Comment by matwood | Hacker News Reader

Comment by matwood | Hacker News Reader

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This is a great attitude. You do what you can. In my younger days I felt I was indestructible. Other than a torn ACL from wake boarding, I never got hurt doing all sorts of sports from the mundane to the extreme. Even my ACL healed 100%.

Then, I herniated a disc in my lower back. I think it was from playing basketball (not really extreme heh). The pain was literally the worst thing I have ever felt. My back didn't hurt, but my leg from the hip to the foot felt like it was on fire or the skin was being pealed off. I couldn't sleep, walk, get in/out of a car, stand upright, lay flat, etc... Luckily a back injection got the inflammation and pain under control. But, my life going forward has forever changed. No more basketball. No more heavy deadlifts (I was deadlifting in the 500#s, now I stay 225# or less). No more heavy squatting. No more running (afraid of the impact). I do what I can and work from there, happy that modern medicine gave me a chance.

Similar I ruptured a lumbar disk climbing when I was 25/26. I was also squatting and deadlifting heavy at the time. I went from the strongest time of my life to the weakest where I couldn't even tie my shoes without extreme pain. That lasted about three years where I gradually got better over time.

I feel healthy now and can walk, run, have excellent mobility. No more sciatic pain, some tightness in the lumbar if I'm careless.

I don't squat or deadlift at all anymore and focus more on calisthenics (pullups, pushups). I do a lot of running and it doesn't bother me.

But for those three years, things were dark. I brooded almost every day on my injury.

I couldn’t imagine how hard 3 years must have been. I dealt with mine for about 5 weeks before I got an injection. It was slowly getting better on its own, but going for years would have been tough. I’m glad you made it through.

I do a ton of calisthenics, and thought about stopping squats and dead’s completely. The reason I didn’t is that they enforce good posture and the proper way to pick things up. They also strengthen all the muscles that will help keep me from being hurt again. With that said, I worked incredibly slowly back to where I am. From no weight to now. And, if I’m not feeling it that day, I have no problem just doing calisthenics or riding the bike. Ego be damned.

I just had surgery on my l4 and l5 herniated discs after a year of impinged nerves. Highly recommend seeing if surgery is right for you, it was life changing for me.

Thanks. Back surgery is something I consider last resort. Luck for me, a single shot got the inflammation reversed. Now I do plenty of stretching and make sure that I always bend properly, even when doing something simple like putting on my socks in the morning.

I too herniated a disc (MTB racing), which in turn created a lot of scar tissue, which in turn pressed on nerves leaving me with a bad back and leg pain and numbness/pins and needles.

In the beginning, physiotherapy got it to a stage where I was able to ride again and function normally (albeit with pain and stiffness) and painkillers helped in this phase.

After 5 or so years, I went to a doctor because the remaining pain (especially the occasional "hard pinch" of a nerve would almost take my legs out from under me) was getting to me. He advice was to me that surgery is pretty much always a worse option in cases like mine because scar tissue does eventually fade (as it does elsewhere on your body) and it probably takes a good 10 years for that to happen.

I did the injury at the end of 2010 and, it seems the doctor was spot on as in the last year or so my pain had almost entirely faded away.

Just my little piece of anecdata.

My doc said the same thing about time and scar tissue. He also mentioned movement helps things reabsorb. The injection on my spine was a way to ease the inflammation and give the body time to do it’s thing. It’s been 16 months since the original injury and my foot still tingles sometimes. The doc also said that tingling will be the last thing to go.

I’m fine with tingling forever as long as I can avoid that pain. It’s hard to describe nerve pain to people who haven’t had it. My ACL surgery was relatively painless compared to my sciatic leg pain.

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