Herniated discs and motorcycle riding

JonnyWyshbone

JonnyWyshbone

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Hey all,

Been off of work for approx six months trying to get better from two herniated discs in my back. Right now I've pretty much gone from "please just cut my leg off so it won't hurt no more" cryin pain, to "ok, don't move like that cuz i know it's gonna hurt like hell" pain.

Truthfully, only two things are really motivating me to get better, my wife, who I gotta say I'm truly blessed for having cuz there were times I could t even get up to use the john it was so painful moving and she had to help me get around, I always knew one of us would have to do that for the other in all likelihood, but at maybe 83, not 33! The second thing is that sexy two-wheeled beauty pent up in my garage calling to me like Frodo's friggin ring.

Has anyone ever been off work for something like this? How did you manage your pain when you went back to work? And most importantly, could you ride again?
 
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Yes...I've been where you were. I had sciatica, was bedbound for nearly a month and moving made me scream in pain. I still get the odd twinge now but it's not too bad. I ride with an airhawk cushion but I'm about to go and see if I can get my seat reupholstered to make things a little comfier. I ride a standard seated position bike but I'm thinking of getting an even more upright adventure style bike with better suspension components. Key to not getting the problem again is losing weight, strengthening the core (pilates and yoga is good for this), and stretching (gently at first).

If you still have pain and can't move get to hospital and get the best painkillers you can. Also if there's pain down your legs too that's dangerous, means the disks are pressing on your spinal cord and that shouldn't happen for too long. You need to get that sorted or things will get worse.
 
yup, i had the same problem years ago with my sciatica, lower back and left leg pain that was almost parallelizing bc it hurt so much to move. get an MRI then consider the surgery, it really helped me. i ride a SS bike and i'm fine, i still get sore but its manageable, good to have some aleeve and robaxacet on long rides
 
I went for MRI in january(after two doctors would not even refer me for one, third doc took pity on me) my L4L5 and S1 showed severe herniation with central protrusions affect both side nerves, pain has become bearable but sitting around listening to bikes pass my house in all the nice weather is killing me!! I'm dying to go for a quick boot just to shake some dust off the bike but not sure if I should risk it. I've been doin non stop exercise trying to manage pain but having range of motion issues in one of my legs and find that i cannot control inflammation pain without NSAID. I know only rest and exercise will heal me but I'm dying of boredom here and I know a nice 30 min jaunt through farm country is just what I need right now :(
 
I had two herniated discs and couldn't move for a few months. Went to see the doctor who sent me to a surgeon, apparently one of the best in Toronto, and the surgeon said it was 50/50 wether I would come out fine or come out worse. With those stellar odds I wanted to do everything I could before surgery. My cousin went for surgery on his back and said his life has not been the same since (not in a good way).

I tried a couple things but the only thing that worked was decompression. It isn't cheap but it got rid of all the pain within a few months. I needed help walking the first time I went in and I could ride there for my last few treatments. It has been a couple years now and I am fine to ride, I ride a SS and have put on 65,000km in the last 5 years pain free (other than the needing to stretch on 800+km days) with no problems.
 
Was in the same boat, 2 months but nothing improved. Went for the surgery. By the time they went in the disk had become even worse. Ended up removing a thumb sized piece of the disk. Short of it was I couldnt walk or function before, the next day I was walking around the hospital. The bad was I have arthritis in my back which makes it cranky but no were near the pain it was before. Last spring, I did a week trip of over 5000 miles, most of it along the BRP. Back held out great...Sore *** was another story. Back held out so well, that I went out and got a duc..gonna try track days and maybe soar. It seems everyone is a bit different. You'll learn your limits. You'll also learn to listen to your body more and shut down when you feel the ache coming on.
 
Glad to see some people who came back from this to get back on the saddle, stay blessed! :). You know how it is, there were times I swear by Christ I just wanted to die cuz the pain was that ridiculous, I say i would really have to think about wishing this on my worst enemy cuz it's really tempting, but I don't want no one wishing this crap on me. Anybody ever had that pain where it was so bad when it hit you actually laughed? That was a weird one for me
 
One thing that ****** me off tho, the Ortho surgeon said my two discs were severely herniated on my nerves, but because I wasn't uncontrolably crapping or pissing myself I didn't qualify for immediate surgery. I swear at the time if I wasn't in there with my wife I may have just crapped myself in his office just to spite him. At the time I was ******, as the deathly pain started to be replaced with a more "tolerable" level of pain(is there really such a thing?) I was kinda glad it went down on its own, but I feel like im using my legs for the first time alot.
 
kind of related: anyone use inversion tables? other kinds of therapy for their back?

Get better soon OP.
 
nfq said:
kind of related: anyone use inversion tables? other kinds of therapy for their back?

Get better soon OP.
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Thanks for the well wishes :)

Thats the table that flips you upside down? Some one had brought one to my house to lend to me, but both my doc and physio t. recommended against it due to how acute my injury was so I didn't mess with it. But the person who lent it to me swore by it cuz they went out and bought one. I tried acupuncture for a bit, but found it was too pricey and the effects with me personally only lasted a few hours.

Hey, does anybody with a sportbike use a cane? Any suggestions for how to carry one on the bike?

Another big question, may I have some opinions on cortisone injections, as those have been recommended to me as well
 
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I too have an herniated disc. I had an MRI done last month that confirmed it. Pain runs down my legs. I have a specialist appointment in May. For now, I'm getting physio. Pain only comes up when I stand up or walk. As for motorcycle riding, i was afraid it would hurt but it doesn't so much. It only hurts when I put my weight on my left leg. I've resorted to using my right leg for support at red lights. Massage really helps. My pain is pretty bad but only gets aggravated when I walk or stand up for extended periods.


JonnyWyshbone said:
Hey all,

Been off of work for approx six months trying to get better from two herniated discs in my back. Right now I've pretty much gone from "please just cut my leg off so it won't hurt no more" cryin pain, to "ok, don't move like that cuz i know it's gonna hurt like hell" pain.

Truthfully, only two things are really motivating me to get better, my wife, who I gotta say I'm truly blessed for having cuz there were times I could t even get up to use the john it was so painful moving and she had to help me get around, I always knew one of us would have to do that for the other in all likelihood, but at maybe 83, not 33! The second thing is that sexy two-wheeled beauty pent up in my garage calling to me like Frodo's friggin ring.

Has anyone ever been off work for something like this? How did you manage your pain when you went back to work? And most importantly, could you ride again?
Click to expand...
 
JonnyWyshbone said:
One thing that ****** me off tho, the Ortho surgeon said my two discs were severely herniated on my nerves, but because I wasn't uncontrolably crapping or pissing myself I didn't qualify for immediate surgery. I swear at the time if I wasn't in there with my wife I may have just crapped myself in his office just to spite him. At the time I was ******, as the deathly pain started to be replaced with a more "tolerable" level of pain(is there really such a thing?) I was kinda glad it went down on its own, but I feel like im using my legs for the first time alot.
Click to expand...

When you went to the specialist, was surgery the only course of action presented?
 
Pretty much, besides saying sit back and see what happens with time, surgery was the only idea put on the table. I have a bit of physio but I slowly kill that as I wait in limbo for neurosurgeon referral and ENG nerve testing to come thru.
 
I have bulging discs in my back and a a fractured vertibre.
hurts all the time for the last 4 years. got to the point last year I would fall to the ground in pain just from walking.
I have seen a few doctors and the last x rays showed the ulging discs and am waiting for the mri now. Everyone thinks this is stupid but starting about 5 weeks ago I drink a large glass of milk every morning. afte 3 weeks there where no more pain killers, after 4 I could get out of my truck and walk without holding my breath, now after 5 weeks the best thing of all.. I can sneez again. the pain was so bad befor if I went to sneez I stop half way through because of the pain. no I can do almost everything again after 4 years of pain. wurth a shot.
 
JonnyWyshbone said:
Pretty much, besides saying sit back and see what happens with time, surgery was the only idea put on the table. I have a bit of physio but I slowly kill that as I wait in limbo for neurosurgeon referral and ENG nerve testing to come thru.
Click to expand...

i injured my back from weight lifting, approx 2 years ago. L5-S1 l2-l3 l3-l4 were bulged with a few discs herniated. Had a CT & MR. MR just confirmed the herniation. I'm too young for surgery. I'm under 40. I've been on naproxen for quite some time.. helps a little. oxycodone, perks, morphine also helps.

I spoke to a lot of surgerons, radiologists, and general physicians not as a patient and they say don't expect back surgery to clear all your problems, it's a gamble. It's 50/50.

You just have to wait it out. Best piece of advice, go swimming. I am still sore but i have been getting better with swimming.

Milk will not help with the back problems. LOL

I sold the bike (2008 cbr 600 rr). It wasn't worth wasting the money on insurance for the thing to sit in my garage.

You may be f'd for life......
 
I know what you mean about the sneezing thing, there were times I sneezed and literally cried like a baby! It sucks because I take t3's and meloxicam just to feel normal, but I find t3's just make me tired all the time. I hate to say it like this, but I'm glad there's other people here who are and have gone thru this, especially riders. People who don't ride treat me like a retard cuz I want to get riding again, they just dont get what's missing. It's funny cuz I never knew how many peeps suffered from this until it happened to me. Kinda like miscarriages, you never realize how many other couples go thru it till someone hears it happened to you. You guys are making me wish I had posted this months ago, lol
 
You need better painkillers to start with. T3s don't really touch this kind of pain. If you or your wife have medical benefits you may also qualify for homecare which can help when you're imobile from pain. I had a scan done and the surgeon said the bulge from the disk had pinched off eventually and so I was OK, but for this to happen I literally had to stay in bed for a month. I know exactly how you feel...I had never felt any pain like this for anything else.

I had an inversion table but it didn't do anything for me. In fact, I'm not sure if it made my particular condition worse. I had the table before I had problems though and it did help to relax me. I got my disk problems from lifting one heavy weight the wrong way.
 
I had a herniated disc in my lower back for almost three years. The pain going down my leg was almost paralyizing. I tried everything , chiropracter, excercise etc. In the end I had surgery. All they did was cut out a portion of the disc that was putting presure on the nerve. Within 3 to 4 hours after surgery I was walking pain free again. I wish I had done it sooner. Just get a few opinions before you decide on anything. Then make sure you find a good surgeon. I can do everything now, play hockey, exercise etc.
 
I understand your pain. I've had a traumatic back injury that resulted in a sequestered disc for over 20 years now. The cycle i went through was severe burning pain which finally culminated in a completely numb left leg. I still consider the happiest day of my life was the day the pain "returned" to my leg - i figured feeling something was better than feeling nothing - even if the something was simply referred "pain". As a matter of fact, one of the recommendations i had was to attend "pain management classes" - wtf? I saw a surgeon and he said he could fix it, but the long term prognosis for me would be the same anyway - so the surgery would be simply a quick fix with the attendant scar tissue and other issues. In the end, i declined surgery and went on a rigourous regime of physio at the Canadian Back Institute (great place - not sure if its still around). It worked - but it takes a very long time - for me 18 months before I felt semi normal again.

I was off work for a total of around two months, to manage the pain i would have to get up walk around, slouching in the seat worked (looked horrible!). Sometimes i had to pull my car over on the side of the highway to and from work and flatten the seat down to "stretch" out the pain - all of this fades over time though. One thing i always thought was interesting was that day to day i never noticed any improvement and that was very frustrating, but if i took a longer term view, and thought of how i felt a month ago, or six months ago, i could see and feel improvement - its a long slow process of recovery (remember - I did not have the surgery).

As far as riding is concerned, the injury has made me consider the "type" of bike to buy. In my shopping experience i found Honda SS had the best (least painful) seating position. In the end I got a Monster, which is even more upright. Having said that, i still need to pull over every hour or hour and a half (the time to drain the tank anyway) to stretch out.

Finally, you will find that they will throw a lot of physio at you and it is good to keep it up - be patient. But after having this for so long, i have learned which physio exercises provide the most relief and which don't do anything at all - for me the best physio is torsional exercise. I'm sure it will be different for everybody due to the specifics of the injury. Nowadays, i go to the gym regularly and do the same thing every time - 1/3 cardio, 1/3 resistance, 1/3 physio. Seems to work ok for me.

So there is life after back injury - on two wheels...and btw you are doing the right thing - talk to lots of people, other patients, doctors, surgeons etc, and formulate your own plan of recovery that best fits your current situation.

Good luck and keep riding!
 
I went through the same thing with a herniated disc about 10 years ago. I tried everything chiro, acupuncture inversion table. I finally found a great physio therapist and she got me fixed up after about
4 months of treatment. My disc still gave problems once in awhile but was treatable with physio in a few sessions. 3 years ago I got prolo therapy in Ottawa. They inject a glucose solution into the ligaments that
Hold your discs in place and encourages them to strengthen which holds the discs in place. Google it to get a better explaination. Anyways it worked wonders on my back. The guys name was Dr Oulette. Best wishes on your recovery !
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