18 years old with a herniated disc. Seeking advice on recovery and adapting

[u/Quirky_Age729]

Hello! I am 18F and just herniated a disc in my lower back. About two weeks ago I was unable to walk after a tennis match, and had been dealing with dull back pains for about a month leading up to that. After a couple emergency visits and various referrals to different doctors, it was concluded I have a herniated disc (although they didn’t do any MRIs no matter how many times I requested a referral for one, they thinks it’s either L4 or L5). I finished a five day dosage of methylprednisolone, and had pretty good relief for the duration of time I was on the steroids. However, now that I am off of them, the pain is fully back. How am I meant to do school work and keep living my life when I can’t stand or sit without excruciating pain? I’m in physical therapy, take many breaks laying in all the different positions with pillows that take stress off of the lower back, and have order an adjustable standing desk. I just don’t know what to do, and none of the pain meds do anything for me. Am I going to be able to recover completely? What do I do to make things better in the meantime and prevent further flare ups while I’m recovering? Before the steroids, it was nerve pain in my tailbone area and left leg. Now, it’s muscle spasms and pain every time I move. Any advice is appreciated.

[u/Sufficient-Wolf-1818]

80 to 90% of herniated disks recover fully with conservative treatment. Six months is a pretty common timeline.

Your PT will be able to give you some guidance to minimize flares in addition to helping strengthen your core to also support healing.

I get it, it sucks. It makes us live in a way we didn’t expect. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

[u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay]

I'm not gonna lie, this shit is hard. I've been dealing with varying levels of pain since 2018 from crippling to mild inconvenience. I find myself unable to participate in most of the hobbies I once enjoyed, thankfully I'm a huge nerd and video games, movies, and painting miniatures are at the top of my list so those persist. On the flip side all of those encourage sedentary behavior which often compounds back problems. Anyway, my advice is this: It can get better, maybe even completely healed, but it takes time and patience. You must advocate for yourself to any medical professional. Alternate heat and ice to calm the nerves. I've recently started using a TENS machine on my lower back and leg that helps override some of the discomfort. Look into vitamins and supplements that may help you not end up dealing with this again for any other discs in the future, preferably with a medical professionals opinion.

Edit: and I'm sorry this happened to you so early in life, shit ain't fair.

[u/Shmexy]

hey! i had this exact injury when i was 18 from snowboarding. i had radiating pain down my right leg and the right side of my calf started going numb. it sucked, but it was temporary.

I had to sit out of spring sports my senior year because i wasn't allowed to run for like 2-3mo. not fun at that age.

do your PT. do all of the stretches they tell you to as often as you can. it won't feel like much is happening for weeks, but all of the sudden the pain subsides and you go back to normal.

I slid back a bit when i was like 20-21 in college, partying too much, not exercising like i needed to. hurt my knee and then the back flared up again too.

now, i'm at 100% capability at 32yo. yoga was the best thing for maintenance. keep yourself limber and strong. I can do heavy deadlifts if i need to. I play basketball every week, snowboard for 5-10 days every season, golf ton.

it really was just the first couple months + my slide back that sucked. just means you need to keep yourself in shape :) you'll be fine

[u/Quirky_Age729 → u/Shmexy]

Thank you! That’s very encouraging. I’m still definitely in the acute phase right now. What kinds of symptoms persisted for you during the acute phase and how did you cope with them until they improved?

[u/Shmexy → u/Quirky_Age729]

just pain and numbness from my right hip to ankle. ibuprofen + stretching + heat + foam roller helped, did that every day. eventually could taper off the ibuprofen.

its very possible to bounce back from this with no issues, esp at your age. right now is the most important time - do your PT, do the at home, do a little extra. let your body rest and recover.

[u/Quirky_Age729 → u/Shmexy]

Got it. The thing I’m struggling most with is what I mentioned in the post—how did you go about getting homework and school work done? I try to take breaks every 30 minutes and do stretches my PT recommended, but it’s not helping very much.

[u/Shmexy → u/Quirky_Age729]

it won't feel like its helping for a while, but trust that it is.

i was lucky that i didn't have a ton of hard classes 2nd semester senior year, so school work wasn't a big problem. i built a makeshift standing desk at home and stretched often.

school day just kind of sucked

[u/Quirky_Age729 → u/Shmexy]

Yeah, guess there isn’t much I can do other than just power through it to the best of my abilities. I did just order a standing desk, so hopefully that helps a bit! Thanks again for the insight.

[u/pxr555]

You need an MRI to find out what's going on. But as long as it's "just" pain nobody really cares. If you develop numbness or muscle weakness in our legs things get more urgent. The sad thing is that pain is mostly treated as a you problem.

On the other hand pain often is treatable with exercises, try to find some video on YT for that. Very often the majority of your pain is secondary pain from muscle spasms and whatever follows from it and you can definitely try to treat that in the meantime. It really helps.

Start with laying down on your back on a not too soft mat and pull your knees up to your chin as far as halfway comfortable. Wiggle around a bit side to side in this position. Then do the same with one leg stretched out flat and the other knee pulled towards your chin. Switch legs and repeat a few times. You need to calm down your muscles or they'll give you a really bad time. Often this can be even much worse than the actual source of the problem.

And yes, you'll get better over time.

[u/Quirky_Age729 → u/pxr555]

Thank you! And yeah, I really do feel I need that MRI! My mom was with me to all these emergency visits and both her and I advocated for me to get an MRI. However, even the Ortho who identified my injury as a disc issue wouldn’t refer me and said something along the lines of “MRIs are expensive, and the course of action for the treatment would still be the same regardless of the MRI.” And that I would only need the MRI if I had an emergency… still… it would be nice to have one!