Herniated Disc

My 16 year old DD has just been diagnosed with a herniated disc in her lower back. She has been prescribed complete rest for a week, followed by physical therapy. No softball whatsoever for 6 weeks. I've been doing a lot of research into athletes and herniated discs; I've discovered quite a few softball and baseball players who have suffered from herniated discs.

If anyone here has a story that they'd be willing to share regarding a herniated disc, I'd be very grateful to hear about it! My main concern is, of course, the probability of achieving a full recovery and an eventual return to pitching.

Regardless of what we post, please follow your Dr.'s direction. If you have any doubts, ask for a second opinion.

I've had three. The first one happened when I was jumping a car on my bicycle and looped out on the landing. My tailbone and spine got the worst of it. I was back on my feet in two weeks and feeling much better after a month.

Second was the result of a backflip out of a playground swing. I was unable to walk or move for almost a month. Lot's of pain meds. Doc's promised me I'd be fine with rest. Once it started to heal, I came back quickly.

Third one was not as painful, so I basically tried to work through it. About two weeks into it, the pain got a lot worse and I started feeling weakness and numbness in my left foot/lower leg. Continued to push through it until I fell a couple times during soccer camps. I'm sure joining a men's slow pitch team and climbing Mt. St. Helens didn't help... The pain got to be more than I could tolerate and the numbness/weakness got worse. I went in to urgent care and was immediately directed to the ER. The ER doc ran an a couple scans then told me it was out of his hands and a neurosurgeon would be coming down to talk with me. The neurosurgeon told me I'd waited too long and he could either go in right then and do his best, or wait a day until he could get his team together. I opted to wait.

I woke from surgery with NO pain, but did not get the feeling in my toes, top/outside of the foot and part of my shin. I was fitted with a spring loaded, carbon fiber brace to help my foot come up to walk. I got rid or the brace after a week and learned to walk without the dumb thing.

Three years later I have some feeling and use back, but still have difficulty on uneven surfaces, stairs, ladders, etc. I can sprint and can hold my own against my 14/15 boys soccer players, but have to wear a basic brace to make sure I don't sprain the ankle.

The lesson for me is to go to the doc when something hurts (outside the normal stuff) and listen to them.

Thanks Ken, I appreciate your story! Your experience matches what I've been reading elsewhere - waiting, or trying to work through a herniated disc almost always leads to more trouble and eventual surgery.

I am thankful that DD is surrounded by conscientious doctors, trainers and physical therapists who will be monitoring her progress. You're right - each journey is an individual one - it's just helpful to hear from others; it's nice to have a support group!

The only recommendation I can have for you is:

Be very very careful on diagnosis and rehab plans based on one set of information from one primary doctor.

Doctors are like lawyers or real estate agents. There are some that are very very good. Then there are many that are loose cannons.

Very difficult to distinguish BUT I have never gone wrong so far in personally confirming the primary doctor on the case has addressed the exact same medical cases many times in his/her past. And I mean EXACT types of cases. Like make sure they have diagnosed and treated not just the elderly with your DD's back problem BUT that they have diagnosed and treated young pitchers with your DD's back problem.

I agree with RB. Christmas Eve 2011 my back went out at work, I was simply walking to my office empty handed. The pain was so intense I couldn't get out of bed except to use the restroom, and that was a chore. A month later I had enough strength to go to the chiropractor ( I couldn't even drive myself ), her tests showed I was "out of alignment", 3 treatments a week for a month. I've had minor back problems on and off since my late 20's and the chiro always seemed to relieve it. This time it didn't.

So now I've been off work 2 months. The next month I went to a Orthopedic surgeon and he ordered an MRI. He said he didn't see anything on there that would be causing me this much discomfort. Gave me some oral steroids and muscle relaxers, sent me on my way.

Now I've been off work 4 months and still walking from one end of the house to the other is almost impossible. Scared to death, I finally went to Semmes Murphy, one of the best neurosurgeon groups in the country. The surgeon looked at my MRI and showed me exactly what was wrong. I had 2 dying discs, L4-L5, and L3 was starting to die. He said I had so much inflammation around my spine that my muscles were constantly in full spasm, that's where all my pain was from. He told me there was nothing I could do but wait it out until the discs died, and a couple of nerve blocks for the inflammation. He predicted 8 months later I'd be good enough to start PT, and a couple months after that........back to work.

The Nero was DEAD ON on his diagnosis, where the others failed. He took the time to go over every screen on my MRI CD, pointing out my problems compared to a healthy spine. After over a year off from work, I'm back full time. I'm able to do my normal activities like before the "accident", even been playing a few pick up games of ball here and there.

Between my DD's misdiagnosed cuff tear, and my back misdiagnosis, I've learned to ask for the MRI asap, and go to the best doctor available..............sometimes even more than one.

Did you have the MRI done?

Indiana, you should write to Bill Hillhouse. He has had bad problems for a very long time and can speak with a great deal of experience on pitching with it and the treatments he went through.

cg

Herniated disks are common, not just in athletes, but a pretty common muscular-skeletal injury in the general population. I would actually bet that despite the stresses of sports, the rate is no higher than the general population.

As far as treatment, its not anything to fool with, nerve injuries can be progressive and take a long time to heal, sometimes not healing at all. (if you have a peripheral never injury that heals at 1mm a month, you will be dead before it ever completely heals, so for practical matters they don't all heal completely)

Any suspected spinal injury, or stretching injury with neurological systems should be evaluated, MRI is pretty typical, but some spinal injuries are seen in CT scans and xrays, and those are often performed first. Finding out what is wrong is paramount. An MRI can show the extent of the damage and whether there is likely to be healing with just rest or if surgery is needed.

Thanks guys! Every story helps. Randy Johnson suffered a herniated disc back in 2006 when he was with the Yankees. They gave him a cortisone shot and sent him back out to pitch. Needless to say he needed surgery after the season was over. Kenzie Fowler from Arizona pitched through her sophomore season with a herniated disc. She had surgery later that fall. The High School season is going on right now; DD's initial diagnosis was enough that her season is most likely over. It was heartbreaking for her to tell her teammates, but they also knew that she had been hurting and that she was most likely seriously hurt. DD is used to being in pain- most athletes are in some sort of pain off and on. DD just thought that she was "being a wimp". Finally, after the last inning of her last game, she could barely walk. The trainer evaluated DD and told her to see a doctor. DD is under the care of an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and specifically back issues. He thinks we caught it early enough and that she will recover without surgery. We have an MRI scheduled but for now are going off of the initial diagnosis. The important thing was to get her off of the field and out of the circle. Her pain was beginning to radiate down her leg - it is about halfway down right now. Hopefully we'll know more over the next few weeks and especially after she has further diagnostic tests.

I had back problems start in my senior year of high school (graduated '94). I would periodically visit a chiropractor for an adjustment and it always helped a lot. Unfortunately, in 2005 I did something (not even sure what exactly) that caused me excruciating pain. I was out for a week where it honestly hurt to breathe normally. The chiropractor was able to relieve some of the pain, but I was "uncomfortable" for over a year before it slowly regressed to the point where I simply couldn't handle it anymore. It was not only physically painful, but it was taking a heavy toll on me mentally. Simple tasks like putting socks and shoes on in the morning became unbearable. I rarely slept. I scheduled a visit to the orthopedic surgeon. He had me do some tests and performed an MRI. I was in his office for about 3 hours total. He reviewed the MRI results and told me I needed surgery immediately. I went in the next day for an L4/L5 microdiscectomy. The surgery went off without a hitch. I felt incredible. It took about 3 1/2 months off work and some light duty rehab before I was comfortable going "full bore". The only thing I kick myself for in hindsight is that I waited way too long to go in. I'm sure surgery isn't the solution for everyone, but for me it certainly was.

UPDATE: We just got the results from the MRI (it took a long time - we had to wait for an appointment with the spinal surgeon; then he had to leave town for a family issue, then we had to reschedule, etc etc. Meanwhile we continued with PT, going off of the original diagnosis)

DD suffered from a bulging disc (not completely ruptured thank goodness) and several tiny stress fractures in the vertebrae. Now, 7 weeks after the original injury, DD is almost pain free and is doing very well. She still has some pain with her overhead throw. So far pitching has been pain free but she's limited to about 30 pitches at a time. So all good news for now - her next appointment is in December when her overhead throw and a few other clinical signs will be evaluated; but for now we're declaring success and a clear road to recovery. She completed her intensive PT and is continuing on her own to strengthen her core and overall fitness.

As an aside - seeing a 16 year old's MRI made me want to go back to being 16. Ah, for a healthy back with fat little discs! Makes me wonder how Peyton Manning can make his old-man body do what it does (and why on earth the would want to - money and the adoration of an entire state be damned!)

Also OT - DS's collarbone injury suffered a minor set-back. The two pieces became displaced, so now one piece is basically lying on top of the other piece to the tune of about 2 cm. If you or I had this sort of thing going on, we would need surgery; but, since kids are growing, healing little machines, the doctor is hopeful that the bones will calcify on their own. We go back for x-ray number three in a few weeks. DS was mostly disappointed because he was beginning to hatch a plan in which he would sneak onto the football field for a down or two during his team's playoff games. Those hopes were summarily dashed.

So all in all I can't complain - things are good and we're on the mend.