We're not exactly sure how it happened, but it happened. In the fall of 2005, I somehow managed to develop a herniated disc in my back. However we didn't know it was a herniated disc until the summer of 2007. The pain was just kind of hit and miss at first, it came and went, but was never too bad. That was until I moved to Maryville to attend school at NWMSU. About half way through the semester my back pain became more frequent and much more severe. There were some days that I couldn't even get out of bed. Once I got to this point I went to the university clinic where they diagnosed me with sciatica. Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve is pinched. Sciatic is characterized by pain that radiates from your lumbar spine through your butt and often times down your leg, numbness, and muscle weakness. They treated me for my sciatica by giving steroid injections in my sciatic nerve. Although the steroid shots provided relief the first couple days their effects were short lived.

Shortly after I got home for the summer I began to experience tinkling in my right foot. It wasn't a week after that that I lost feeling in my right foot and leg. If anyone has ever experienced anything like that you know it's pretty scary! At that point I made an appointment with my family practitioner who scheduled me for an MRI. Once we got my MRI results back he referred me straight to an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ipsen. At my consultation with Dr. Ipsen we viewed my MRI and filled us in on that fact that I had a herniated disc, and it was among the worst he had seen, especially considering my age. (I was 19 at the time) A herniated disc occurs when a spinal disc ruptures and a portion of the spinal disc moves outside of it normal boundaries, most of the time herniated discs do not require surgery. However that wasn't the case with me, my herniated disc was causing my sciatic nerve to be pinched which in turn caused the loss of feeling in my foot and leg. He also explained that because the nerve was dying so were my muscles. Something I had not noticed prior to my appointment was the size difference between my right and left leg. My right left is my dominant leg, but was noticeably smaller than my left due to the muscles dying.

It wasn't but a couple weeks after my consultation that I was laying on the operating table having a discectomy. A discectomy is a procedure that is done to remove the portion of the spinal disc that ruptured to remove pressure on the nerve. The surgery was quick and painless, thanks to anesthesia. I woke up the next day and it was like I was a new person. I no longer had pain in my back, butt, and legs. Best of all, I had feeling back in my foot and leg.

This last Friday I went back to Ortho 4 States for a check-up. We got my x-rays back and it looks like I may be developing degenerative disc disease. Degenerative disc disease is not really a disease; in fact it just is the normal wear and tear on the spinal discs that come with age; but they're concerned about it considering my age and history. So I have physical therapy in the morning to evaluate and give me some exercises to improve my core muscles to take some of the pressure off of my back. I am also scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday so we can see just how bad the degeneration is. I guess we'll see…