short time, I was determined to make the very most of what I now had and that was two legs that worked properly again and after a couple of months there was no pain and I was pretty much as I am now, although admittedly younger, with more hair and maybe slightly slimmer around the waist.

I can’t tell you what the right thing to do is but I wish you luck

Okay, so I've been off work since January. I prolapsed a disc at work, went to doc, who gave me painkillers and told me to slow down a bit, while compensating for the injured disc, I managed to do another one, doc advised stronger painkillers and slow down a bit. So now I had the core strength of a rubber band and managed to really bugger up a 3rd disc which pressed very badly on the sciatic nerve down my left leg, guess what the doc advised?
After the 3rd disc I found it very hard to stay even slightly fit and just when I thought I was getting better I'd do something innocuous, that would put me on my back for another week. The pain, lack of sleep and side-effects of the painkillers (piles and constipation anyone) combined to make me very unhappy. I was quite keen on doing myself in at one point!
The Deppression probably saved me, as my GP wasn't really interested in fixing the core problem. I might have got better without surgery, but I doubt it.

Eventually in Early May, I had a micro-discectomy and laminoscopy on 3 x lumbar vertebrae (the MRI didn't show all the damage apparently) and I woke feeling much less pain, as well as being a lot less crooked. 6 weeks of moving very carefully, then trying to build core strength very, very carefully with stretches and physio and things were getting better at last.
I'm now at the point that I'm ready to return to work, is it fixed? Not 100% but the pain is easily bearable and only improves with more fitness. I'm no longer afraid of randomly making myself in invalid for another pain filled week, but it'll still remind me if I've done too much.

Should you have surgery? I don't know, but it's only a small part of the fix. I'm happy with the decision I made but I suppose it could have been worse

I had surgery last Christmas when the pain got so bad, I spent Christmas eve in tears trying to wrap the kids presents. Pain gone almost straight away, back on the road bike and although I've been pretty slack with the core work, I've now started pilates to help sort that. I'm fairly sure that next year will be back on the mtb. Day to day there's no pain at all, although I am hyper aware of it at all times as I'm shit scared of that pain again. Breaking and dislocating my shoulder (twice in the same day at Cannock!) didn't even come close to the pain of that disc!

Had it done in 1991 as a result of my herniated disk causing Cauda Equina Syndrome.

3 days in hospital and full recovery in about 3 weeks. Never once had a problem since.

Hey there. I had a microdiscectomy at L4/5 5 years ago now. While it has reduced the pain a lot, I've managed to pro-lapse the disc again a few times.

With all the scar tissue from the original operation, this makes flare ups worse. I'm never back to where I was pain wise and still manage to ride at least twice a week most weeks but it isn't a cure-all, that's for sure.

My advice (as loads of others have said and will say) is to get into Pilates or some other core strengthening regime as soon as possible and try to avoid the surgery.

I've heard that some of the treatments recommended by a guy called Alexander Walker-Naddell seem to have worked for a few folk. I must admit, I've been a bit nervous about trying them out but, I do know a couple of folk that have called it a bit of a miracle cure. Unfortunately, the guy himself has passed on but there may be someone else out there that does what he did.

I went through the same issues a few years ago. Tried all the injections etc.. and then had a micro discectomy and that worked initially but then the disc prolapsed again. So in 2009 I had the disc removed and the vertebrae fused. It look about 18 months to get back on the bike but I did. Good luck whatever you decide.

Cheers for the info, it seems that in most cases surgery does help, but it is not a cure all and has a small chance of making things worse.

The pain is bearable, although never really goes away and gets worse if I do the wrong things ie everything except babying my back. I could probably put up with it if I had to, but I think I would become a grumpy old sod (more so than I am already) and really start hating life.

I've tried physio, core stability, supplements, inversion tables and nothing has really touched it. It's been going on a year now and I'm miserable not being able to ride a bike and do normal things.

My back is a mess generally and if I don't exercise regularly it gets worse, so I'm stuck in a vicious cycle at the moment.

I had a patient recently who underwent surgery to 14 of his spinal segments. He is now pain free and has full power in all his limbs. He's happy as a pig in shit.