Protruding disk

[guanajagirl]

has anyone have any experence with this? My mother has been having lots of back pain recently and had a MRI that showed a protruding disk in her lower back. If you have experence, what helped? Thanks so much for the help in advance!

[tulip]

ouch! My stepmother has disk problems, but i'm not sure of the technical term. She has had cortisone injections, which really help. Now she's started pilates (with the guidance of a physical therapist and the blessing of her doctor) and she is feeling alot better, so much so that she canceled her upcoming cortisone injection.

The doctor should know what this is and how to treat it. Or several doctors (I'm a fan of second opinions)

[guanajagirl]

Thank you! My mom is planning on seeing a specialist soon.

[Tuckervill]

It's a very complicated thing, these protruding disks. I have had two repairs of ruptured or protruding disks. It wasn't back pain that forced the surgery; it was the pain in the sciatic nerve running down my leg. The pain in my back (muscle pain and stiffness) was only the symptom of poor body mechanics, sleeping on the couch too much, weakened muscles, etc. Those poor body mechanics and weak muscles (and a couple other events) led to the ruptured disks.

I learned during time that many many people have protruding and/or ruptured disks don't even know it and have no symptoms. I would say if your mom doesn't have any nerve-related pain (shooting pain down the leg, for instance), that maybe a structured program of exercise to strengthen her core would help. But the docs would know best.

Karen

[KnottedYet]

Can you get her to a McKenzie trained spinal specialist? (Physical therapist, D.O., or D.C., M.D., whatever)

Probably half my patient load is disc-y stuff. McKenzie is very cool, much more effective than anything else I've ever used. Best of all, it's all just a repetitive motion done by the patient and completely under the patient's control. The program is incredibly simple. No ultrasound, heat, cold, e-stim, massage, laser, iontophoresis...

The movements of the body put the disc out, the movements of the body can put it back in.

(if the disc wall hasn't ruptured and spewed the disc contents through the neighborhood or caused the patient to become incontinent or paralyzed or such, in which case the primary care doc send the patient straight to a surgeon)

http://www.mckenziemdt.org/