I have a hereniated disc thats pinching a nerve. Is surgery the only option?

Answer 1

Physical therapy will help, chiropractic will help, acupuncture will help. Surgery has helped a couple people, but the thing to remember is this is a permanant decision. My advice: if there is no disc rupture yet, exhaust all options before you decide on surgery, then get a second opinion, then a third.

There's someone on here who really doesn't like chiropractors, but just like any profession, there are good ones and bad ones. I won't go into the problems I have with the local PT's here. They talk about how bad it is to adjust the spine, then I see patients who are in agony because their PT said "don't go to him, I can do that for you." With any professional you see, always get a referral. Not from your GP, but from your friends! They will tell you who the good docs are in town.

Answer 2

All the suggestions above me do not recognize the part of your question reguarding your pinched nerve. And that isn't just any ol' nerve....It's the sciatic nerve and it can be the most painful thing you could ever go through in your life if you don't tend to it. I had the disc between L4/L5 herniate into my sciatic nerve 3yrs ago, after listening to alot of other people and waiting on doctors for a little over a year, I couldn't walk by the time they got me into surgery, and the pain was something I can't even describe to you.
For some reason there is still this big stigma attached to back surgery that falls back to the 70 and 80's when it was not very "civilized" (for lack of better wording). Now a discectomy is minamally evasive and to me a lifesaver!! My experiance was awesome. When I woke up from surgery, still in the recovery room I could feel that the nerve had been relieved and felt better than I had in years. I spent that night in the hospital, up and walking I might add, and went home the next afternoon. I did have some trouble due to my sciatic nerve needing to heal, but that was only about 2 wks worth. As far as my back went, It felt really good.
I needed help getting up from bed for about 5 days, and getting up and down at the toilet was a little uncomfortable for the same amount of time. But I just worked through it, I knew that if I layed around it would take even longer to heal. I was only on surgery prescribed pain medication for 14 days, the last few days of that were just in the morning.
My opinion is don't wait around to see how much damage is gonna be done to your sciatic nerve, the surgery is safe, and done thousands of times a day. I can't tell you how happy I am with mine.

By the way, I always see alot of answerers on here all fired up about chiropractors, but I gotta tell ya, I sit in Physical Therapy every week (differant problem) listening to alot of people tell their horror stories, from trusting a chiropractors that did not have their patients best intrest in mind.
I know that there are alot of good ones out there, but there are an equal amt. of bad.
Good Luck to you, I hope what ever you choose works well for you.

Answer 3

NONONO! Find a Chiropractor that is comfortable with disc herniations and does decompression treatments. Bring in your MR films and any other records including EMG. Rule of thumb: 50% improvement in 6 weeks. But if NO improvement in 2 weeks, try something different! Good luck!

Answer 4

Acupuncture could benefit and stop the pinching from the nerve. It's worth trying acupuncture to see if this can help before you have surgery.

Answer 5

No chiropractic, massage and use of an inversion table should make the symptoms minor making surgery not necessary.

Answer 6

You could try Physical Therapy and Massage.

Answer 7

I saw this reporter do a bit on TV about yoga and all of its benefits. He said he had a bulging disk and a herniated disk in his back and after 3 months the bulging disk was not bulging any more and the herniated one was imporoved.

Answer 8

You could try a pain specialist