waveoff5500 0 #1 February 15, 2011 so after four months of being in pain, lower back and radiating leg pain, and weeks of physical therapy, its come time to meet with the spine doc to schedule a microdiscectomy. hopefully this will relieve my pain and let me return to all the physical activities i love, including my newest, skydiving. but my main question is, have any of you gone through this and how favorable were the results. i.e. how long did it take to recover (im 21 and otherwise in great health) and have you had any recurrences. also how did it affect your jumping? this all started from a bmx bike injury which had me hospitalized (four broken ribs, blown up disk, bruised kidneys, liver and sternum and concussion to rival the worst. all my other injuries have healed but the disk problem has stuck with me and continued to get worse. hopefully this will be the end of the road for back pain, atleast for now and i find myself looking forward to the surgery in hopes that it will vanquish my pain. also are there any things i should mention to the dr in order to get the best treatment with relation to returning to activities. thanks guys! wish me luck!"its just a normal day at the dropzone until its not" 1653 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mwabd1 0 #2 February 16, 2011 I had a double in January 2010, the doc told me not to jump for 4 weeks and I waited 6, no issues what so ever. I had a premature deployment this summer that tore all of the muscles and cartalage in my ribs but it did not hurt my back.......so far so good. I had debilitating syatic pain down my right leg up to the day of my surgery. For the first week after it was a bit worse due to swelling but 2 weeks after surgery all of the pain was gone and has been gone for the last year. I have noticed that it is easier to get sore muscles in my lower back now and I am very carfull lifting. Alot of people told me not to get the surgery and that things would get worse but I had great results and would do it again with out a doubt. Of course your milege may vary! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ridestrong 1 #3 February 16, 2011 mwabd1's story is pretty common and represents most of our patients as well. The one thing I would tell you is that if you have a lot of back pain in addition to the leg pain or if you are found to have 'instability' at the same level as the disc herniation your surgeon may recommend a fusion. I would definitely avoid a fusion if you can and if it is recommended to you, you should get a second opinion. Although ultimately it may be the necessary surgery in your case. Microdiscectomies are a relatively minimally invasive procedure where just the portion of herniated disc is 'shaved off'. Like mwabd1 said, recovery should be short, 4-6 weeks, but you will be back doing all your daily activities on day 1. It's typically done as an 'outpatient' surgery. I'm a PA in spine surgery and I've done hundreds of microdiscectomies, and like I've told others here, I'm happy to help in any way I can. Have you had an MRI yet? Good luck... feel free to PM me. -Josh*I am not afraid of dying... I am afraid of missing life.* ----Disclaimer: I don't know shit about skydiving.---- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
waveoff5500 0 #4 February 16, 2011 hey josh, i pm'd you but yeah a lot of people keep telling me oh avoid surgery at all costs and ive listened so far, done a ton of physical therapy etc no sports no nothing and i just cant put up with it any longer. but im glad to hear yours has worked out well and hopefully mine will do the same! thanks guys! adam"its just a normal day at the dropzone until its not" 1653 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
