ippielb
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- Joined
- Mar 4, 2011
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- 1,964
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- Location
- SE Saskatchewan
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In my opinion, try to hang upside down completely. Let the table max out so your body or anything isn't touching any of the table just your ankles. the hardest part is relaxing if you're really hurting. When i get really bad its almost impossible to relax. But I distract myself I get my phone and find a really interesting YouTube video that's about 5-10 minutes long. I can feel when it starts opening up and about to pop. Gives the same sensation as your fingers. Now that I've been using the inversion table for so long, i could honestly hang upside down for ever, but its not great for you, overstretching. One other thing I try is while I'm hanging upside down i reach my arms backwards, changing my center of mass by doing that i feel stretches the backside of my lower back. Even doing a reverse push up. So if i push my body away from the table farther it really stretches which sometimes feels nice.
I had a flare up this year from mid august till mid/end of October. Couldn't barely put socks on that whole time. Specialist recommended i get another MRI, said there is something impeding on the nerve. But using the inversion table has made most of that go away. After my nerve stops freaking out and causing so much muscle guarding, running my heavy equipment actually helps my back. I'm thinking its the micro movements and constantly moving that continuously keeps the joints from seizing up. But of course, the first couple weeks is so bad, every time the nerve would trigger it would absolutely lock me up solid. Everyone's back is different, so take my advice for a grain of salt.
My back was so bad for so long before my surgery, i had a flare up from august till my surgery in the end of December. I wasn't getting more then 1-2 hours of sleep a night for that long. My right sciatic nerve was the one taking the abuse. I could move my right leg 2" forward and that was it. So walking anywhere was a chore. And the herniation got so bad i had to get my mom to drive out to the farm and take me to the hospital because i was too cheap to call an ambulance, on that 1 to 10 pain scale, well i didn't realize how high 10 could actually be. But in that incident it was a 9/10 for sure. For 8 hours straight, i was asking them to knock me out. Couldn't lay down, couldn't sit down, couldn't nothing. So i stood there on one leg hunched over a hospital bed for 5 hours, standing on one leg.
The microdiscectomy is the least invasive of the surgeries, In my opinion, you can always have the fusion done after, but you can never undo the fusion. So taking the least invasive, and life changing surgery first is definitely the way to go. The surgery is only a day surgery, i went in at 7:30 to the hospital, my surgery was at 10:00am. I was waking up at 11:30am, and by 12:00pm i was standing up and going to the bathroom by myself. The second i stood up i was absolutely amazed. I could move my right leg twice as far as i could before the surgery and it was only an hour after they finished. Don't get me wrong, it was painful after the surgery, the staples in the lower back suck. When i got back to the farm it only took 3 days of relaxing in bed before i got bored and got all dressed up in my work gear and went outside and helped feed cows. And then helping insulate our little shop. Biggest thing i found is keep moving and active, but know your limits.
I have permanent nerve damage now in my right leg. My sense of touch is not the best, my big toe is weak, the superficial touch sensation is almost gone on the top of my big toe, top of right foot, back of right calf and thigh. The longer you wait to get surgery, the more the nerves get damaged IF you're not getting results from treatments. If you feel like you're getting improvements from chiro/massage or the inversion table. And not just temporary relief. Definitely keep going that route, once they remove the herniation from that disc, you can't magically build more tissue to get it back.
There is one other option, which i did not have in Saskatchewan, but i believe there is places in Alberta that do it. Targeted Spinal Decompression therapy. They basically strap you into a table in certain ways to target the area they are trying to decompress. It's another game of consistency. You have to go for treatment and continue it for an extended period of time for your body to adapt and heal.
Sorry for the long drawn out post, but there's just so much to say about the experience and having gone through it for the last 7 years i've learnt a lot. I just wish i bought an inversion table before i had back surgery, maybe it could have prevented it.
