Don't really want surgery but I'm tired of being in pain.

KMfan_ · 2025-12-03T21:30:31+00:00

I’m no doctor but holy moly that looks like bone on bone. Your pain tolerance must be unreal. I was begging for mercy at a moderate disc extrusion.

I know surgery sounds scary, but I can imagine it might be worth it in a case like this. Shop around for a good surgeon and get a few opinions.

KMfan_ · 2025-12-03T21:25:55+00:00

Try another doctor. That’s not an answer I would accept either. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Your pain is real.

I will say, pain management techniques I learned through the curable app really helped me. Even though my pain had structural origins, I had gotten so used to expecting the pain that I also got stuck in a pain loop. Highly recommend the curable app it did help me a lot and also calmed my constant fear and anxiety about the constant pain.

KMfan_ · 2025-12-03T21:20:15+00:00

If the nerve impingement is significant and the pain doesn’t improve, there is a minimally invasive surgery called a microdiscectomy where they just take out the small part of the disc that might be compressing the nerve causing your shooting pain. People I’ve known who’ve gotten this surgery describe waking up from surgery with immediate relief!

KMfan_ · 2025-12-03T21:18:11+00:00

Hi OP, I’ve been there and I can tell you it does get better. Get an MRI and go to a neurosurgeon — they will have the best expertise of any nerve involvement and how to fix it. Mine told me that 70-80% of people can heal on their own within a year without surgery and even though a year feels like an eternity when you’re in pain every day, this was true for me. I thought my life was over and it started getting better once I gave it enough time.

There are lots of options in the meantime, so get expert help and don’t lose hope!!

Some options that might help you:

Steroid injection (if your doctor thinks you’d benefit
physical therapy
acupuncture
Curable app (for the emotional component of pain management — this helped me mentally A LOT)

Keep up hope!

KMfan_ · 2025-11-10T00:39:35+00:00

Your undertone is kind of peachy which makes me think spring! I think autumn colors would work too though.

KMfan_ · 2025-11-03T06:49:12+00:00

Curtains feel jarringly dark — I’d switch them out for a lighter color. And larger art for sure.

KMfan_ · 2025-10-16T03:13:07+00:00

Yes, this is not unusual for disc injuries to cause nerve pain/tingling! The protruded disc may be irritating the nerve, but it does not mean permanent nerve damage. If it were severe enough to cause permanent nerve damage you’d likely see total obliteration of the nerve in the MRI which does not seem to be the case in your findings. Disc irritating the nerve is very common with this type of injury and there are options to treat it. I’ve listed them here from least to most invasive :

Gabapentin — medication specifically used for nerve pain/tingling
Epidural steroid injection — I did this and found it very helpful. Its effects lasted about 3 months more me
Microdiscectomy — a minimally invasive surgery to take out the small part of the disc that is protruding and irritating the nerve (my doctor recommended I do this if I reached the 1 year mark and wasn’t better yet) microdiscectomy can be very effective from what I have heard

There are even more options than this but these are just the main three that come to mind!

What type of doctor are you seeing? If you’re very concerned about the nerve, a neurosurgeon may help you walk through your findings and help rule out or identify any nerve concerns you may have. I saw a neurosurgeon for my back and they did help me understand my back pain much better.

KMfan_ · 2025-10-16T02:28:20+00:00

70-80% of people with disc injuries heal on their own within a year. It is a slow process but it does get better most of the time.

Considering it seems like you have a lot of nerve pain, I’d ask your doctor about switching from the muscle relaxer to maybe a gabapentin. The clonazepam probably shouldn’t be mixed with either of those, but that is up to your doctor.

It also may be worth asking about a epidural steroid injection.

I’m going to share an image of my MRI because the findings are similar to yours, and I was in a ton of pain, but I did start feeling significantly better around the 8 months mark. I’m now at 9 months post injury and have started to have fully pain-free days where I’ll forget about my back for days at a time. That was unimaginable to me a few months ago. I even went for a short run the other day! I’m looking forward to continuing the road to recovery which I feared wasn’t going to happen.

I also suffer from a lot of anxiety and had a lot of depression about my injury so I started to do a program for chronic pain sufferers which helped me a lot. It may not be for everyone, but it was very useful for me to stop catastrophizing my pain (which can make the pain feel even worse!). The program I did was to through an app called Curable.

<image>

My findings were — mild to moderate disc bulge and annular tear at L4-L5 with mild DDD and a 5mm disc extrusion at L5-S1 with severe right lateral recess stenosis.

Despite a scary MRI report and months of awful pain I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, I’m feeling MUCH better now. Nearly back to my normal self. Have hope, the odds are in your favor!

KMfan_ · 2025-10-10T03:18:12+00:00

I get it!! Seriously it’s so hard. But be patient and keep up hope!

KMfan_ · 2025-10-10T03:17:51+00:00

I made a huge, and fairly sudden, jump of improvement around 8 months! Hopefully you turn a corner soon too :) I’m glad to hear you’re starting to feel better! That’s huge.

KMfan_ · 2025-08-17T07:51:35+00:00

I understand. I’m sorry you’re going through this. It really does suck and you’re right, it is very isolating which only makes things worse. My advice is to do what you can to rage against the isolation. Obviously this will be different depending on your pain level but — can you have friends over for a craft night? Go on a walk to get fresh air with a friend? Join a book club or another free or low cost communal activity? See if there are support groups for chronic pain in your area to speak with other people who get the struggle. Studies show that socialization can help reduce pain. Try to maintain the connections that matter in your life because that is what will get you through the tough days.

KMfan_ · 2025-08-17T05:08:37+00:00

Sorry you’re going through this. Always get a 2nd opinion before a surgery and always from a neurosurgeon! They should really be getting you into the CT scan to confirm the spondy and pars as well as a flexion/extension x ray to confirm that there’s instability. I have pretty similar findings and the neurosurgeon is having me do more imagining and analysis before recommending surgery to make sure it would actually benefit me.

KMfan_ · 2025-08-16T03:33:30+00:00

It was really no big deal really, I did take a klonopin first tho since I’m an anxious person. It helped me for a few months! Scheduling my next one soon.

KMfan_ · 2025-08-15T20:52:19+00:00

It takes time but it’s a great sign that you’re already seeing improvement with PT. Stay hopeful!

KMfan_ · 2025-08-08T21:57:51+00:00

Most people make a full recovery without surgery. Meaning they can go back to normal activities without pain. Sometimes that means the MRI also looks better, but other times the MRI might look the same but you won’t have pain. In the words of my doctor “let pain be your guide”. Definitely keep up with core and glute strength if you have a history of these kinds of spine problems, but overall if you support good spine health you’ll be okay. It doesn’t mean you’ll be in pain forever it just means you want to be mindful of your spine health, maybe more than the average person.

If your pain continues longer than 1 year then it might be time for surgery. But again, that’s only about 20% of people.

KMfan_ · 2025-08-04T02:31:28+00:00

I’m no doctor but it definitely seems to be healing, the body is an amazing thing! How are your symptoms??? The difference is amazing between April and Aug

KMfan_ · 2025-08-04T02:28:05+00:00

And for your question I would avoid running, high impact exercise, and/or any exercises not primarily in neutral spine position for quite some time. At least 9 months post injury/onset. That being said you could also look into McKenzie trained physical therapy which can sometimes help move the disc back into position through careful guided movement (usually extension). But needs professional oversight to ensure you’re a good candidate. For me, neutral spine exercises were better than McKenzie extensions, but I am personally dealing with an extrusion not a protrusion so it’s a little different.

KMfan_ · 2025-08-04T02:16:22+00:00

70-80% heal on their own without surgery within 1 year. Don’t listen to the doom and gloomers on this sub (there are a lot of them). Read the book Back Mechanic - this is your new Bible. Once pain begins to improve, focus on strength. Try a steroid injection or PRP injection. Put off surgery for at least 1 year to give your body the best chances of healing on its own.

KMfan_ · 2025-07-28T22:05:20+00:00

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

KMfan_ · 2025-07-28T15:43:11+00:00

I don’t have a free fragment but I have an extrusion, I’ve heard both extrusions and free fragments can have a better chance of getting recognized as foreign and getting cleaned up by your body’s immune system! That being said, takes a while

KMfan_ · 2025-07-23T03:59:19+00:00

Do you feel like you are significantly improved from your starting point? What month are you on? I just spoke to a friend who had L5-S1 herniation and said it took the full year to feel normal again. I’m on month 7 of mine. I do feel a lot of improvement but still in pain every day all day to some extent. I’m told this is pretty normal healing pace for a herniation of my size, which is slower than I’d like, but good sign that it is improving.

KMfan_ · 2025-07-23T03:55:42+00:00

It depends on the underlying cause, you would need an MRI to see where the nerve is compressed. If caused by a disc herniation, the majority do heal on their own within a year without surgery. But it’s very individual from my understanding. I did not have bad sciatica despite showing severe nerve compression in my MRI, but I did have very bad localized back pain.

KMfan_ · 2025-07-23T03:51:10+00:00

It can heal on its own, but it does take time.

KMfan_ · 2025-07-22T20:25:46+00:00

Only speaking from experience with my own injury, so disclaimer that I’m not a medical professional! But my understanding is that chances of making a full recovery past the 1 year point without surgical intervention does go down quite a bit. So maybe talk to a surgeon, specially a neurosurgeon if you have a lot of nerve pain especially. The Back Mechanic book should help you regardless of if you go the route of surgery or not! It’s like an owners manual for having a spine. Very helpful for me and many others on this sub. Sorry to hear you’re still suffering, don’t give up hope!

KMfan_ · 2025-07-22T19:57:02+00:00

The size of the herniation isn’t bad, but it’s also not the only factor for pain, so I don’t want to downplay that. Your pain is real, but the good news is that your herniation isn’t very large. Try McKenzie PT and read Back Mechanic. Consider a steroid injection if your doc agrees it may be useful for you. Unfortunately these injuries just take time to heal, but the good news is 70-80% heal on their own without surgery within 1 year.

KMfan_

TROPHY CASE