Any one out there ever had success recovering from lower back injuries? Just had an MRI and it shows a herniated disc @L4-L5, disc bulge @ L3-L4,and central disc bulge @L5-S1. PT folks seem to think they can work with me and overcome this. I am going to Kona in Oct and don’t want to be watching from the roadside. Has anyone out there had luck overcoming anything similar to race an IM in 7 months. Starting to get a little concerned.
Working on it right here. Disc herniation, L4-L5, not too severe. My pain is localized to my lower back…more of a tightness/soreness. Right now I’m working with a PT to strengthen core abominal and low back muscles, while doing lots of press-ups (push ups, but keep your pelvis on the floor). He seems to think it’ll heal itself eventually, but it will take work…especially since I’m still riding almost every day, which aggravates it. 7 months seems like plenty of time, though it will depend on the extent of your herniations and your body. There’s also the chiropractic route…I started to take that direction but soon realized I couldn’t afford to visit him 3x/week ($20/visit) for 3-4 months…with no guarantees of my recovery in that period of time. Good luck.
Andy
Yeah, i pulled some stuff in my back, but never got an MRI b/c the doc just thought it would heal on its own thus there was no reason to get it. Anyway, I found that yoga and other core strengthening exercises helped out a lot.
I am experiencing pain in glute(lower left) and calf/achilles area from the nerve being irritated. I had taken a full weekoff (2 weeks ago) from any training and have been going to PT, but this past week have been getting worse even though the 30min easy trainer rides make it feel better while riding. I guess more time off is whats in store in order for things to improve. Have been going to chiro also and that has helped. Just need to work on the mental training now. Good luck with you also. Thanks.
Some experience here. Years of lower back; glute; and radiating pain culminated with total herniation of disk L4/L5 one day while running. The pain was almost perfect pain–like expresso is to coffee. Physical Therapy was not an option. Had a laminectomy (sp?) at Walter Reed as soon as the aero-MEDEVAC jet came around to shlep me down there. After one month on the couch resting I started running in the pool with an aqua jogger. Four months later (five months after surgery) I did St Anthony’s and finished top 10 clydesdale. Since then (ten years ago now) I’ve done about 3-5 TRIs a year including IMF in 2001; one marathon a year; and enough massed tactical combat equipment parachute jumps to earn my senior paratrooper wings. Still have occasional pain but it’s localized. I keep dixie cups of ice in the frigde and get ice massages from my wife some evenings; got an inversion table that I use to stretch my back out after PT each morning and long bikes and runs in the afternoon. Still able to live live on my terms–albeit with a little pain at times. So speaking only as a case study of one I’d say there’s plenty of hope for you–Good luck in Kona
I had a vertical crack in (if I recall correctly) L5 from a fall I took. Bad news. No permanent spinal cord injury but 10 days of paralysis and a lot of lingering problems- some to this day.
I have had problems with my legs and feet going numb, falling asleep and a lot of digestive problems possibly related to the paralysis. I made a very good recovery but it was unpleasant. To this day my back is my primary limiting physical factor.
You can come back, but you have to do the work and never take “no” for an answer. Stubborness and determination are your best ally. A rowing machine helps too… 
Trifreak…good luck, but dont worry 
I’m 18…way too young for back problems…
I went full time pretty much on my birthday…
After 2 months of good hard training in Oz…I developed Sciatic pain in by buttock, progressing down my right leg. It became painful to sit, to get up and down and in and out of a car. Coach/Phsyio prescribed Piriformis syndrome and after week of intensive physio, it started to go away…he wanted me to keep training, so I took anti-inflamms b4 training, slowly the pain came back…six weeks later, I had a massive list in my back and I couldnt walk.
Not only that, I had constant pain in the nerve, I coudlnt sleep or move without heavy pain killers and sleeping pills.
Dads a doctor, not keen on me having surgery so young, neither was the coach. Travel insurers payed for physio and chiro 3 times a week for 2 months.
This did nothing.
I managed to get an appointment with a v good ortho surgeon. Had MRI and CT scans, confirmed a nasty case of pro-lapsed disc at l4/5. He pointed out that piriformis synd prob dosnet exist.
micro-disectomy 2 weeks later…for the first time in 3 months I felt no pain in my leg. I went backpacking 5 days after surgery (mainly to stop myself from training…I can be a bit obsessive)
Within 2 weeks I was in the pool, after a 3.5 months off. I was biking at 3 weeks. Running, I probably could have earlier, but didnt bother till 6 weeks - its not worth the risk.
The surgeons/physio prescribe no training for about 4-6 weeks, you might feel major pain etc. I found because I was very fit before the problem I was very quick to recover.
I havent really gone into detail here, but if you’d like some help, email - I was v scared when it happened, doctors told me id never compete again - I’m 18 for f**** sake!
7 months…go see an Ortho surgeon right now. If id done that right away, I would have had surgery within weeks and been back in 2 months total - instead, its April, and I’v had 2 weeks of training!
Swift
Andy, be careful with the press ups. I have been suffering with this problem on and off for about 7 years and just recently got the MRI to identify a bulging disk. I had a PT that had me do press ups in the spring of 2002. It worked until just before IM Moo 2003. I began PT in November 2003 with a guy who was absolutely against the press up and thinks they did more harm than good. So now I haven’t trained much since November and am looking at surgery to trim the bulging disk. IM Moo 2004 isn’t looking good. You may want to question your PT about the press up pinching the disk and causing “hinging” in your low back.
HI,
I crushed a vertibrae years ago (age 22, in a skiing accident) I was always injured (freestyle skiing!) and as it was the end of the season, I just let it heal on it’s own. It wasn’t diagnosed until about 15 years later as the cause of the back pain and breathing problems I was having. several discs are also damaged. Bugger.
Anyway, i suffered horribly on the bike in tris, leading to even worse runs. In IMNZ’98 I even got off the bike and lay flat on the road for 5-10 minutes trying to get the pain in my back to go away and for the feeling to retrun to my legs. After 90 minutes of walking the marathon I was finally able to jog it in to the finish. IMNZ 2000 was not much better but I didn’t have to get off the bike.
I’ve found that with a real tri bike (Cervelo P2K) and an AWESOME bike fit from Tony O’Hagan here in Auckland, that IMNZ 2004 recently was an amazing transformation. I enjoyed the bike for the first time ever and ran (well jogged/shuffled) nearly all the marathon, for a PB by almost 20 min! I thoroughly enjoyed theday and suffered no back problems at all.
While others will certainly recommend, doctors, physio, weights, yoga etc, I will suggest the best bike fit you can get, to reduce the impact that you back has on your day. Get the right bike and go for a fit, work on it till it works. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
TriDork
… I have only one suggestion that will make the biggest difference between success and failure.
Stop training until the healing process is complete (not one day before). Unfortunately, the healing process will almost always take at least twice as long you think it should take. It’s when you “think” your healed but in actuallity your still injured, that most treatments begin to fail. This problem is typically caused by the false sense of pain free feelings created by anti-inflamatories.
Inflamatories can be both a curse and a blessing… depending upon how you use them. If you use them WITH rest and recovery… they will work. When you use them as a way to of avoiding loss of fitness", then recovery will fail and/or take longer (if not create permanent damage).
Good Luck… BTW, I realize suggesting that an excessive compulsives stop being active is the most difficult part of recovery… but, it is the most crucial. I know because I have been typically described as being excessively compulsive.
FWIW Joe Moya
Thanks to everyone for their posts. I have several appointments lined up this week to get some opinions on my situation. NSAIDS are out since I am allergic to them (Asthma) and all I get are different answers from 3 different Docs on weather or not Celebrex is safe (their web site does not reccomend it if you have asthma. Frustration is setting in but it helps to hear from you guys to know that everyone has their struggles and how they work thru them. I’ll keep you posted. Thank You>
my fiancee who was one of the top pro ironman women back in 2000 was diagnosed with herniated disk…she had the first surgery to trim the disk…it worked great for about 6 months, and then one day on a long ride she once again had problems and the total pain came back and she lost all power in her legs…a year later and she went for her second surgery and it’s now been 2 months since the surgery…she’s doing fine, but I’m trying to hold her back more this year to avoid coming back too soon…my recommendation is do not try and come back too quick…you will regret it. She is also riding a softride and we are crossing our fingers that this will be one of the answers.
I also had herniated discs. Befor attempting surgery, I got a series of epidural injections. They were like a magic bullet. You might want to discuss this option with your doctor.
yeah we tried the epidural injections…they did absolutely nothing…it depends on the person as far as I’ve been told
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Interesting. Can you elaborate further on how this might be damaging? How did they do you more harm?My herniation is central and dorsal (for the lack of the more proper scientific term). In other words, it’s squeezing out the “back”…towards the cord. So, as it was explained to me by my PT, correcting my posture to be more upright and proper while sitting is going to aid in that disc slipping back in…as well as daily press-ups. Right now my pain is easily bearable, and it doesn’t hinder my training. Thanks for your input.
Andy
I have the bulging L5-S1 disk as does much of the population over 40…
According to the Mayo Clinic,
http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?objectID=0000C8FB-D0CA-1B77-962480AEBC2F006D&page=1
" most adults — as many as eight or nine in 10 — experience low-back pain at some point. A herniated disk, however, doesn’t always cause this pain. Disk herniation is often the result of a gradual, aging-related, degenerative process. These changes are part of the aging process and often occur without pain. Because of the natural course of disk degeneration, one-third of all adults age 20 and older show signs of disk abnormality. But only a small number of these people experience discomfort. The portion of the disk that herniates tends to shrink over time, and many cases show partial or complete shrinkage after six months to a year. About 90 percent of herniated lumbar disks get better without surgery."
I found all this was quite reassuring during my episode of severe back pain… I could swim and bike without pain, in fact both of these actually helped the pain. Only running caused severe problems. My PT gave me a large range of exercises, and recommended both Pilates and yoga as maintenance in the long term. I had about four months off running, with weekly PT sessions and massage. I now have only mild pain, very little as long as I keep up with the core exercises and stretching. Also I found it odd that during a week’s holiday in Mexico, I had absolutely no pain, despite not doing the exercises/stretching at all… Next winter I plan to start yoga classes, to see if that helps.
Short version: yes it is probable that you’ll be fully recovered by Kona. But obey your PT…
My back problems started AFTER a wrapped up a 20+ year career of top level running and triathlon competition and training in 1998. During all of that time I never had any back problems. However, for the past 4 years the pain in my lower back has kept escalating with the odd accute attack that would send me to bed for a day or two. It was recently confirmed via MRI that I indeed have a L4-L5 heriniated disc out to the back left side. Makes sense as my pain is generally on the left side. So far no other problems elsewhere - but the back pain has become my constant companion. I have been told that I am not a candidate for surgery, yet. I have also been told that the situation may spontaneously resolve itself. Physio/chiro treatment does nothing really.
I mainly stay active now for fun and fitness. A modest amount of physical activity seems to help my back. I have cycled up to 3 hours with no problems other than some residual stiffness and sorness. I have not run much for about a year. Stretching and Pilates also helps and when it get’s really bad a resort to NSAIDS or Tylenol. The king thing is making sure that I DO NOT do the things that bring on an accute attack - lifting heavy objects, standing for extended periods of time, and so on.
It’s a frustrating injury because no matter what I do, it does not go away. However, as I said, I hung up my competitive aspirations a few years ago. My concern now is if it’s this bad now at age 43, what will it be like in 5, 10, 15 years. With me it’s more of a long term life-style issue.
I hear you on that end, I am in construction(pipefitter) so the years of the heavy work are catching up. I have just moved to the office end so I can get that off my back(literally). I am in the 40-45 age group now and I will have to work at my limitations. Still keeping my head up. Probably be watching a lot of movies in the next few weeks. Oh well, thanks for the encouragement.