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Brentbba

Brentbba

Former Golfer
10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
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448
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Location
OC, CA
For those of you that were at SnT with me, you know I was in some pain from what was a premilinary diagnosis of a pinched nerve. Well, we got the MRI results and I have a slight buldging disk at L5, L6, S1. I've circled the disk on the first pic and labeled L and R on the second one and you can clearly see the difference between the unimpeded nerve bundle on the R and the pinched nerve bundle on the left. Going in either Thursday or Friday of this week for an epidural/cortisone (steriod) shot into the disk to reduce the buldge and relieve the pressure on the nerve bundle. Getting old sucks!
Lumbar MRI 1.1.webp
Lumbar MRI 2.1.webp
 
Sorry to hear the news. Enjoy your cortisone shot - they're fun. Bundles of it. Getting old sux, but it's better than the alternative.

Let us know how you fare.......

Oh, and you know this is all due to excessive wear and tear from bumping around 4x4'g right? :p
 
JohnGalt said:
Oh, and you know this is all due to excessive wear and tear from bumping around 4x4'g right? :p
Click to expand...

LMAO! Good enough reason/cause for me! More likely it's all the years of competitive tennis and running, but I like the 4x4 excuse! :lol::lol::lol:
 
Yeah feel for you :beer: Been three years running for me getting regular epidural/cortisone shots. The vertical ones in my case for the sciatic nerve near L4 can be painful the first shot. Four of mine lower left: Two bulging occasionally, one disintegrating, one arthritic. Most painful for me this year has been the nerve pain down the leg & numbness heal of the foot, so I had a nerve block done last month and its been real nice to get some relief.

My Ortho doc says keeps telling be as long as the shots keep working, don't need surgery but it does getting old repeating the process. Given up or reduced some of things I used to enjoy more like wheelin’ since I can’t take the pounding/or seating time that long anymore.

Not a club you want to be in, hopefully the bulging is just temp & they settle down over time with treatment and/or rest.

Good Luck
Brian
 
Damn - not what I want to hear - regular epidural/cortisone shots? How regular?
My Ortho said this would probably be a permanent fix. Hope he's right and I don't end up in your truck! I'm expecting this to hurt a bit. I just don't know how much 'a bit' is going to be. I think they said I'd be under a general as they'll be using a flueroscope to help see/guide the needle insertion. I'm off work next week for vacation/Thanksgiving holiday anyway, so I'll have plenty of time off. I get the shooting pain down from my left butt cheek to my foot most often believe it or not sitting on the toilet! Simple stuff like getting dressed and especially putting on socks is painful. Seat time right now in the truck is ok once I get situated in a semi-comfortable position. I was able to drive the 4+ hours home from SnT last Sunday w/o issue. Haven't tried to sit in the Miata or push the clutch since this has gotten really painful. Driving either the cruiser or my daughter's Scion Xa to work.

g8mfzj80 said:
Yeah feel for you :beer: Been three years running for me getting regular epidural/cortisone shots. The vertical ones in my case for the sciatic nerve near L4 can be painful the first shot. Four of mine lower left: Two bulging occasionally, one disintegrating, one arthritic. Most painful for me this year has been the nerve pain down the leg & numbness heal of the foot, so I had a nerve block done last month and its been real nice to get some relief.

My Ortho doc says keeps telling be as long as the shots keep working, don't need surgery but it does getting old repeating the process. Given up or reduced some of things I used to enjoy more like wheelin’ since I can’t take the pounding/or seating time that long anymore.

Not a club you want to be in, hopefully the bulging is just temp & they settle down over time with treatment and/or rest.

Good Luck
Brian
Click to expand...
 
Those could be my MRI's too! Same place, L5/S1. Not fun and more than a little pain, eh?

I'm a couple of years past the injury but it still gives me problems, that's the bugger of it.
I had the series of 3 epidural's, I have to say the best thing about those is temporary at best but it allowed me to heal and do some therapy to speed the healing process.

One of the best things I do now is go upside down on my inversion table. I got an inexpensive one at a sporting goods store, about $100 but it does the job. Very carefully applied, it gives me a lot of relief and the stretch feels oh, so good.

Check with your heart doc though, that might not be good for an existing condition like you're dealing with.


g'luck, hope you can get beyond it soon. Dan.
 
Damn Dan - not what I want to hear. My Orthopod said it would more than likely be a permanent fix. Right now the pain is getting worse by the day.
 
SOCALFJ said:
Wow old man, you are falling apart on us! Stop playing golf and twisting your back! More wheeling!
Click to expand...

FAWK - outside of 4 swings out of 82, golf last Saturday was just fine. Just a little twing on those 4. Walking helped a great deal. Round a couple of weeks ago in Ramona I had to quit after 16 riding in a cart. Carts suck!

Seat time in a vehicle isn't much better than a golf cart!
 
YIKES! that does not look very fun. Yea, back pain can definitely take the fun out of golfing....however a few :beer: may help with that. Hope the treatment does the trick for your back pain Brent.
 
Well, I can say I know how you feel. I have dealt with back pain for my whole life until recently. Ever since I can remember I have had a bad back.

About year 2002 it got bad enough that I started getting those epidural shots. Don't be scared on those, not painful, and they do help. Problem for me was that the epidurals, while helping with the pain, did not solve the actual root of the problem, which was disc degeneration. I did the inversion thing as well. It helps and feels good, but again did not solve the problem.

Eventually in 2007 I started to get in alot of pain, depressed and my whole right leg was going numb. Went to several docs and they basically told me that my disc at L5/S1 was the consistency of a pringle and that the bone was now resting on the nerve, both my "wings" (for lack of a better word) that hold the disc together had been broken for some time and they were causing a shearing action that had worn away the disc over time.

So, I had a full fusion surgery. I read alot of stuff on the surgery. From the research I did the lower back surgeries have come a long way. The success rate on the lower back spinal fusion surgeries is quite good. I read all sorts of people's horror stories (can't have sex anymore, can't walk ever again, yadda yadda) but overall the success rate and statistics were good. I decided to do the surgery because I did not want to live like that anymore.

Today, I am feeling great. I try to be careful but my back has never been better and the surgery was a huge success. The recovery really sucked but overall I am so happy that I did it.

I guess my point is not to brag about how good I feel, but to tell you to not totally negate getting surgery done. Go have an appointment at a few neurosurgeons, see what they say and inform yourself and THEN make the decision. I think alot of people just get scared and don't even consider surgery as an option but will nevertheless continue on the path they are on (chronic pain, high blood pressure, depression).

I do wish the best for you.

Noah
 
Neurosurgeon, not orthopedic surgeon? Orthopod mentioned yesterday that IF the cortisone epidural is only temporary they can do microsurgery with a little 1" incision and go in an nip the piece of disk that's putting pressure on the nerve. That's down the road if this procedure doesn't work. We'll see. I'd already read about that procedure when I learned it was the disk/nerve issue. Hopefully this and PT will take care of it.

Great news about your back. That sounds like it was nasty.
 
yup, I went to several neurosurgeons, mine sounds like it was much worse of an issue though, I did look into the non invasive surgery you are talking about, your disc looks much fuller than mine, mine was almost all bone on bone, hope you get some relief from the shots, best of luck!

Noah
 
I had a L5/S1 bulge when I was 21 from some work related incident. Got those shots into my spine and it felt good for a while but always comes back. Now the only thing I can do to keep my sciatica nerve pain from shooting down my leg is stretching every day, using a tennis ball and foam roller for myofascial (sp?) pressure point massage, and try and do 100 body weight squats and some sit ups every day to keep the muscles strong around my hips, lower back and core. The strange thing is that a lot of people experience different types of pain in different places from the same type of lower back injuries.

Lower back is a tough injury. Hope yours heals up and you don't have to deal with the lower back pain odyssey.
 
Shots went in a week ago and started PT last week. PT has me stretching and exercises to strengthen core muscles just as you do. We'll see how it goes. All I know is that I'm stiff as a board in my hip flexors. I see lots and lots of painful stretching in my future!

Shots were a piece of cake. No issues there. We'll just have to see how PT goes. I can actually bend over now!
 
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