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as Dave mentioned herniated disc, slipped disc, and ruptured disc are all interchangeable terms for the same thing. While water skiiing may prove to be painful there is no scientific evidence that would show that water skiing is any more likely to cause him to have any problems than any other activity. That being said he should let his level of pain dictate what he does and if he feels discomfort water skiing he should avoid it. But if he doesn't have any issues while he water ski's there is no real scientific basis for telling him not to do so.View Thread

The most important thing to realize is that a microdiscectomy is typically a 100% elective operation. The reasons to have surgery are of your symptoms of pain are intolerable, negatively impacting your quality of life, and not getting better. Other reasons that people have surgery is if there is worsening weakness in the legs or if the disc is effecting the nerves that control bladder or bowel function, which is rare.
For the majority of people, the symptoms of leg pain from a disc herniation get better with non-surgical treatment within 6-8 weeks. It sounds like you have been symptomatic for about 6 weeks and are still having a lot pain in the legs. This is a reasonable reason to pursue surgery but the decision is 100% in your hands.
Discectomy is typically very good at relieving leg pain from a pinched nerve when performed appropriately. Most people are able to return to most activities without restrictions once they have recovered from surgery.
In regards to how long it takes to get surgery scheduled this really depends on how busy the surgeon is but also is very dependent on how long it takes for your insurance to authorize the operation.
I hope that this helps you make a decision and I hope that you feel better.View Thread

What you are describing definitely merits immediate attention. There are a variety of things which may be causing your dizziness including your medications. You should also make sure that there is no compression of your spinal cord in the cervical or thoracic spine which can give you myelopathy--one of the common symptoms of myelopathy is difficulty with gait and balance. You should definitely have a complete physical evaluation by a spine specialist and likely will need MRIs of the cervical spine and maybe the thoracic spine. If your symptoms are not spine related a thorough evaluation and examination by a good neurologist is necessary.
Good luck and I hope you feel betterView Thread

Response to steroid injection varies significantly from person to person. With your wide range of chronic symptoms I would be a little apprehensive before proceeding with injections. You really should see a spine surgeon who can assess your spine and other issues to give you a good sense of what portion of your symptoms could predictably improve with the injections
I hope this helps and you feel betterView Thread

Im sorry for the delayed response.
A two level cervical spine procedure usually requires an overnight hospital stay. You should derive pretty rapid pain relief. People are typically able to return to desk work after this operation within a few weeks. You should definitely speak to a spine specialist if you are having this much trouble.
Hope you feel betterView Thread

I'm sorry to hear that you are having so much pain. It's hard to make a diagnosis just based on the radiologist report without looking at the actual films. Many of the findings such as "disc bulge" or "mild foraminal narrowing" are very common and some studies have shown present on 50% of the population that has no symptoms. So, please do not let all of the vernacular on the radiologist report alarm you as the important thing is how the MRI findings match up with your symptoms.
That being said there is a good chance that the L5-S1 level is the culprit here. You may havedisc degernation, a small disc herniation or some stenosis at this level giving you the back and leg pain.
That being said, the majority of times this can be managed conservatively and surgery is only performed as a last resort and is usually not necessary.
I hope this was helpfulView Thread

Hello
These are all great questions.
In regards to prophylactic surgery I would strongly recommend against it. There is no way of predicting if your severe pain would return or if you would never have symptoms again so I would not recommend to a patient to have a procedure that there is a chance would never be necessary.
Also, if the pain were to ever come back you could always have the exact same procedure done in the future with no real downside.
Your question regarding numbness is a little more tricky. Surgery can help resolve numbness but it takes longer to improve after surgrey as compared to the resolution of leg pain. Also it is difficult to predict how much your numbness will improve as each individual is different and there is no way of predicting if the nerve is "bruised" and permenantly injured.For that reason there are no real statistics regarding likelihood of numbness improving after surgery. I will say my experience has been that most people do show some improvement in their numbness following surgery.
That being said if you have pain and the numbness is not tolerable it is reasonable to consider surgery but your expectations need to be tempered.View Thread

If you have been having ongoing lower back and buttock pain the first thing you should do is have a spine specialist examine you to see if the pain is related to the spine or the hip. It sounds more likely from your description that it is spine related and the pain in the lower back and butt may be from a degenerated disc or disc herniation pinching a nerve.
I agree that you will likely need an MRI of the spine but before that you need a good physical examination by an orthopedic spine specialist since they are more familiar with performing a good examination of the hip and spine.
I hope this is helpfulView Thread

It sounds like you have a disc herniation at L5-S1 (the lowest disc). When a disc pinches a nerve you can have symptoms of pain, numbness, tingling and weakness in the leg in addition to the low back pain. Usually though these symptoms are only in a portion of the leg (ie: just the back of the thigh and leg) and not the entire leg.
The majority of the time this condition does not need surgery. Surgery is only recommended as a last resort and is totally elective unless their is compression of the nerves to the bladder and bowels.
The other reasons that people have surgery is if the symptoms of pain and numbess are not tolerable or if there is progressive weakness in the leg.
The most important thing here is to realize that the heart condition is life threatening and the spinal condition is not. Permanent nerve damage is rare so take care of the heart first and discuss this with your spine specialist
hope this was helpfulView Thread

The short answer is I would strongly advise against the nucleoplasty. There is minimal evidence that it is helpful and I would be very apprehensive about an unproven procedure being done that close to your spinal cord.
If your pain is that bad discuss surgery for your neck which could be an ACDF, cervical artificial disc replacement, or a posterior cervical decompression depending on what your MRI shows and symptoms areView Thread
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