Collapsed spinal disks

[RCITGuy]

Hey fellow bikers...

So I have a collapsed spinal disk since 2010, did loads of physio, and last year was able to lead a normal life, but so far this year, its biting me in the ass again. My MTB hasnt seen daylight this year and my road bike hasnt left the house, but has been on the turbo several times, and so I'm now wondering what to do about it...

Do any of you good folks have the misfortune of a collapsed spinal disk, and if you do, how the heck do you cope with it and work around it?

Can you even still cycle?
Have you contemplated surgury?
What surgury options are available?
Has surgery changed things for the better?
Did surgery give you more problems than you started with?

The prospect of surgery, I find terrifying, I know nobody who has had it and nothing about about, but I know things cannot carry on the way they are, spending every day just waiting for my back to go again, and never having the confidence to "go out" for a ride... It sucks, and 2014 was so much fun out riding 3 times a week and loads of weekend sportives and MTB rides.

I've had to cancel every skyride I was meant to lead this year too :-(

I'd love to hear from anybody who has done something about it that worked, and how to go about it? :-)

 

[steve50]

I have met and spoken to people who have had this procedure done and they report vast improvements in mobility and the ability to lead a normal life, basically the procedure fuses the bone above and below the collapsed disc which results in that section of the spine being immobilized and pain free, http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/degenerative-disc-disease/surgery-degenerated-disc

 

[vickster]

@SatNavSaysStraightOn and @roadrash have had back operations in the last year, possibly others
Can do a search for their threads

If you have any sort of back surgery, find the very best back specialist surgeon you can

I had a back op back in 1993 to decompress a slipped disc. Most painful post op but it did work. surgical technique has come on leaps and bounds. Keyhole often now. I have a 6 inch scar

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The 5th November saw the 1st anniversary of an event that has changed my life. I put the phone down and turned to walk away. I was fit, very active (as in 10,000km in 10 months active) and had never had any back issues whatsoever. In my consultants words ' my disk shattered like a piece of ceramics '. It also damaged my spinal cord, the syatic nerve and completely destroyed the disk in one moment. There was also damage to a blood vessel which was still bleeding when they operated. I had a discectomy and decompression which saved most but not all of the use of and feeling in my right leg. Sadly after that things didn't improve much despite me buying a recumbent trike and getting out on it everyday. I was also walking everyday which I still do, twice a day if I don't get out on the trike.

Initially I had very little help off the NHS. In fact it seemed that they did everything they could not to help me at all. I was bedbound for most of the time from November through to April, unable to manage the stairs without assistance and with no bathroom downstairs my choice was upstairs. I also couldn't sit up, something that is still very painful for me but had improved since I have up and accepted I need a wheelchair for things like the shopping or just generally leaving the house. Sitting in the wheelchair is much more comfortable than sitting on an ordinary chair. I also have a riser recliner chair at home which I use during the day. I don't leave the house much because I still need help but...

I have had my spine fused as well. L5-S1. That has been brilliant for me. It was done privately, as was the first surgery because my OH's works bupa covered me luckily (the local NHS hospital is not well appreciated around here for very valid reasons) . I was expected to be in hospital for 5nights following that surgery, I was home in 3. I was up and walking the day after the op and my spine had never felt so comfortable, but my right leg issues have not improved following that surgery and that is what keeps me needing the wheelchair at present.

Cycling. Well the ticker below shows what I have managed this year. Mostly on the recumbent trike bought specifically because of this issue. I have recently managed the road bike once which was fantastic. I've accepted in not going to be able to go trail riding again :the likes of the red or black runs at Degla may well be pushing my luck too far but I'm hopeful I'll get out on my mtb bike again. I've not given up on bring able to tour again either but that is going to need a little more time.

I personally have no regrets over either surgery. 1 saved the use of my leg, the other has made my back so much more comfortable than before BUT the caveat, my consultant was private and one of the best in the north west and I probably have a birth defect which was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. Discs are meant to do what yours is doing, not shatter like mine did. I have another one which looks pristine but is also malformed being totally the wrong shape.

This is my very long thread. It's due an update soon!
www.cyclechat.net/threads/well-thats-me-off-my-bike-for-a-while.168606/

 

[buggi]

I have met and spoken to people who have had this procedure done and they report vast improvements in mobility and the ability to lead a normal life, basically the procedure fuses the bone above and below the collapsed disc which results in that section of the spine being immobilized and pain free, http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/degenerative-disc-disease/surgery-degenerated-disc

Sounds like the operation a fireman I knew had done about 20 years ago and he's absolutely fine and has carried on with his job since. He's still a fireman. There was, at the time he had it done, only a 60% chance it would work but that was 20 years ago so I'm sure the procedure has vastly improved by now and probably has a much higher success rate.

 

[andytheflyer]

Hi @RCITGuy

I've had 2 lots of back surgery. It took a long time to get to that stage, but in the end it was the only option - and it's partly worked for me in that I have no pain now, no need for drugs, but I do have mobility issues.

I first had a lumbar decompression - basically they cut away bits of the discs that were pressing on the spinal cord. Done in a few hours, out of bed and home the next day. Walked 2.5 miles the following day. Success. No more tingling from the waist down, full control of my legs. Sorted.

I then had a cervical decompression a few years later (aged 56), but with a fusion - 4 vertebrae in my neck, and a screwed in plate, bone grafts from my hip etc.. I delayed this for 6 years from the first diagnosis on the recommendations of the surgeon - we can do it, we don't really want to as it's risky, but we may have to in the end. Let's keep an eye on it. Drugs to manage pain, and muscle relaxants. Lots of side effects.

Eventually, it had to be done. Op did not go well. Woke up paralysed, into HD unit, kept in spinal unit (Gobowen hospital) for 6 weeks flat on my back. Had to learn to walk again, get up off the floor, climb stairs. You get the idea. 5 years later I'm more or less OK, but balance is not good and leg, arm and hand control average (I stumble, drop things - but I still fly model aeroplanes so not all bad!) - the bulging discs had done permanent damage to my spinal cord. But, no pain and no tingling down my arms, and no 'stingers' when bending my head back - so, lots of good, but a bit of 'collateral' too. Think I'll take that.

I had to go part time at work - the leg control problem makes moving about hard work for the brain apparently so I get very tired getting about (and I'm a geologist so being out and about in rough terrain or construction sites goes with the job) - but not on a bike because the action is repetitive - the brain does not have to think so much on a bike about which muscles it needs to move as it does with walking and getting about on your feet. I also ride a recumbent to get the weight off my arms and hands, and combining a DF with a recumbent has been a good solution.

So, it depends what needs to be fixed. You might get away with a simple decompression and I'd say the risks are low and chances of success are high. A decompression and fusion may be OK too - but mine went badly because the spinal canal turned out to be very small (genetic apparently) so the cord was trapped and the surgeon had very little room for manoeuvre. He could not tell that until he opened me up - and once he had he was committed.

At least having the surgery got me off the drugs (the nightmares with the big spider climbing the walls will live with me forever..), and if I had to do it again I would. It didn't go as well as it might, but I'm fit, mobile and pain free, and that's an improvement in my judgement over where I would be now if I hadn't had surgery.

But, each to his own, last time I looked we lived in a democracy where you can make your own decisions. So, no help to you at all, but it gives you something to consider from someone who's been there, done that.

Good luck!

 

[roadrash]

my back troubles are to be found here
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/there-is-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel.164232/


as far as after surgery goes , well lets just say my back no longer hurts and is fine but i have other issues with pins and needled , sometimes numbness all the way from my buttock to my toes on my right leg.

All i can say is ask as many questions as you can think of for your surgeon/ consultant, i know quite a few people who have made 100% recovery and i know a few people who have had problems, its your decision , DONT MAKE IT LIGHTLY, DO YOUR RESEARCH.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

From my point of view the surgery helped considerably, but I'm still on the pain meds. A lot of them. I take time release morphine capsules (40mg/12hrs), liquid morphine top up as needed (usually twice a day), paracetamol (a very underrated painkiller but surprisingly effective) and pregabalin (above max dose but it was needed) to help with the nerve pain in my right leg. I still get leg pain and cramping, I still get lost back pain, I still get poison in the pelvic joint beginning with s, I still have some paralysis and numbness and I still get balance issues as well. I still can't walk very far but as above I can ride much more easily. I'd be much worse off without the 2nd op and I am still at the recovery stage. As above, it's your decision. I'm glad I made it but it may not be the right decision for you.

 

[slowmotion]

I had a severely prolapsed disc twenty three years ago. Entirely my own fault for lifting lumps af steel at work without any regard for my own welfare. The osteopath was expensive and entirely useless. My GP sent me to Charing Cross Hospital for an appointment with a consultant. It wasn't until he imperiously told me that the only solution was surgery that I realised what his speciality was. I told him that I really wasn't too keen on the idea, at which point he suggested that I was some kind of time-waster. I was in quite severe pain while listening to this ticking off and a mighty red mist descended. After I had comprehensively given him a piece of my mind, the look on the face of his secretary was quite priceless. People didn't usually speak to the Great Man like that.

Salvation came from the physiotherapists. I had three months of weekly sessions on a traction bed for about 45 minutes each time, and they gave me some notes about back exercises that I could do at home. I took the regime quite seriously, and by some miracle it worked. I have been absolutely fine ever since, but I do take care about lifting stuff with a straight back. The memory of that excruciating, stabbing back pain is quite a strong incentive.

 

[slowmotion]

A lot of my close relations are doctors. Obviously, I sought their advice all those years ago when surgery was on the cards. Their universal opinion was an emphatic no. Everyone has a different condition, and I'm sure that surgery works wonderfully for some people. My only advice would be to give the non-surgical options a go before they start sterilizing their scalpels.

I'm not a doctor, just a patient who was extremely lucky. All the best.

 

[Penmere]

I have Spinal Stenosis which has left me with no strength in my legs. I haven't cycled for nearly three years now, even tho I had decompression surgery on my spine last November. If anything the surgery has made things worse, I still have the weakness but now have a lot of lower back pain as well. I also cervical stenosis and Psoriatic Arthritis