My brother is literally one step ahead where you are at this point. He got his first shot last week and it has had no effect. He goes back for a look at doing it again, and possibly a third time if necessary. I have seen on here where guys mention it can take up to three shots to fix the issue. I would suggest keep on it and to try to avoid surgery if possible......hope it goes well

I have been plagued with herniated discs (L2 L3- L4 L5 and sequestered disc), nerve damage etc for the past few months. Therapists who have read my MRI report have said they have expected to see me coming in using a walker. Fortunately I have little or no pain, which is good and bad, as I kept exercising (and doing damage) long after I should have stopped. Only stopped when one leg gave out and I fell over (a few times)

Initially I was convinced that I would push for discectomy or a laminectomy. Then started reading, a lot. From what I have gathered and from remarks of GP, the common findings are that after 5 years there is no essential difference between those who have the operation and those who don't (but have therapy). I have a couple more months to wait until I see a specialist (this is Canada, nothing is instant) and have a feeling that by the time I get there, therapy will have resolved the question. I have been told that elsewhere in the world (Europe for example and very definitely Britain) operations are not considered unless it's absolutely chronic.

I have tried accupuncture, no luck, and a couple of physio therapists, who have done manipulation and decompression . Be very carefull about exercises shown on the web (I fell for a few of those). Some go against recommendations and are fairly obviously one persons view. Stay away from yoga was a common warning (a lot of wrong way bending) and GPs generally don't recommend Chiropractic methods. I have to admit that "cracking" anything gives me the willies.

In the meantime my swim is improving.

Good luck.

Just a little background, I have had a discectomy/fusion of the C6/C7 about 7 years ago, and the results were fantastic. I am now in better shape than I have ever been and regret nothing about choosing to go forward with the procedure. The doctor actually found out when he was performing the surgery that the disc was ruptured and severely impinging my nerve, so I had no feeling in my left arm down to the fingertips. That said, I would highly recommend exhausting any alternatives before going into surgery, including PT. If you do go into PT, find a therapist who comes highly recommended and will give you one on one treatment. I've had one on one PT and "pass me off to an intern" PT, and the difference is night and day. The one on one treatment had me feeling better and more educated about the injury/prevention. I hope all goes well with whichever route you take!

I had this almost 6 years ago at 40 years old. I felt the disk rupture. Previously (before the rupture) I would have tingling and lots of muscle twitching after long bike rides. I had no idea what was causing it. It turns out that those symptoms were due to the disk pushing on the motor nerve supplying many of my left side upper body muscles. When the disk went, I had lots of pain for about 3 weeks. Then the pain went away. I was left with lots of left side muscle weakness. I could not do 1 pushup. It took about 1 year for the nerves to come back. My strength came back quickly but I still have a bit of a strength deficit. I will not be setting any bench press records and I have to work really hard to get 65 pushups, when prior to the injury I could achieve that with a couple of weeks of training. I can do 15-20 pullups and can still bench press 200lbs for a few reps, but 200lbs used to be more of a warm up weight. Now it is more of a max. This is after 6 years of dedicated strength training. It is what it is. I have no pain and no physical limitations other than max strength. I can run, swim, paddleboard, surf, lift weights etc. I had no physical therapy and decided against surgery after MRI and consultation with a neurosurgeon. He basically advised me that if I could live with the situation as it was presently, then there was no compelling reason to operate. I can live with it. Every situation is different though.

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Simplify, Train, Live

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I am now looking for a doctor for a second opinion. Not that my first doctor is bad, but I would prefer to get some additional input so I can make educated decisions along the way, with the first being do I get a cort injection?. I am still fully functional (I think), just super uncomfortable a lot of the time. I retired from triathlon last year because I couldn't balance family/work/school/training. At least I am not stressing about missing workouts!!!

Mike - interesting perspective. And timely considering that I went to the gym over lunch to lift for the first time in 5-6 years just to see if I had any noticeable imbalances. Used dumbbells only, and while I am a total sissy, I couldn't feel any R/L diff.

Duffy who mostly lives in the Lavender Room has had the cortisone shot recently. You may want to page him there.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

Last year I was scheduled to be injected for 4 bulging cervical discs. I had to wait about 6 weeks and in the mean time I saw a chiropractor for a problem in my hip. He also worked on my neck and in about 12 visits my problem was solved. The pain that was running down my arm is gone, my neck is loose again, strength is good in my hand s and the tingling in my hands is gone. If you can find a good chiro, it would probably be good to have them take a look at your neck before you get injected.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

My first cervical steroid injection (7 years ago) took my pain from agony to tolerable. My second one took me from tolerable to minimal. My third one got me to 0-1/10 pain score.

This lasted almost six years until I woke up one morning in agony again. Got two more injections, 10 days apart and got very close to baseline. Had another injection this January for another pain flare.

For me the injection has never been a big deal. I do it without sedation. It feels a little weird having a large needle jammed in your neck but the relief has always been worth it to me

I am getting very close to being ready to have surgery on mine. Unlike lumbar disc surgery which seems to be a prelude to a lifetime of low back problems, cervical discectomy and fusion is largely curative with minimal long-term issues. The pain recurrences are getting very trying. The only problem is I will lose 6-8 weeks of training to recovery and I am not looking forward to that part.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

Bring up an old thread, sorry. On September 25th I had my c6c7 disc replaced due to a ruptured disc and pain from my neck to left hand. It was a long term injury that ruptured 11mm impinging the spinal cord in mid August. The surgery started at 8am and I was home and in bed comfortable by 1pm. That day the pain in my left arm was gone, by Sunday the surgical pain in my neck was gone, and today I walked 5 miles. Once the stari-strips fall off, maybe Friday (7 days post surgery) I plan to get on the trainer (after my wife leaves for work) which I could have prior to the surgery due to neck shoulder and arm pain. If you are suffering neck pain or have disc issues I highly recommend disc replacement surgery. The replacement disc used on me was a Mobi-C cervical disc, they have a very nice video on their web site if you are interested you should check out. I'm completely happy I have more mobility in my neck then I have for years and there was no long term recovery that is typical of my spine surgeries. Hope this helps.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I think artificial cervical disk replacements are a fascinating alternative to traditional diskectomy and fusion. Their longevity and wear patterns have yet to be fully understood as they have not been around as long as joint replacements (like hips and knees), but for triathletes, neck range of motion is much more important than the general population. A recent prospective randomized study shows that 4 years out they are as good as the traditional surgery (fusion), and range of motion is better. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25209344.
Fusion is still an option, and a good one, and it really depends on each individual patient and surgeon to decide the best way forward.

I hope you will provide an update for us every 5 years or so! :-)

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.

What caused the rupture? Was it related to riding in the aero position?

I looked into a disk replacement about 10 years ago and opted to let it evolve before I went under the knife. I've since gotten to a point where I can manage pretty well and pain free if I take care. I have a low back problem and oddly enough, the tri bike is better for me than the road bike. I'm guessing it has to do with how the low back is loaded based on the position.

I had right sided neck pain and right shoulder pain of varying intensities for years. I thought they were two separate issues. It turned out I had a disc protrusion at C5-6 impinging on the nerve root. I had a fusion surgery with donor bone, a plate and screws Feb 2014. I was on the trainer within a week, jogging on the treadmill soon after that and swimming within two weeks. Did a half IM less than 4 mos later with no loss of fitness or race time. Did a full IM just less than 5 mos post surgery with the same result. The surgery fixed the problem. No loss of ROM. I had some burning at the top of my neck in the back for a while, but that seemed to be related to long runs and rides. Now I don't really have that problem. I'm glad I had the surgery. I'm better than I've been in years. 49 y.o. male with a dozen IM's done over the years, so I went into surgery skinny and in decent shape. Everyone is different. This is just my experience, of course.

I had a disc herniation at C4/C5, surgery to remove the disc that was shattered and have a disc 'donated' along with a plate put in. I had a number of issues and had to have a 2nd surgery. A friend of mine had the same issue but went to the spine institute, has their surgery with 0 issues. Only limitation for him was a few weeks of how much weight he could lift. He was back to his normal workouts in no time. http://www.laserspineinstitute.com. There are a few throughout the US so might be worth checking into. Good Luck!

The extreme areo position I think was the major contributing problem with my disc, however its final blow was tubing behind a boat, my last words were bet you will not be able to knock me off, I lost and my neck paid the price. I too have lower back issues, and it too feel better in the aero position. I'm only a week in but wold give a big thumbs up to disc replacement.

Thanks for sharing the study. I'll for sure share my 5 year results as I am very interested.

It's great to hear the fusion results were so good, hearing that gives me great hope of the replacement, expecialy knowing the trial results. Wishing you continued success and health.

Sounds like I'm in the same boat as I was diagnosed 3 years ago with C5-6 C6-7 impingement but it was not at the operating point, just had another MRI and it looks like I'm at the beginning of actually spinal cord damage on the permanent side so I'm off to get surgery opinions. First guy is a well respected traditional fusion surgeon and 2nd guy is a minimal invasive procedure surgeon so I'm curious as to what method the disk replacement method is. From what I read the traditional method is a 6 month recovery with the minimal being closer to half that time. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Sorr how are you doing now with your Mobi-C replacement now that it has been a little over a year since the procedure? Has it inhibited your ability to train and compete?

Everything with the neck is awesome, thanks for asking. I have more mobility than I've had in years. Besides for not being in pain and having full mobility in my neck I do not know anything happened. The aero position is more comfortable and my head position and rotation while swimming has improved, is more comfortable, and my breathing has improved. I hope I never need another procedure but if I do I'd do this one again in a heart beat. It has been nothing but positive. Norsedude contacted me about the mobi-c and had the procedure too. I think all went well with him, hope he chimes in too. If you are in the need I would not hesitate. Good luck.

Sorr-Thank you for the information. I had this same procedure recently and wanted more information on recovery both short term and long term as well as letting the information be available to others that may be facing a similar situation. My surgery was a little more involved as I had a prior fusion in 2006 at C6/C7. However, at that time there was additional damage at both the C5/6 and C4/C5 levels. Fortunately in the past 9 years the technology has evolved to allow me to have the Mobi-C devices placed in these two levels as a three level fusion would have made it hard to continue to compete and train. I am four weeks post op now and have returned to to riding the trainer and swimming. Range of motion is very good and the only residual pain to heal remains slightly at the back of my neck. It appears I should be able to resume competing in the spring.

Resurrecting this post. I'm in the c5-c6 fusion camp but my issue is stenosis, not just herniation. Lots of youth wrestling has taken it's toll :o(. You seem to be in the medical business, DrTriKat. Do you know much about disk replacement for those with stenosis? I want the most "mobile" option with minimal wear on the surrounding disks. Mobi C seems like a great option but my doc said I might not be a candidate because of the compression.

Got any thoughts on that?

Tks!

I have had two surgeries both to repair a rupture at L4-L5, in 1993 and 2003. I since have completed 2 marathons, several half marathons, numerous 5 and 10ks, and several sprint triathlons. I now have two bulging discs at L2-L3, L3-L4, a herniation at L5-S1 and painful arthritis throughout the lower spine. I retired from firefighting at 52 yo and have been advised to not run at all. I can still swim and ride on most days but my bad days really suck. The surgeries were successful in my opinion and they let me continue exercising without any restrictions far longer than I expected. Sometimes it is just degenerative in nature and it would have happened regardless of lifestyle. I don't regret my surgical decisions but it is a personal decision, one that only you can make with the advice of your MD.

I've had a herniated disc there in the past, and also had a bad one at C6/C7 a few months ago that was pinching on the nerve root and leaving my triceps muscle basically non-functioning and was recommended for surgery- I'm about your age. I ultimately turned down surgery and am recovering fine now from conservative treatment. As was stated, the long-term recovery is about the same surgery or no surgery.

What was key for me in recovering from the last one was getting the pain down (lidocaine injections, some prescription NSAID, a steroid dosepak- which I hated but was necessary, and also taking Neurontin (aka Gabapentin), and then physical therapy, and also swimming ever so little in the beginning once the pain went down to force the muscle to work again. My strength is back in my arm- still a little stiff in the neck, but surgery certainly wouldn't have fixed that! But I took the NSAID and Neurontin for at least a couple of months- the key is to get the inflammation down as that is what will let you get your life back!


And since my issues stem in part from a bit of early disc degeneration, I'm no longer doing my run training on pavement and my bike fit on my road bike is less aggressive to be kinder on my neck. Still can race long races, but I'm much more cognizant of the impacts of how and how much I train/race will have on the my neck moving forward, so I'm trying to be smarter...

I had herniated discs in my lower back, and was in absolute agony for almost 6 months: drugs didn't help, PT would help for very short periods, but ultimately there wasn't a lot of choice - I had to have surgery, since I couldn't sleep, lie down, sit or walk without enormous pain. I was lucky enough to be put in touch with Dr. Alan Villavicencio at Boulder Neurosurgical Associates, after he operated on a close friend of mine, and he gave me my life back. I literally can't say enough good things about him or his team, although I've tried in other threads on this forum and elsewhere, and every day that I'm upright I think of him thankfully.

If you want to pm me I can give you more details of my experience, but for context, I live in Canada, where there is no private care. I therefore had to pay out of pocket for my procedure. It's the best money I've ever spent: I would have paid twice as much for an outcome that was half as good. I've no idea if you're a candidate for surgery or not, but if that is the way you decide to go, I'd strongly recommend Dr. V.'s practice.