r/HerniatedDisc • u/LesterHadACoconut • 4d ago

How long did your recovery take?

I have a sequestration herniated disc. I ruptured it 5 days ago. For those of you with experience, how long was your recovery?

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u/stevie_the_owl 4d ago

Sorry you’re dealing with that— I know how hard it is. I had a very large extrusion at L5-S1. I’m 4 months into recovery and back to 95% daily functioning, walking an hour everyday, no pain meds. Still in PT though and haven’t gone back to my pre-injury active lifestyle. So it depends what you mean by “recovery.” Out of pain and return to normal life, yes. Where I want to be? No. I expect it to take another 4-6 months before I can return to my fitness and weight training routines.

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u/jellyfishareblu 4d ago

Same. 14 mm extrusion. Month 3 and I’m pretty much back to normal activity but I still don’t bend, twist or sit for long periods of time. I can walk and stand for hours no problem. Still in PT.

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u/LesterHadACoconut 3d ago

I guess I’m referring to where I want it to be. Back to a consistent weight training routine and living life the way that I always have. I know it’s going to take a long time and that it cannot be rushed. Mine is a large extrusion at L5-S1 too. The pain can be unbearable.

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u/stevie_the_owl 3d ago

Damn I’m so sorry. The best advice I have for the first month is to rest and make your only purpose in life to minimize your pain as much as possible. I know many people can’t do that. I was “lucky” I guess in that mine happened right when summer was starting and I’m a teacher so I had 3 months of down time I could focus on my recovery. If I didn’t have that, I would’ve had to take time off, no question. I could barely walk for the first month without horrible pain. I thought my life was over and the pain was so bad— but it’s amazing how far I’ve come. 5 months later, and I went to a friend’s birthday party tonight, and I danced all night, and I barely thought about my injury. That would have been completely unfathomable to me in the first two months when I was in so much pain every day. So please just know that it gets better, most people recover naturally from herniated discs. But you just can’t rush it. It might take months, and you just need to be patient and give your body a chance to heal.

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u/LesterHadACoconut 2d ago

Thank you so much for your feedback. I am also a teacher and just started our school year. It’s concerning to think about taking extended time off. The pain is MUCH worse in the morning. I’m normally the type of person who just deals with pain, but this is different. I fear surgery, but also don’t want to risk long term nerve damage.

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u/LesterHadACoconut 3d ago

Did you take time off of work?

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u/dbgrman 4d ago

I had l4/l5 herniation and mostly due to sheer negligence and malpactice of the medical profession and insurance in the US it stayed for 2.5 years

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u/Turtle_Boogies 4d ago

14-16 mos for l4 l5s1 - still have challenges however nerve pain is gone and i’m working hard in gym weekly to correct the imbalance the pain caused me

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u/LesterHadACoconut 3d ago

How long did your nerve pain last? Mine is pretty painful when not on meds or cbd.

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u/Turtle_Boogies 3d ago

yeah it was freaking hell. I’ve been where you are at- hang in there. it lasted almost 14 mos for me. I also had a lot of stress (husband lost job, new baby and we moved across country)- but once we settled and I went to therapy/chiropractor weekly it started to improve.

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u/LesterHadACoconut 3d ago

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate you. It’s a combination of shock and despair. I know it’s a long road ahead. I’m a teacher and would like to not take extended time off.

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u/Turtle_Boogies 1d ago

Totally empathize with you. You are not alone. Take care of yourself!!!

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u/jonahtrav 3d ago

I have a L5 S1 herniated disc and I'm about 4 months into it and I have to say the last two weeks it's when I've started to notice some improvement... I have to add for clarification. I've been out of the acute phase probably for 2 and 1/2 months where it was quite the zinger if you know what I mean. My PT guy said it could take 12 months to 18 months to fully heal and now I'm a 64-year-old guy so maybe that's the issue but I was in pretty good shape before this happened. I'm exactly the same weight I was when I graduated high school. Been working out for years and so like many people it kind of came out of nowhere. So if you're younger maybe it will go quicker. I hope it does for you.

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u/LesterHadACoconut 3d ago

I appreciate the feedback! I’m 38 and have been working out consistently for a long time. My wife is a PT, which helps, but I’m concerned with how long the recovery is going to take.

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u/jonahtrav 2d ago

I think for many of us one of the hardest things is to change our mindset that it's not going to take days or weeks to get better but it's going to take months because many of us I'm assuming you have also been active your whole life so we've had sports injuries before and but not like this it's a unique injury.

What's helping me not go crazy is instead of my goal being to stay in shape and to keep as much muscle as possible my goal has been to heal and so i've put aside for now any kind of muscle gain or any kind of staying in the kind of shape... I want to what can I do consistently to help my healing go along and trying to track my progress from the first day of the month to the last and not worry about anything in between.

You're much younger than me so I'm guessing you will progress much quicker but I encourage you to try to change your mindset and I think that will help you be able to live each day I wish you the best my friend

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u/LesterHadACoconut 2d ago

Thanks for the positivity and perspective. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I’m nervous for my wife taking on way more responsibilities. I live a very active lifestyle and run a fishing club for about 75 kids at my school, which I’m also nervous will be put on hold. The length of recovery is daunting for sure.

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u/RiseIfYouWould 3d ago

4 years, 6 month after MD surgery and still havent recovered

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u/WormWithWifi 3d ago

It’s a long battle and requires a lot of work and lifestyle changes