Bulging Discs in back?

[mash]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Totally agree.
first and foremost, thanks to MRI's, they can now tell 2/3's of the world has bulging discs.
A bulging disc is not a herniated disc.
A herniated disc does not necessarily cause impingement, more known as radiculopathy.

I have two full blown herniations, with impingement, at L4-L5, L5-S1.
The L4-L5 is where half the world suffers from it.
Cervical is where the other half does.

I have been like this for 23 years.
I have good years and bad ones.
Thanks to acupuncture, I have had two great years so far.

Like a great doctor and family friend once told me an I have followed.......when you find yourself in the fetal position for a month and can't move due to pain and being drugged, consider surgery. Until then, live like 2/3's of the world with pain or find an auto accident to enrich you or let my fraud opration get you.

The point about MRI's is right. If you're over 40 years old, you have a good chance of having back pain and degenerative disc disease on MRi. Whether the MRI changes are the cause of your pain is not always clear.
The indication for surgery is nerve compression with either alteration in bowel/bladder function (surgery needs to be done urgently), or nerve compression with leg pain and motor signs (muscle weakness) that doesn't respond to non-surgical treatment. Surgery will not reliably lessen your back pain but it may help your leg symptoms. If you look at patients 3-4 years post surgery they look about the same as those that haven't had surgery, the pay off is the first couple of years post surgery.
I would be careful about the comparison to Derrick Thomas. He died because he had a spinal cord injury and was totally immobilized, he had a fatal blood clot in his lung. This likely had nothing to do with who operated on him.