Some Ruptured Disc Patients View Surgery as a Cure
Doctors themselves hardly ever refer to surgery as a cure for any kind of degenerative disc disease. No matter how optimistic a surgeon might be, he knows he can’t restore your back to its original condition. He also knows that surgery cannot create the kind of fitness you need to prevent further injury to your back. Yet, with some individuals, for reasons no one can pinpoint, surgery does seem to be a ‘cure’ for ruptured disc symptoms.
Take the case of a domestic appliance store-owner. She couldn’t be more pleased with the results of her laminectomy (surgery that removes the gel portion of a herniated disc as well as a small amount of bone that blocks access to this disc). Twenty years ago, as a young woman, she bent over one morning and collapsed on the floor in pain. The next day she was hospitalized.
The following day she underwent surgery for her ruptured disc symptoms. Two months later she went back to her job. Now, looking back at her rush to the operating table, she says, ‘I don’t know why people are afraid of back surgery. It literally cured me. I’m overweight, I don’t exercise, and I haven’t had a single ache or pain for twenty years.’
Is this person a rare exception? Possibly, but she’s not alone. Judging from a recent US survey data, about one in twenty ruptured disc patients makes a complete and permanent recovery from surgery, even when he or she goes back to doing the very same things that caused problems in the first place.
An artist in the US survey did almost as well as the domestic appliance retailer. ‘A laminectomy caused instant relief,’ she reported. ‘I sit and paint all day, and I have had very little pain for the past five years. I was taught specific back pain exercises but I don’t do them.’
Will lack of fitness catch up with this survey participant? Possibly not. But keep this in mind: for every one individual who resumed full activity after surgery – without making any effort at rehabilitation – there are nineteen others who were much worse off because they didn’t work hard to put their backs in good shape after their ruptured disc treatment.
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