The biggest irony being in the ‘massage business’ that body workers of all disciplines never ‘walk the talk’. We can give home advice to our clients until we’re blue in the face but, get any of us in a room and it’ll be a battle of the injuries – who’s got the longest list. Jane and I between us could keep many a body worker happy for years. So the latest to be added to the list of war wounds was an operation for a herniated disc.
So what is a herniated or slipped disc? Well most of you reading this will know that a herniated disc is when the pulpous found inside a vertebral disc is ‘pushed’ out through a tear in the disc’s annulus.
In around 90% the soft pulpy nucleus of the disc is gradually reabsorbed into the disc, easing pain on associated neural structures (the sciatic nerve being the main one) and a conservative approach to treatment can be made eg, unilateral or bilateral tractioning.For the other 10%, the pulpous does not reabsorb and they could being to experience loss of sensation and/or mobility, in their lower limb/s and feet. In this instance surgery is the only option. To my shock and horror I had fallen into the latter category.
I was under the firm belief that with a herniated disc, you felt a sudden sharp pain, usually when in an unsupported forward flexion position, ie lifting and twisting whilst holding something heavy. However, my sudden sharp pain happened when walking and not even briskly! No strain involved there, so I came to the conclusion that I already had a tear in the disc wall (the annulus) which had recently been disturbed by Trigger Point and Osteopathy work which I had undertaken to correct a long standing muscular problem. I was further back than square one.
The herniation was confirmed on the Thursday afternoon and I was in the clinic for the op the following morning. No waiting lists to be had in Casablanca! At least I didn’t have time to worry about it. The op went really well. On the Saturday the surgeon got me up and walking, Sunday I went home. I was amazed. I’ve been going from strength to strength ever since and have recently started my physio to re-educate the back, abs and foot. But that’s another story……
Zoë
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