Has anyone on here ever had a slipped/bulging disc

[jamesey]

hi , ive had back trouble for a while now aching and going into spazams every now and then for the last 20 years or so but this 2011 to now has got to have been the worst ever , ive had phisio treatment over the last year and pressing on my spine doesnt hurt its just things like putting my shoes on bending forward and coughing and things , at the moment i cant do any of these things , my phisio has said if its going this regular shes going to send a letter to my doctors for a reccomended mri scan as she suspects a herniated disc or buldgeing disc , not wanting to scare myself has anyone had the operation she says they dont take the disc out they just trim the buldging part out.

im a service engineer in my job but i cant even do this due to struggling all the time i feel guilty all the time i cant help my fellow workers and if i have time off at our place i get bad marks against me 3 bad marks and im down the road,so i just keep struggling in there , not good.

[loxleylovely]

Try going to a chiropractor...it worked for me.

As long as I take reasonable care of myself, I am relatively painfree

Good luck

xxx

[phawley]

Osteopath sorts mine out at least once a year, had it since 1973 when I picked up a toolbox incorrectly.

[speedypete0]

i`ve had 2 operations on my spine for disc damage [apparently i was the first in britain to have a decompression done-previously they used to remove the whole disc & let the bones fuse but i had 3 displaced & it would have left me with very little back movement hence the decompression] the first was done in 1974 i was in hospital 3 months

the second was done in 2010 i was told i would be in 2-4 days but went in @ 8 am & was back home about 4 pm was off work about eight weeks after surgery but all was well when i returned to work iam a welder & my job was fairly physical with some heavy lifting involved but i have no problem whith physical activities whatsoever so after both operations i can only say that they were both successfull i get the odd ache now & again if i push things abit to much [probably age related rather than my spine 1 am 60] but other than being more carefull when i lift anything heavy i have no problem at all

if offered the operation i would take it there are risks but to have a reasonable quality movement without the pain,to me ,far outweighs the risk hope this helps to aliviate any fears you may have as regards the operation

[jamesey]

my private pyisio haS written to my gp asking him to send me for a mri scan , hes said to me i need to be in severe pain and its got to be going down my leg/s for at least 6 weeks before they will do anything , whats going on with the nhs?????????? he wants to send me to pain relief classes and get me on tablets for the pain , i need it sorting not just masking.

[medusa]

At least the tests that are on offer now aren't horrible, invasive, painful and including a 2 day stay in hospital! My first disc problem was in my neck when I was 19 and I had to have a myelogram to diagnose it. That included a needle going in through the side of my neck and radio-opaque dye being injected into the cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord which then allowed the spinal cord, disc spaces and discs to be imaged on x-ray. It was deeply unpleasant, horrifically painful, involved 24 hours of sitting bolt upright and came with the mother and father of all headaches for a week afterwards.

 

I'm lucky because although I'd gone in with the expectation of a decompression or partial discectomy it turned out that the disc bulge had spontaneously resolved so no surgery was necessary. It still took 6 months to get the feeling back in my fingers though.

 

Since then I've also been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in my lower back, alongside all of the extra bones, so I've currently got 2 completely degraded discs and 2 damaged ones, all in my lumbar spine. I'm not suitable for surgery because I've got extra processes on so many of the vertebrae that I've got very poor flexibility already and would have virtually none if the operations that my damaged discs need.

 

I have chronic back pain and sciatica down both legs and have impaired sensation and movement in one foot as a result of the reduced disc spaces and this invades every day of my life, resulting in me living much of my life in a recliner and walking with a walking stick to reduce the number of times that I fall because my foot doesn't support me when walking.

 

As my consultant said, with a bit of luck I'll still be young enough to benefit from replacement discs if/when they are developed and available, because that is really the only operation that will help me.

 

I hope that you don't need an MRI because your symptoms reduce before 6 weeks jamesey, but believe me, 6 weeks is nothing compared to how long you'll be in pain if you do have a major disc problem. Is there any reason why you couldn't just go back in 4 weeks and tell them that it's not resolved and you want the MRI?

 

If you want to pay for an MRI it will cost you between £600 and about £1500 BTW, which is one reason why the NHS doesn't want to make them available to just everyone who asks.

[Becky B]

my private pyisio haS written to my gp asking him to send me for a mri scan , hes said to me i need to be in severe pain and its got to be going down my leg/s for at least 6 weeks before they will do anything , whats going on with the nhs?????????? he wants to send me to pain relief classes and get me on tablets for the pain , i need it sorting not just masking.

 

The MRI might not necessarily identify the problem.

From the way you've described it, your problem sounds relatively mild (i.e. compared to what it could be) and I believe the surgeons will have criteria for offering surgery in terms of the risks outweighing the benifits - always consider that surgery will carry the risk of making it worse...

[Saffy]

Yes, have one now ... Just live with it as I've got lots more problems.

[GUZZIOWL]

I've had lower back problems for 25 years during which time i've been on Traction 4 times and had 18 injections into the base of my Spine ...I attended Pain Clinic for 4 years and they told me an operation wasn't possible as the Damage to my Spine is too close to my Sciatic Nerve and i'd end up in a Wheelchair if they caught the nerve ..

[Patriot]

im a service engineer in my job but i cant even do this due to struggling all the time i feel guilty all the time i cant help my fellow workers and if i have time off at our place i get bad marks against me 3 bad marks and im down the road,so i just keep struggling in there , not good.

 

I share your pain and viewpoint. As a slipped disc sufferer for many,many years I know what you are going through.

Are you a member of a trades union? If not then I would suggest the following course of action: You must tell your employer how this affects your ability to carry out what is regarded as your normal duties, you have an obligation to inform him why your performance and/or abilities are perhaps less than what is expected of you. If you have an hospital appointment you need to tell him and show the letter confirming your attendance at the hospital. All this is necessary for you to establish a paper trail in the event your employment is terminated.

A common misconception is that an employer cannot fire you whilst you are actually off sick, they can, but they have to have allowed reasonable time for recovery and if your job is something that cannot tolerate periods of absence then the employer cannot be held responsible for protecting his business.

In the UK section 15 of The Equality Act states an employer discriminates against a person when it treats that person less favourably, not because of the disability itself, but because of something arising "in consequence of that person's disability," such as the need to take a period of disability-related absence.

For this type of discrimination to occur, the employer must know, or reasonably be expected to know, that the disabled person has a disability. This type of discrimination will be easier for an employee to show since there will be no need to make a comparison with a person who does not have a disability. It will, however, be possible for an employer to defend a claim by showing that the treatment is justified as being a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Your employer may give the impression that ill health related absences lead to dismissal but it is not as easy as many employers like to think it is.

 

Good luck.