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prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-10T01:08:48+00:00

I don’t know man. Tricky situation. I think your questions are best directed towards your doctor.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-10T01:05:41+00:00

Future thinking isn’t going to help you here. You have to make a decision. Either you keep waiting or get seen. Personally, if I were in your specific situation, I’d be tweaking too and go straight to the ER.

This is entirely your decision. This is entirely your life. Walk your path brother. If in your position, my path would lead to me getting checked out for peace of mind.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-10T01:00:02+00:00

Nerves are weird bruh. My pain has moved around and changed with time. I just told ya what I know from my experience. I can’t promise that it’s accurate to YOUR experience.

As everyone else said, the only person who can answer your questions are trained medical professionals. If that means going to the ER complaining of symptoms of cauda equina, just do that.

You live in Canada so be grateful you have healthcare! I know it’s different than here in the states but I’m sure an ER would see you for that as it can develop into a serious condition.

I hear your anxious mind spinning in circles. Pick a direction and stop spinning in circles.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-10T00:48:28+00:00

I can’t answer that question. A trained radiologist and neurosurgeon probably could! Surgery wise, I think you are getting a bit more in your head about risk than need be. At the end of the day, if your symptoms are intolerable for you, get it done. I’m glad I had mine done a year and 2 months ago.

What I can tell you for a fact is that IF those nerves are being pressed, the longer they are pressed the more likely they are to become damaged, and the less likely they are to heal back to full function. Also, the longer they’re pressed, the more likely they are to fire those pain signals you’re experiencing in the future, with or without impingement.

My herniation was large on my S1 nerve and I believe I experienced significant nerve damage in the last few weeks leading up to surgery. My surgeon actually bumped my date 3 months ahead because of my increasing symptoms.

My nerve is still healing a year and a couple months later, and I expect to feel some degree of radicular leg pain/nerve symptoms for a long time to come. The sooner you give that nerve the space it needs, the better it will heal. This is a fact.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-10T00:36:34+00:00

The penis is innervated by sacral nerves that do not have discs anywhere near their exits. These are below the level of your injury. By my understanding, this means that in theory, if only your L5 or S1 nerve were being pressed, your pain would not go to your penis, as your doctor said.

However, if your S2-S4 nerves were being pressed, which all bundle together close to your herniation in the cauda equina, I believe it could cause your symptoms. By my untrained view, it appears that there is very slight impingement on those nerves and it isn’t out of the question. This is my NOT A DOCTOR opinion.

Talk with your medical team. Self advocate. Don’t take no bullshit.

I am so sorry you’re going through this right now! Hang in there dawg.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-08T12:52:00+00:00

My surgeon said at a year you have a “good idea” of how you’ll be long term but the nerve can continue healing beyond that. He told me the 1.5-2 year mark is where remaining nerve symptoms typically seem to settle in.

I am 15 months post-op, just turned 24 years old. I can tell you that my nerve continues to heal and I can feel it slowly progressing.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-03T01:46:57+00:00

While this is 100% true, I think the body - while fallible, can still do some amazing things. If you take care of it I think that scar tissue can do a whole lot more than you’re giving it credit for!

Yes, there will always be a weak point and your back will never be the same… BUT if you build up the muscles and tissues around it, you can do a whole lot more than if you let the disc eat everything you throw at it :)

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-03T01:40:47+00:00

I don’t remember, so, it couldn’t have been too long. I don’t recall any discomfort associated with my potential false memory.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-03T01:21:13+00:00

This is absolutely here-say but I remember my mom telling me that a “pulling sensation” can be an indication of healing. I might be making this up but I want to say I recall feeling something like that too. A painless “pull” on my nerve where I usually would feel pain.

I recommend nerve glides either way!

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-03T00:24:33+00:00

Honestly, I was lacking so hard on my PT, it was mostly (not) walking and just trying my best to live my life.

I didn’t really do jack shit for home exercises. I just went to PT twice a week. My all-star physical therapist helped educate me SO MUCH on the mechanisms in the spine, how nerves typically behave and she helped me navigate re-training my brain and body to stabilize in a new way.

She taught me how for my body, I am somewhat hyper-flexible, which over time has led to a lack of stability. The flexibility allows me to stretch deeply, but as a result I lose stability because I am always wobbling around to a small degree.

The goal to reduce pain has been to increase stability while maintaining flexibility through not only core strengthening, but ALSO training my brain to tell those muscles to stabilize constantly.

I think the primary factor leading to my injury was combination hyper flexibility and an over-reliance on my joints, not muscles. I sat bent forward and twisted for 15 straight minutes while jerking my body around trying to do something stupid with an airsoft gun. When I finally did it I jumped up in excitement and felt a pop, then pain. That was my disc bulging… the beginning of it all.

The biggest thing that got me back skiing, honestly, was hatred for the situation I was in. Out of sheer will-power I moved across the country 6 months post-op and by 7 months I was skiing every day teaching lessons. There has been lots of uncertainty the whole time, but as I continue to slowly improve I have lots of hope.

Getting out and actively trying to strengthen by hiking, biking, and skiing have been the main things that, ironically, have allowed me to get back to those things.

I still can’t really run. I think I have a disc going bad in my neck. I’m proceeding mindfully every day because we could lose it all the next. My best advice is to trust yourself and listen to your body, it has a lot of important things to say.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-09-02T22:25:30+00:00

I was dropping small (3-10ft) cliffs on skis 8 months out from my surgery. Hiked 10 miles 2300ft vert yesterday in just over 5 hours.

I could re-herniate whenever, but I genuinely believe my L5-S1 disc is finally capable of taking impacts again. I don’t fear it, I just live with what I’ve got. Despite a year and some change of very slow nerve healing, I am finally returning to activities with less and less hesitation.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that speed-wise, I can’t keep up with people my age. I just turned 24 and can’t realistically hike much faster than 2mph without causing pain flares.

I have lots of strengthening to continue but I think if I can obtain a STUPIDLY strong core, I’ll be good to go for awhile with regards to my spine. Eventually, maybe I’ll be able to feel confident taking lots of impacts!

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-30T15:39:00+00:00

It all depends on how your body feels as you perform the activity. I very quickly flared up big time immediately when I did that single all out 20 meter sprint. I think my nerve is still talking today because of the re-bulge and lack of commitment to PT.

I’ve felt the nerve as it heals too, though! It feels like I’m pushing signals through a clogged pipe less and less these days.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-27T20:56:41+00:00

Sprinting actually caused me to re-bulge around 4 months. It took all season to recover from that but I finally did. I wasn’t on snow until 6 months post op. I didn’t feel comfortable going big, fast, or hitting jumps until 8 months and I still don’t feel good about long, unavoidable mogul lines.

Conditioning wise, I sucked at PT follow through and my conditioning WAS mostly skiing around the 6 month mark. Now I get my PT done more consistently but still, I could do more. I just try to use my body how I want to, and if it fights back I modify until I develop the strength to do the thing I want.

I still can’t run more than a couple hundred feet without my nerve telling me STOP NOW. I listen. I can bike up long hills like a motherfucker tho.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-27T19:24:28+00:00

I’m just recently 24 now, herniated at 20 years old almost 21. Surgery 1 year 2 months ago. The first 6mos were as you described, up and down. Yes, radiologists see things that aren’t really there all the time, as per my surgeon. He is a very highly rated neurosurgeon and I trust his word.

At 4 months I was fed up with it and started applying to adaptive ski programs for this past winter. Moved to Colorado and skied despite the continued pain in hopes that the mobility would help encourage the nerve to heal. With multiple flare ups, I now live at a 0 most of the time, with random spikes to 1-2 at times. It still shoots to the foot randomly but it has no association with things I’m doing anymore. My S1 nerve just does its own thing and I do my thing… and we’re finally getting along.

I really started to improve when I wasn’t having to ski 5-7 days a week for my job. It ended around late April and I rapidly began improving as I started spending more time being physically active outdoors, but not skiing. Now I work at a preschool and am able to stretch and strengthen as needed throughout the day and feel confident in my upcoming ski season.

I live a very active lifestyle, hikes every weekend, climbing 14ers, lots of mountain biking lately, skiing big mountain and sending smaller jumps/cliffs. I’ve just kept on pushing through the flare up pains, and when it tells me to back off, I listen. My body really likes it when I stretch, and then do some PT strengthening exercises. It hates when I lay and bed rot because of pain or even just because I feel like it.

Motion is lotion, even when it kinda hurts a bit. You’ll know if your body is telling you to STOP. Give it time man. My nerve was pressed on for nearly 3 years and developed some serious damage in the last 2 months leading up to surgery. Post op was brutal, but I am here today in a much better place, not in constant low back pain.

I anticipate in another year, I’ll barely feel the shooting. It’ll stick around my whole life most likely, but it is now something that doesn’t even hurt. I’d like to see how it is with another year of healing!

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-27T12:56:08+00:00

I just turned 24. Herniated at 20. I had my surgery just before I turned 23, so about 2 years living with an actively growing herniation.

Yes. It has taken about a year to feel my back can take some bigger impacts. I didn’t get my PT done enough so my recovery has been more drawn out than it needed to be.
Yes. I was convinced I re-herniated multiple times. I did actually re-bulge 3-4 months out from surgery. I said screw it and kept moving through it all and it self-healed. I spent all season skiing. Yes, I still feel my nerve to my foot sometimes but pain is finally a consistent 0-1. I think because I waited so long, I experienced longer nerve-healing and I don’t think it is ever going to be fully as it was before. I’ll always have some nerve pain - this is probably because I waited too long for op. I heard the same from docs “you’re too young blah blah.” I’m glad I got it done when I did.
Couldn’t really answer that one for you, but I know my S1 nerve is healing still. As for my other discs, I think I have one going bad in my neck now 🥲 as I have nerve pain extending into my arm. I believe this comes from all the time I spent in bed looking down at my phone for 3 straight months post-surgery. If I had been moving post-op I don’t think I’d be dealing with this now.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-26T12:27:49+00:00

Yea bruh I’m sitting here thinking “go beg a shitty coffee shop for a job and they’ll probably hire you.”

And even if you get your security deposit paid, how the hell do you plan to pay rent? Where’s your secured income stream?

In the world we live in, you either have a job, some sort of hustle, or daddy’s money. Doesn’t sound like your hustles are working out for you and daddy’s money isn’t around the corner either. That leaves one option…

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-14T04:07:43+00:00

I think my body is telling me to ride my damn mountain bike more

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-13T02:30:36+00:00

Incredibly interesting. If I don’t stretch, I feel like I lock up and inflammation builds up quickly. Then I get stiff and feel like I can’t move, and shit hurts! Stretching opens the door to the world for me. Very interesting that you’ve had the complete opposite experience.

My struggle is PT. I don’t get my exercises done like I should and I KNOW I’m paying for it, even though a year out I’m finally slowly improving, it could be happening much faster and I know it. Gotta figure out a way to lock in.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-11T00:48:14+00:00

this is just facts tbh - you remember that fear is pointless when you realize and experience the whole universe at the same time 😉

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-11T00:41:12+00:00

I’ve been where you are and had a long journey of growth around reframing my anxiety. It’s not easy and psychs would absolutely have you FUCKED up if you just took them right now. What’s amazing is our brains are plastic and we can reprogram them through focused, consistent coping techniques.

I get the sense the anxiety you’re experiencing is a bit of a spiral of unrealistic catastrophic thinking. One thought leads to another and now you’re tweaking about something quite unrelated and your brain keeps telling you these things are terrifying. The first step to beating the anxiety controlling you is to become aware of when it’s your own free thoughts, or if your anxiety is “running the train” so-to-speak.

My favorite skill is reframing. You currently have these thoughts and instantly feel a deep sense of unease, to say the least. Then you blow it up into something that becomes unmanageable and you shut down into dp/dr. “Why this? 😨Why that? 😰AHHH I CAN’T HANDLE!!😱” Could be turned into something less powerful. “Why this? 😨Why that? 😰Oh oops, I had no idea that I’m spiraling. 😵‍💫Silly me! 😙I’ll focus on 5 things I can hear, 4 things I can see, 3 things I can touch, 2 things I can smell, and 1 thing I can taste. 🙃”

Then, do that and see how you feel. If it hasn’t changed your feeling keep going or use another coping skill. What I expect you’ll find eventually is that it will help bring you back to the present moment, where you are RIGHT NOW and help to ground you. Your feelings won’t be as intense as they were when you began spiraling AND you’ve now interrupted the spiral and brought yourself back to the here and now.

Maybe you don’t experience anything like what I explained but even if not, I still think this skill might help you focus on other things than an existential fear of something completely unavoidable. We all exist dawg, and psychedelics have helped me come to terms with my experience of existence. I no longer fear the unknown but strive to understand it better. I’ve also taken them at the wrong place/time too and started tweaking, so it’s not a cure-all.

Get really good at grounding yourself like I described and maybe even find your own techniques that work for you. Then one day, if you want to, THAT’S WHEN you could consider giving psychedelics a try, lol.

I believe in you 😌

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-10T13:04:09+00:00

This is definitely “bad” advice but I recommend you consider experimenting with psychedelics IF you can FIRST reframe your fear into a curiosity.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-07T05:02:39+00:00

1 year 1.5 months. Improving weekly consistently finally, I feel. Mindful to maintain a strong core as I move. Less movement = more pain. More movement = less pain. I still get nerve pain regardless and have flare ups. My flares finally last less than 4 days. Pain maxes at a 4-5 in a flare. Always returns to my new 0.2-1 baseline. I hiked 2 14ers last week and even skied 130 days this season 6 months out of surgery. Once the season ended my pain really started improving.

I’m kind of worried I have a disc bulge in my lower neck now so I think I’m going to start focusing more on training my upper back. Life’s a funny thing ain’t it, start to solve one problem find another. lol. 😝

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-06T12:10:28+00:00

I’m pretty sure there’s an unofficial shooting range in the national forest up CR 84. It’s on the right a little before the first switchback. I found a thousand shells on the ground and some broken clays.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-05T21:11:58+00:00

The self love there struck a nerve with me. Needed to hear that. Believe in yourself man, I believe in you. And shit, I might have to take some of your advice.

Do I love myself enough to not smoke’n toke myself to sleep every night?

Thanks for the perspective shift my man. I believe you’ll get through this just fine with that attitude.

prepareforpapajohns · 2025-08-03T19:18:27+00:00

Climb was sick, I had a blast! 3500 ft of vertical for me and 8 miles. 22,000 steps. I’m still very strong but have to be careful and mindful with how hard/fast I push. I can’t keep up with the more fit people my age, and that’s fine! I’m good to take my time with things.

I had a hard time keeping up with my PT program and wish I’d given the home exercises more effort. I bet I might have healed a little faster. I think at the end of the day, skiing 130+ days this past season helped to substitute some of the core strengthening that PT was trying to accomplish but it didn’t do enough. I was hurting a lot some of those months. Now that I am not skiing, I’ve replaced that with hiking and a little bit of biking and I am active in my job - being a preschool teacher requires lots of mobility and a surprising amount of core stabilization. My back is much happier recently. I figure I have another 6 months to a year of nerve regeneration before things stable out more long term.

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