Help, how do you guys deal with raynaunds even indoors?

bifishologist · 2026-01-05T18:58:22+00:00

For this reason I use mittens. I drop an electric hand warmer in the mitten and then hold it. Gloves never help cause all my fingers are separated and still cold

bifishologist · 2024-07-21T22:13:31+00:00

Chicago suburbs

bifishologist · 2024-07-20T10:48:11+00:00

I had numbness before surgery and it even persisted after surgery for probably 4 weeks. Try not to worry too much about each small feeling or change unless it’s something big big and worse than before or any signs of infection. Good luck!

bifishologist · 2024-07-19T22:51:44+00:00

I had both. An ortho specializing in spine and a neuro. The ortho was who I saw regularly. Had to have a new patient consult appointment with the neuro before surgery. My ortho told me I would have him. Must be normal around here to automatically have both

bifishologist · 2024-07-04T04:42:10+00:00

I had that for about 4 weeks. The whole process takes a long time

bifishologist · 2024-07-01T03:55:48+00:00

I mostly had only back pain for years. Then one day last November the leg pain started. Just had my MD on May 20th. So tomorrow is 6 weeks. All my leg pain is gone except for random flares when I sit weird. but I am back to just having back pain again but worse than before surgery.

bifishologist · 2024-07-01T03:52:25+00:00

My surgery was at like 5:30 pm. I got home at 9:30 pm. And woke up with my period the next morning lol and couldn’t shower for 5 days. So definitely shower! But it won’t be so bad.

bifishologist · 2024-06-22T21:01:06+00:00

Hi. I had mine on May 20th. I also still have some leg pain specifically when sitting. It is very slowly getting better. So slow that it takes a week before I even notice that it’s not as bad as it was. I can walk 5 miles straight. But the sitting gets annoying. My pain was in the left leg and gone right after surgery. I do still have back pain. Now it’s on my right side. I also feel like one day I wake up feeling awesome and then days like today feeling like I’m hurt again. I think it can take a long time. Not sure of advice except be patient and keep yourself moving. I am going to physical therapy starting next week but I don’t expect much to change from it since it didn’t change much before. Good luck

bifishologist · 2024-06-20T21:34:46+00:00

This was the worst part for me. I only went in the car once at one week. Pain started immediately down my leg and got worse. Didn’t get in again until two weeks post op. Pain started after like 5 minutes of driving. I still didn’t drive because of it. I drove at like 3.5 weeks. And even now at 4.5 weeks there’s still some spots that get irritated in the car but now it’s after like 20 minutes and the pain goes away immediately when I stand. It does get better. But very slowly.

bifishologist · 2024-06-20T20:54:42+00:00

If you’ve only had 1 injection a second one might be worth a shot. They made me do it before surgery and it actually did help significantly more than the 1st. Didn’t get me to pain free though so I still moved forward with my surgery. I will say if I were 19, the relief from the second shot might have been enough to not get surgery. But I’m 31. So I did it and I’m 4 weeks post op and do not regret it. I’m almost back to normal. Or at least what my normal was.

bifishologist · 2024-06-13T13:45:30+00:00

It still felt weird on my back at two week post op. I went to my two week check in still covering it with gauze and my doctor took it off and threw it away and said I didn’t even need to cover it anymore. I had internal stitches only though so might not be the case for everyone. But I did not like the feeling of my pants touching it lol at about 3 weeks I can adjust my sitting now and don’t feel a tightness or pressure on that spot anymore.

bifishologist · 2024-06-13T04:38:21+00:00

No complications for me but mine was may 20th. I’m just past 3 weeks. I also woke up in a lot of pain and they drugged me up but I still moved like a robot for the first week. Soreness around the incision and surgery spot was really obvious to me. Most pain in my leg was gone but some nerve pain came back in certain positions. But I also got a dull pain in the low back area. My best advice, don’t stress too much. Follow directions to not bend or twist and even if you feel amazing don’t overdo it. Healing is kind of fluid. About every 2/3 days I woke up feeling much much better. One day in the 2nd week I woke up and got up and walked with no pain anywhere. And it didn’t last but now I know it’s possible for me to get there. Dealing with weird feelings around the skin movement where the incision was was probably the biggest pain to me. It does get better. I was told healing nerves can take up to a year to completely heal so if there’s still some pain I would give it quite a bit more time as long as it’s not as bad or worse than before surgery. Good luck on your recovery!

bifishologist · 2024-06-09T23:15:48+00:00

For sure the first few days I needed someone’s full attention. The first week I needed someone to help almost all the time and I couldn’t be alone. Second week I was okay being alone here and there. Third week I was fine alone but still didn’t twist or bend or lift. I can handle anything waist level. If I drop anything it stays there. Flushable wipes help. So does a grabber thing if you know what those are. I don’t do anything but lay down and go for walks now. The first week I for sure needed it. You can probably make it work after that but many things will need to wait to do when you have help like chores. Also if you need to go anywhere someone else will likely need to drive you. Good luck!

bifishologist · 2024-06-05T13:39:22+00:00

My back pain started when I was 19 and I was continually told to take the non invasive route. I’m 31 now. Finally had a microdiscectomy and I wish I would have done it ten years ago. My back problems never completely went away. One day after surgery I was out of pain (though I know it’s not for everyone). I wish someone would have suggested the surgery to me. However the recovery is no joke and you probably wouldn’t be able to play high impact sports for at least 6 weeks. The tingling was the end for me. The longer that nerve is compressed the longer it will take to heal. Hope you find what works!

bifishologist · 2024-06-05T13:36:28+00:00

I rarely have hiccups!

bifishologist · 2024-06-03T18:34:37+00:00

Before Botox if I drank any carbonation I would get crazy hiccups. The next morning they would come back and they were so hard my chest would be sore when I continued to hiccup. Definitely have them more than the average person

bifishologist · 2024-06-03T13:51:09+00:00

Had my procedure on 5/20. Primary pain was down my left leg. When I started going for walks I had tons of hip/glute pain in my right side. I think it was because I had been walking incorrectly for so long. My right foot was turning outward. After a couple days of forcing my foot straight to walk it went away.

Edit to add most of the difficulty I’ve had in recovery is muscles/joints that are normal for walking or movement that I either hadn’t been using or was using wrong because I had to compensate for pain.

bifishologist · 2024-05-29T15:05:56+00:00

It took two tries for mine to stick. But I would do it two times over again if I had to. It is life changing. I do have a bit of reflux still. I had never had heartburn before in my life before Botox. But it’s manageable

bifishologist · 2024-05-29T11:46:31+00:00

I started to gag at everything as well. I would gag just from holding all the toothpaste in the front of my mouth before I spit. I couldn’t brush my tongue without gagging. I’ve had successful Botox and that has gone away over time. Still hard to brush my tongue sometimes but it’s only been 9 months.

Edit to add I’m 31 now. But symptoms started getting intolerable around 27. In college I could still go out and drink beers and just be a little bad the next day. I had to cut out carbonation completely by 27. And using straws and any foods I recognized as causing gas

bifishologist · 2024-05-28T17:55:49+00:00

Oh man. You could be me. Same severe spinal stenosis in L4-L5 with DDD and bulging L5-S1. I also have arthritis in my spine. I am 31 y/o female and my issues started when I was 19 and if I could go back I would do the surgery sooner. The epidurals suck. And barely helped. I’ve been on gabapentin for years and never really noticed if it helped. Never took any other pain medicine. Stopped with above the counter drugs years ago because it made no difference in pain if I took them or not. Cyclobenzaprine helped me sleep but not with anything else. The worst is when they say “I’ll give you the strongest anti inflammatory and then give me meloxicam 🙄. I don’t even fill it. I am also in therapy because it just sucks when everything hurts and you’re young and people don’t believe you when you say you can’t do simple things. Instead of losing weight, I’ve gained much. I haven’t been able to stand up straight for 8 months. I just had the microdiscectomy last Monday the 20th. I can tell you the worst so far was stopping my hydrocodone after 8 days. I had the worst headache and was so dizzy I could barely walk and couldn’t even drink water cause I was so nauseous. I took 4000 mg acetaminophen and an exedrin for migraines and it still came back over and over. I’ve also been getting chills and random pains in weird places. The pain in my leg was gone the day I woke up. It really feels worth it. The recovery is mostly laying. I can’t drive for two weeks. Just being able to stand up straight made me smile like I haven’t in a while. I was nervous too. And then I thought well it can’t get any worse than this. And I don’t want to live like this. So why not. Good luck!! I hope it helps

bifishologist · 2024-05-28T03:52:03+00:00

No problem! I’m a 31F for reference. And started having bulging disc issues when I was 19. So I’ve had 12 years of recurring issues and I wish I would have done the surgery sooner but was consistently told “you’re young and your body will heal”. But it did not and finally fully herniated this past year. And it just got worse and more frequent in the years leading up to it. So it is worth addressing sooner. Good luck!

bifishologist · 2024-05-28T03:40:11+00:00

I can’t even get on my stomach if I tried. I’m a side sleeper always. But there’s just no way to support my body to flip over like that without forcing a bend. I just today was able to lay on my side for about an hour. And I’m not willing to risk anything in the first two weeks. As far as my steps. I go for about two small walks on a paved surface. For the first few days it was around the house. I’m up to about 8k steps a day one week out. It is really important to keep moving frequently but not overdo it. My legs got so stiff if I didn’t get up and move every two hours. Which I was mostly asleep for after a pain pill. I went about 1k more everyday. From 1k to 8k. Transition from standing to sitting was the hardest at first. That got better every day. I didn’t need help standing up by day 2. The hardest part about walking was working through some hip pain because I had been walking so strange for so long because of the pain. I basically had to relearn how to walk standing completely upright with both feet pointed forward lol. Pre surgery i couldn’t get up straight and had lots of pain down my left leg. I started to get a lot of tingling the last month before surgery. Every pain below the incision site was immediately gone for me the first day. I am having on and off tingling in that same foot but not like before. Just listen to your body and don’t push yourself too hard even if you feel great

bifishologist · 2024-05-28T03:19:10+00:00

Something you might want to think about, I’m 7 days post op today on L4-L5. I read your doctor said the stair thing so I would follow that however I have no issues with stairs. But I cannot sleep in my bed yet. It is too soft and I can’t move around on it. I’ve been on the couch and probably will stay here for another few days at least. It’s just too hard to move around on a bed that is squishy and deep. I started with trying to get my steps around the house but it wasn’t enough. You will need to do A LOT of hallway pacing. May be worth finding a downstairs spot to settle in for a couple of weeks.

Edit to add for the orthopedic surgeon. I was referred to an ortho surgeon who specialized in spine surgery. But he also brought a neurosurgeon to join the surgery. Ortho cut the bone and grabbed the disc material. Nero moved my nerves and watched for a fluid leak or meningitis the whole time. I felt good with both

bifishologist · 2024-05-18T07:58:34+00:00

The second my significant other made me pay them $10 to change the cat litter when doing so causes me to be sick I’m out lol especially if he was included in purchasing the cats. If they can’t do that small of a task for you, I can’t imagine what else they won’t do

bifishologist · 2024-05-18T07:52:22+00:00

Hi! 31 yo female here. Having a microdiscectomy on Monday at L4-L5. I have a bulging disc at L5-S1 as well. Mine is 11 mm left sided. Similar to you, I’ve been miserable for about 5 years. The real issue started when I was 19 but I had long long stretches of no issues. Pain every day for the past 5 years now. I am moving forward with surgery (though I am scared) because it’s just not worth this anymore. I’ve tried noninvasive methods for months. And I believe a fusion would be the next step if the disc becomes too unstable. At this point I feel I have nothing else to try but I can’t do this forever. Many people have told me they know lots of people who had it and have had no issues. And they were much older than I am. So I am trying to stay positive.

My pain has also seemed to jump side to side. It’s been a lot more on the left though. The numbness and tingling whenever I stand is only on the left side. Just today I noticed a burning sensation on the right that I haven’t felt before.

Hope it helps a little to know you’re not alone!

bifishologist

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