L5-S1 Protruded Disk & Sciatica Pain

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OBXfisherman

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Hello,

I am hoping to get some advise here. Approx 2 years ago a protrusion and extrusion of L5-S1 due to some lifting. I was out of work for a few weeks and was seen by 2 seperate neurosurgeons one on my own and one for workers comp. I occasionally suffer what I believe is Sciatica Pain which is located in my lower left buttock down the back of my leg approx 12" below the buttock. The pain is sharp and seems to continue regardless of what position I am in. I have been taking Celebrex 200mg 1-per day as required and this does help a great deal. The pain comes and goes I will have it for a few months then it is gone then it returns for a few months.

I have since changed employers and continue to do physical labor work. I was contacted a few weeks ago by the insurance company informing me that they would like to settle the Workers Comp claim on this as I was given a 7.5 permanent partial impairment rating. Now I have not sought out any treatments for this since the time of the injury and a few weeks after. I have just lived with the pain and taken the celebrex when it got to be too much.

I was told that treatment options were injections ESI or last resort surgery. I will not go through with surgery as I have heard too many horror stories but I would not rule out injections if the pain got to be too much.

My question is how will this pain progress? I have no intention of doing this manual labor for much longer a desk job suits me just fine. Other than the Sciatica pain I have no problems. I am not a wealthy man and what the insurance company is offering could really help us out. What should I do?
 
I was diagnosed with the same condition last year at same level L5-S1. I have a pinched/inflammed nerve at that location that causes sharp/shooting pain down my right leg and painful burning sensations and tightness all the way down my foot. I've been on Voltaren on and off to keep the inflammation under control. I was suggested injections as well and as last resort surgery, but I was also referred to a really good physiotherapist. I decided to try PT first and so far I've had really good results.

My physiotherapist showed me a lot on how to make my core muscles stronger to prevent recurring injury to that site and also some really good stretches to do at night and morning to help ease the pain. But the best part is that on my every visit, he would do some deep tissue massage and relaxes the muscles in my lower back/buttock surrounding the vertebrae/nerve, and so far it has worked wonders.

So whenever my siatica flares up, I do the stretches and go see my PT 1-2 times a week until it goes away and I found that it helps tremendously. I'm lucky my health insurance covers most of my PT cost, so I can go quite often. In the long run, I will probably have to go for surgery...but so far Physiotherapy has helped me and as long as I can I will keep doing that.
 
Hi, and welcome to the group. If I were you, I would not settle anything until you get another MRI to check your spine status. Since you are having this sciatic-like pain, and since you have the one back disc, it's vital that you know whether this problem is getting worse. The thing is, no matter how much we might not want to do surgery, sometimes things progress to a point where there is no choice. That would be something like symptoms of nurabness, tingling, burning, loss of strength, all of which are usually caused by a pinched nerve. At this point, this doesn't apply to you, but you have no way of knowing what the future will bring.

You need to see a neurosurgeon or an ortho who limits his practice to the spine, and get their best take on what the future holRAB. If you let wc off the hook now, you could find yourself paying your own medical bills someday if this turns out to be an ongoing problem.

I am just giving you the worst case scenario, and I hope that it doesn't apply to you........just want you to be sure to look at all the possible options.

Best of luck.

Carol
 
hey there had same problem due to an injury and it took 5 doctors, 3 mri's, and a cat scan before the idiots found the problem they were saying i had a pulled muscle when i had a herniated disc and a crack in my vertbrae with me even though the mri's were saying l5 s1 protrusion-bulg. i would recommend seeing a fellowship trained orthopedic spinal surgeon. i went through 7 months of pt, epidural injections and finally had a fusion in march could not deal with the pain any more and also my tab for just the surgery was 250,000 so if you can get it taken care of i would do so before it gets to bad now they think i have permant nerve damage cause it was pinched so long. so if someone is gonna pay for it i would get it fixed. as for the injections that was the easyist thing ive been through they will knock you out when you wake up your sitting in a recliner nice and high no pain from the injection the surgery i would not reccomend to anyone as i have been going through hell since i woke up in the hospital. the nerve pain in my experiance gets worse the longer it is pinched.
 
I will say a prayer for you. I had my first back surgery 20 years ago. I will try to give you some positive feedback. Put off the surgery for as long as possible. For the past 5 years I have had constant sciatica. I cannot walk one block. Surgery complicated my situation and I wish I had never had my first. Now I have problems with the scar tissue on the sciatic nerve and they cannot do anything about scar tissue except remove it and then more will grow back. Try everything that you can and do not give up. Deep tissue massage helps me. Do not settle with the insurance company unless you have tried everything. I was given a buy out. Guess what..no money in the world is worth it. I do not know what state you live in this would answer how much time you have to answer the insurance company. Good luck to you
 
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