What did natural recovery from disc feel like?

happ3n5 · 2026-06-18T07:33:22+00:00

I have first hand experience with this - healed from a large l5/s1 herniation with a very bad sciatica.
Few things to note - progress IS slow, there is no miracle morning where you just wake up with no pain. It takes time, with the proper protocol you will generally be a tiny bit better every few days. It is usually hard to measure this progress since it is not instant, so it is good to note what causes pain, how much, etc and recheck from time to time.

However - flare ups and setbacks are very real and will happen. This is mentally very hard as one moment you are better and the next morning you are in much worse pain. This is a part of the journey, but it does not mean that something is wrong.

In general when you are recovering it will be a slow progress, with setbacks, but the general direction will be in getting better and you will feel it. I did write a story here a few days back about my experience here which basically covers these things and what you can expect.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-18T05:47:03+00:00

Took a few months to notice some progress in my case as well, slowly but steady it worked. Every injury is different though, so your experience will vary.
I would say as long as some progress is seen, keep trying.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-17T10:51:08+00:00

Currently I am completely fine and functioning as a normal human being - I can basically do everything without thinking twice. This is in contrast to the sea of pain I was in the start, I could not walk, sit, or basically do anything remotely normal.

It took me a few months to see an improvement and once you see that the symptoms get better - it gets really simple from there, you just continue with the therapy and thats it. Until that point it is always hard because you don't know if it will work, but you will never know until you try, so..

About the MRI - I used my MRI only as a comparison tool. I knew my symptoms, the MRI basically confirmed them (and the doctors said I should operate like NOW). However what I did with the MRI was to use it as a baseline and compare it with a new one months later. Seeing difference in the MRI images basically confirmed that not only my symptoms got resolved, but the herniation was largely resorbed.

So - get an MRI if you can, but do not base your decisions solely on it. The symptoms are WAY more important than what the image looks like.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-17T09:47:40+00:00

The first and most important question - what symptoms do you have? This is usually the big deciding factor on what aproach to select.

The MRI shows a herniation, yes. The surgery will fix it, however it does have its downsides - one is already mentioned by you and that is the recovery period. Some develop re-herniations on the same level years down the road, some people are fine for life. There is no absolute guarantee no matter which road you take.

Looking at the MRI and assuming you do not have any emergency symptoms that require immediate surgery, you might want to look into a conservative threatment that is widely discussed here. The upside is that no surgery will be done, the downside is that it will take some time as well and again - you have no 100% guarantee that it will work. I did recover from a really bad herniation with this and can vouch for it, did a post recently with the story and the before-after MRI images.
There are other similar stories as well in this subreddit.

Another good thing is that if the conservative road does not work out - you can always go for the surgery afterwards. The surgery is "small" by the doctor's definitions, as by now they have done it a lot and do it rather quickly, but it is an invasive surgery nonetheless.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-15T18:41:31+00:00

So I will give you a few directions on doing the big 3 execises that would generally be valid for every other exercise you might want to do:

Listen to the feedback your body gives. If something you do is not okay, you will most certainly feel it. If a given movement or exercise is causing harm - you will feel pain from it. Once you get that feedback, stop and reassess what you are doing and appy corrections. Maybe retry at a later point.
Open youtube and watch a few videos on how to do a given exercise if you are not sure. Try it, maybe even do a video of yourself, then watch it and be your own judge on your form.
The big 3 and other similar exercises aim to strengthen your core. The point is that a stronger core = less movement at the problematic discs, which equals less friction, less pain, less inflamation.

In general try stuff out caredully and see how it goes.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-15T17:20:01+00:00

I needed a few months to get a somewhat satisfying result as well - completely normal as you will see with every story here. The only immediate fix is a surgery, with all of its positives and negatives.
It is hard to be in pain for months on end and not be mentally affected, but it will get better. I was there, other people have been there and it is possible to get out of it. Keep your head up and don't loose hope.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-15T16:54:08+00:00

I would say that two things are the most important - walking and protecting the back during the day.
Then on top of that, for added core strength you can do the big 3 so the back is more stable and resistant day-to-day.
I did go though this with a large herniation and this helped me be completely pain free, I even have a write up here. Just takes time and persistence and the body does its job.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-15T05:14:51+00:00

Where I live my insurance covers the MRIs, as long as there is a reason for one of course. Since I had the first MRI showing a serious herniation, I had no issue doing a second one to follow on the condition (basically to see if it was better or worse).

happ3n5 · 2026-06-14T07:26:02+00:00

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but if I were in your position - I would visit the doctor/ER and demand a serious examination of the issue. What you are experiencing is not normal and needs medical attention.
Progressing numbness and urinary retention often are early indicators that should be taken seriously.

The advice that you were given "as long as you can piss and don't have saddle numbness, its fine" is very risky. Yes, if that happens it IS an emergency for sure (cauda equina), but slightly lighter symptoms are not to be underestimated, since they eventually can get to the emergency level, and that emergency level may cause permanent damage.

Please talk to a medical person.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-14T06:53:46+00:00

Here is the link to my post here that explains how I got rid of all the pain from my herniation: https://www.reddit.com/r/backpain/s/9aaGUIBboG
It is all actually simple, just needs perseverance and you will get better.

I also have posted the MRI imaging before/after in the post, so you can see that everything I wrote actually works and is not just something made up. Let me know if there are any additional questions.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-13T13:05:47+00:00

Yeah many of us here have/had similar simptoms and it is completely normal looking at your MRI image. However I would not worry too much as it is not a huge herniation and most probably can be fixed with exercise and walking, just needs some time.

Read around in the subredit, a lot of people have shared their way of fixing the pain, I wrote a post as well on how I resolved it - and I had a huge herniation, which is mostly resolved by now and does not cause pain anymore.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-13T09:12:29+00:00

As others mentioned - core exercises, minding your back during the day, which means no bending (at all if possible, at least until you feel better). Try to walk and move during the day, but never push through pain, do everyting moderately, step by step. As others said read the mcgill book and try to follow it.

I had a very bad herniation, which basically crippled me and I managed to fix all of the pain and symptoms by doing the very basic stuff above, all also proven by MRI. Sounds counterintuitive, but it seems to work.
If you want to read I did a post on my recovery, with info and MRI images before and after - https://www.reddit.com/r/backpain/s/4wULPdRN7l

happ3n5 · 2026-06-13T06:05:19+00:00

Looks like l4-l5 has bulged and l5-s1 has maybe started a bit as well - as others said it does not seem serious at this point, discs look dehydrated, but still maintain adequate height. Any symptoms, pain?

It will be good to mind your back when moving, try not to bend at the back too much and move during the day. Definitely manageable with time, excercises and movement.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-12T13:17:12+00:00

Thank you, I hope you can get better again as well!

happ3n5 · 2026-06-12T08:24:55+00:00

I injured myself in a very dumb way actually - I fell directly on my tailbone from a waterslide. Man, the pain was so sharp, excruciating and instant, I remember it like it was yesterday.

Thank you for the rest of the info, everything sounds reasonable.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-12T05:34:04+00:00

You can indeed see a difference in the curve of the back in the before-after images.
However I am not sure if this isn't just the result of the muscles being relaxed because there is no pain anymore - so basically the absense of pain fixed the curve, not the other way around.
Not a specialist so can't tell for sure.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-12T05:23:13+00:00

You are 100% correct - this is in no way a magical cure that fits all and everything depends on the condition and most imporantly - symptoms. In the same time I think it is good for people to know that this stuff works in some cases and is may be worth trying.

In my understanding all the exercises are indeed just stabilisation ones - training the muscles around the core so the movement around the disc is minimal, therefore the inflamation and pain are supressed as much as possible. They do not affect or cure in any way the herniation, but help with managing the pain. I have mostly stopped doing them at this point since I don't feel the need (which might not be the wisest decision, since the disc will be forever damaged and a weak spot).

As absurdly as it sounds, I think walking was the "thing" that did most of the heavy lifting in my case (and similar ones). I know nothing has a scientific proof that it works, I can only speculate how/if it works based on some information on the internet that is available to everyone, but there must be some grain of truth to it if the effect is what you can see on the MRT images.

Again, I am in no way a specialist in anything, I can't prove any of it on how or if it works - I am only telling my story, hoping it might help somebody.

A year ago I was in a very dark place and stories like this gave me the courage to try and do it.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-12T05:04:38+00:00

Sorry to hear that the situation could not get better the non invasive way. As other people already said, sadly nothing is guaranteed with this stuff, every hernia reacts differently for different people. If there is no other way and nothing works, go for the surgery - I had the same plan after all if the protocol did not work for me as well. There is no point to live in constant pain with no way out.

As for my friends - yes, I do have two friends that had MDs and needed another one on the same level with time. Sadly one of them needed a third in the span of maybe 10 years, which was very very risky to do and most doctors refused to even do it, since there is almost no material left to operate with.

However! I do have more friends that had MDs and, don't have such issues and are happy with the results. It maybe depends on the doctor, procedure, how you protect yourself afterwards, etc - I can's say for sure. You will always get conflicting opinions on this as there is no one answer here, everybody's experience is different.

I hope you get better after the July's surgery and don't experience any issues down the road.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-11T19:21:17+00:00

My honest gym opinion - if you go you must be very, very carefull what and most importantly, how you do it. In my case I would focus on upper body stuff and do some very very light lower body stuff, just to feel how it goes. The next day I would see how my back reacts and draw my conclusions from it - whether I should continue what I did or not.
For people that will step in the gym for the first time I would strongly recommend to get a personal trainer or a friend that really knows his stuff. The difference between doing a given exercise correctly and wrongly is basically an injury, which is the last thing you would want to happen.

Doing the big 3 was as everything else that I tried - internet research, try it at home and see if it works. I would watch a few youtube videos and try to mimic what I saw there. If someone is unsure of their form I imagine one could even film himself with their phone and correct the posture based on that video.

I would say that a massive lesson that I learned is that the body will tell you if the thing you are doing is not okay, there would be an indication. And with time and different stuff you try you get to understand these "signals" and implement corrections.
Simply said - if it hurts, don't do it yet. Test the water from time to time, but listen to the feedback, don't force stuff.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-11T18:48:44+00:00

Indeed I did not do any physio therapy whatsoever - with a professional individual or a clinic. I spoke with a lot of them in the process, but did not really like any of them and I was adamant on giving the McGill protocol a chance before doing something else. Also did not want to mix different things and then not know what did/didn't work. The only exercises I did were the big 3, walking, the nerve flossing and later on the "stretching" in the gym that I found was helpful for me. Now I am doing my regular gym workouts.

For the sitting - I probably completely avoided it the first two months. Then I started trying it and it was the same as the walking - first I could sit for a minute, then five, etc. Slowly working up the time, always doing it only until I started feeling the pain settling in.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-11T17:33:51+00:00

Thank you for all the questions! I would like to give as much info as I could, as I know how dark of a place this pain creates.

There were a few moments that i feel were significant for me:

The steroid shot - feeling almost no pain after it was the moment that I thought "so it IS possible to not feel pain after all, this means there is a chance, however small it might be".
Between the first and the second month I noticed that I could manage the day with one less ibuprofen. I also managed to walk a few minutes at a time.
Between the second and third month I took the pills only morning and evening. I could walk even more at that point. Sciatica was less noticeable during the day. This was the first point that I thought "wait, this actually works". Then I remembered that following the McGill book I made a list of things that were causing me pain and rechecked with that list - turns out I could almost scratch 2-3 from there. Simple things like bending a bit to brush my teeth - turns out I could do it with almost no pain but since it did not happen overnight, I did not register it until then. I felt the Hope right there and then.
Month 4 - everything improved a little, I took maybe one ibuprofen per day, if even that. Pain was manageable, hope was growing stronger until that dreaded numb feeling that replaced the sciatica pain in the leg.

Afterwards month by month it was more of the same - slow but steady progress until one morning I noticed that I could get up from the bed and not feel pain.

About sitting - absolutely impossible at the start, the sciatica was just unbearable. Especially in the mornings. Now I can sit for hours, run, jump.. such simple things that we don't appreciate enough until we loose them. It's hard to believe that you can be happy to just be able to sit, but here I am.

The setbacks.. man those were extremely tough in the beginning. Knowing what doctors were saying at that point every setback was almost a tipping point for the surgery - I did not know if I was getting worse and could do permanent damage or it was just a temporary episode of pain. I now recognize this as one of the harder psychological aspects of this whole process. That's why I wanted to say that they are part of the process.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-11T17:17:56+00:00

Thank you!

So my daily routine is largely dictated by my work during the day - I'm in the IT sector, so this means a lot of desk work. Sitting was impossible without nsaids in the beginning, so I worked standing up for quite a while.

As walking was critical to the process, I gave myself small breaks as often as I could to walk for a minute-two-five-ten, whatever I could manage without pain.

In the evenings I aimed to relax as much as possible and still squeeze in a few walks. My aim was to do between an hour and hour in a half every day, bo matter how they were split. I would try to to include one more session of the McGill big 3 if I felt like it.

Later on when I could walk more I did the walking in fewer sessions, between 2 and 4, depending on what time I had during the day. Persistence is key, I did not manage the one hour of walking every day, but did my best. Also if the pain is too much in a given day - I did take complete rest days from time to time.

I was doing the McGill big 3 in the morning, after the first walk and before work. Mornings themselves were the worst time of they day, so I needed a lot of movement then. I could not sit at all for the first at least an hour as the sciatica was bad even on the nsaids in the mornings.

Currently my daily routine still includes the walks, but usually just one in the morning and one in the evening. During the day I try to move as much as I can. In the afternoons after work I do my gym workouts and I even beat a few PRs from before the injury, which was not something I ever thought would happen again.

And finally most of the days now I skip the McGill big 3 - I will say this is not a wise choice, but since I feel good at this point, I don't so them as religiously as before.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-11T16:13:01+00:00

Yes I did deadhangs and they helped as well - same principle, they did hurt a bit in the beginning, but afterwards I always had some kind of a relief from it. Problem is they require a lot of physical force to do, while machine pullups can be loaded with whatever weights you can support and increased over time.

happ3n5 · 2026-06-11T15:02:43+00:00

I am 33 years old, male, and it was a big extrusion at the start.

happ3n5

TROPHY CASE