February 5, 200422 yr i have one in my lower back, and they are putting me on some steriods and i have to go in for another mri on my upper back. they found it is my lower back so they are seeing if there is anything wrong with my upper back. MoDs pls change spelling to bulging.
February 5, 200422 yr I think when one of ur discs is out of place or sumthin to that extent and it puts pressure on ur spinal cord, but what would I know, I ain't a chiropractor.
February 5, 200422 yr The discs between spinal bones can be a source of back pain, too. These rings of fibrous tissues act as spacers, connectors and "shock absorbers" for the spine. Trauma can cause the soft, pulpy material in the middle to bulge or herniate, putting pressure on delicate nearby nerves.
February 5, 200422 yr In a nutshell.. it's when the tissue between the vertebrae becomes strained, injured, or swollen, and it pushes the nerves around it to rub against the other vertebrae (back bone). Not fun.
February 5, 200422 yr That isn't good dude. Make sure ya get alot of Vikanin and other great drugs for it though. Steriods eh, should we call you Arnold?
February 5, 200422 yr i had a disectomy at c4-c5 so ive studied up on this alot... the disc is a round gel - like substance...its used as a buffer between your veritbrae..like a shock absorber..when you do stuff like heavy lifting the vertibrae tend to compact at the area where the most pressure is put on your neck and back.. the vertibrae kind of squishes the disc..you do that enough by heavy lifting or using bad teqnique like when lifting boxes and stuff and eventually the disc starts to wear out and it stays in that bulging position and doesnt bounce back...the buldging disc itself , as long as it doesnt rupture (thats where all the gel leaks out of this disc , at that point surgery is the only option) is not a problem...almost every adult has bulding discs to some extent...the pain you are feeling is because the bulge in the disc is compressing one of the nerves thats located close to it...thats whats causing you pain...thats when problems occur.. if your injury was caused over time by repetive lifting and twisting you can develop bone spurs (calcium deposits) around the effected vertibrae...those arnt picked up on MRI's very well but are present to some degree in almost every back injury...when i had my neck done i had a bunch of calcium deposits and they didnt show up on the MRI...they can get real sharp edges to them and start to cut into nerves (thats where alot of the numbness come from in extremities)..thats why after i had my discectomy the numbness in my left arm didnt go away..calcium deposits were so sharp they were cutting into the nerve..if the damage isnt too severe the nerves will regenerate and over time you get feeling back..the more damage the less chance of returning to normal.. one thing you need to know about therapy like drugs (steriods) and physical and massage therapies (i dont how much you know so im assuming none of this was explained to you so i dont miss anything) is that they cant fix the buldging disc...once it has started to buldge there is no proceedure to put it back in place...the damage is done...what they are hoping to do now is to avoid surgery with steriods and stuff by aleaviating some of the pressure that the bulging disc is putting on the nerve (s) thats causing you pain...in my case that had temporary success but the symptoms always returned...usually with a greater degree of pain...but i also think therapy has a higher success rate on the lower back then it does on the neck so thats a plus for you.. im not sure of you age or your career but if your young and / or you have a physical type of job your are going to have to make some life changes to avoid surgery...if your in your 50's and willing to slow down and lead a more sedative lifestyle then avoiding surgery is alot easier then a guy in his 20's who is like a firefighter or something like that... the worst part surgery is once you have the discs fused then you are a higher risk for having the discs directly above and below the fused point also starting to bulge... now you have no flexibility at all where the fusion took place so the discs above and below it have more pressure on them...so surgery should always be a last resort.. hope this helped and good luck
February 5, 200422 yr OMG baggs.. that's 2 medical conditions you have experience with in as many days.. you're fallin apart!!
February 5, 200422 yr What's worse, a herniated diss or a bulged one? I hope I don't sound like a jackass in saying this, but from what I understood in the clip Tex posted, it kind of sounds like bulging discs and herniated disks are the same thing. Did I understand that correctly?
February 5, 200422 yr I hope I don't sound like a jackass in saying this, but from what I understood in the clip Tex posted, it kind of sounds like bulging discs and herniated disks are the same thing. Did I understand that correctly? herniated disc is probably more offical a term.
February 5, 200422 yr OMG baggs.. that's 2 medical conditions you have experience with in as many days.. you're fallin apart!! those are the only two serious medical conditions i have steff...so far
February 5, 200422 yr my understanding of the difference between bulging and herniated is bulging is more of a braod based generic term...i think when the word herniated is used it usually means the bulding is a little more severe..but im not 100% sure
February 6, 200422 yr Author That isn't good dude. Make sure ya get alot of Vikanin and other great drugs for it though. Steriods eh, should we call you Arnold? he is putting me on steriods for 7 days and then he is gonna talk to a surgen for the next step if it doesnt get better.
February 6, 200422 yr Author so in other words im f***ed and this is probally karma catching up to me? good thing im getting a degree in computor enginering. the bad thing is im only 19
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