Any suggestions for pain relief or healing for a herniated disc?

B

BAM

Cathlete
My bf was just diagnosed with a herniated disc. He is in excruciating pain and was prescribed pain meds and physical therapy. Is there anything that anyone has done that has helped their pain or healing? I hate seeing him suffer and believe there must be something additional he can do that could help.

Thank you!!!!

Bam
 
Been there! Ow!!! I didn't find that any painkillers really helped. Mine was in my low back, and I found heat helped the most, and laying forward across the stability ball to open it up a bit. But I guess that depends on where it is.

I hope he feels better soon!

Nan
 
Hi Nan. Thanks for the suggestion. So sorry that you experienced that pain. His is also in his lower back, L4, L5. I just spoke with him and the pain that was in his voice was heart wrenching. :( I'll let him know about laying forward on the ball. How long did it take for you to heal? Did you have any physical therapy?

Bam
 
RapidBreath said:
Hot pad helped me, don't know if it will help him
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Thank you. I'm glad the heat helped you. We have to stay somewhere overnight and I'm not sure how he's going to do. I feel for all that have experienced the same thing. It certainly is a **tch!

Bam
 
BAM said:
My bf was just diagnosed with a herniated disc. He is in excruciating pain and was prescribed pain meds and physical therapy. Is there anything that anyone has done that has helped their pain or healing? I hate seeing him suffer and believe there must be something additional he can do that could help.

Thank you!!!!

Bam
Click to expand...


I am so sorry your bf is going through this. I have been there and my pain was so unbearable that after all the pain meds and physical therapy I decided to get back surgery. Of course, surgery is not for everyone and it should be the last option after trying non-surgical alternatives. You need to remember that women seem to tolerate pain much easier than men, my pain was out of this world and I have high tolerance for pain so I can't even imagine a man going through this. Also, I don't know if this is his case, but if he is even 5 pounds overweight the pain will be much worse. Here's a link to my story. I posted it last year. http://cathe.com/forum/f95/back-pain-292311/index2.html#post2198277

I hope this helps. If he is one of those people that sometimes gets cranky and mean, remember to keep your cool and whatever he says while he is in pain don't take it personally. Pain is a brain response to an injury and if the injury is severe so is the pain and the mind gets numb. You are both lucky to have each other. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible. Take care and don't worry, these injuries are very common, there are tons of alternatives that he can try so he can find relief.
 
Hi Bam,
I have a herniated disc in my neck at C5-C6 from 10 years ago and the pain was like electric shocks and was unbearable at times so i really feel for your hubby :(. I hope he is on the appropriate medications which should include regular use of an antiiflammatory, and medication specific for nerve pain like Gabapentin for example - which can take some time for the effect to take place and usually requires titration of the dose to achieve the result; then pain killers to take for break through pain. I was actually seen by neurosurgery in the emergency room who'd recommended these meds. Has he had an MRI or any actual investigations to ensure this is an accurate diagnosis - just to be safe?
It took about 6 weeks for my pain to dissipate and probably over a year to be completely symptom free. Those 6weeks were very hard and i was waking up every 30-60 minutes having to try reposition, had trouble even brushing my teeth due to the angle of my neck to do this, and even sitting in a car was rough. The PT is important as well despite the pain. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully no surgery is needed.
Good luck
 
BAM said:
Hi Nan. Thanks for the suggestion. So sorry that you experienced that pain. His is also in his lower back, L4, L5. I just spoke with him and the pain that was in his voice was heart wrenching. :( I'll let him know about laying forward on the ball. How long did it take for you to heal? Did you have any physical therapy?

Bam
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I didn't do PT. I had to lay off the high heels for a while, though. And I hardly ever wear them now. I'm guessing he doesn't wear 5 inch heels on a regular basis, though. It took several month to go away completely, and every now it again it fusses at me. Upward dogs are bad and aggravate it, so do straight leg deadlifts unless I'm very careful. One legged doesn't. Stomach sleeping is bad for that, although I still do it. I've always been a stomach sleeper. And being careful how I sit. Mine was L5/S1. Just had to be careful and let it go away. And it HURTS.

Nan
 
Ladies, thank you SO much for your responses. I truly am sorry that each of you had to go through this horrible pain. He did have an MRI which showed the herniated disc. An interesting thing happened today. I asked my chiropractor for a recommendation for a chiropractor near my bf and they took him in right away. The guy is AMAZING! I've been to many a chiro's in my day and this one has abilities that others have only touched the surface on. He's going to see my bf 5 days in a row because they have found with such an acute condition, this seems to be the magic number where great relief is found. He already felt relief after this visit but it did start to lock up on him as the night progressed but he still felt better than he did before going. He had seen another chiro who was not doing much of anything for him. This new guy is a true healer and worked his entire body in very cool ways. He also did some work on me which opened up some locked areas that I've been dealing with for years and years. I feel very confident that he will recover soon. I just hope the pain begins to subside consistently.

Thank you again for your concerns and suggestions. My bf and I REALLY appreciate it!

Hope everyone has a pain free holiday weekend! ;)

Bam
 
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