MRI shows herniated disc

[thetruejedi]

I recently got an MRI done to check my back as I was in a car accident a few months before I got the chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome symptoms. My MRI shows that I have hernated disc and I'm going to meet with a spinal specialist. Could this be related at all to my CPPS?

[akia]

There are a few people who believe that a lot of symptoms may be related to nerve damage. I being one of those people as well.

It could be related and it could not. But trying to find out is a step towards learning more about our disease. Let us know what happens please.

[MS]

My MRI shows that I have hernated disc and I'm going to meet with a spinal specialist. Could this be related at all to my CPPS?

What level on the spine is your herniation?

My chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome started about two weeks after a back injury (L4-5/L5-S1). I believe there is a direct correlation between the two; not just because they happened at the same time. If they are indeed just "co-ocurring," the pain from the herniation or pinched nerve certainly doesn't help CPPS!

This is a pretty good article about lumbar stabilization and pelvic floor muscles:

http://www.amta.com.au/article2.html

If you are intersted in journal articles concerning a lumbar<-->CPPS link, contact me offline --

Matt
[email protected]

[webslave]

I have read of women whose IC started following car accident-induced spinal injuries. I believe mice also show bladder inflammation after certain nerves are damaged with a viral infection ..

[thetruejedi]

I'll keep you updated as I find out more. The details are:

"prominent posterior central and inferior extrusion of the L5-S1 disc with considerable enroachment and effacement of the anterior margin of the sac. There is mild right and left protrusion of the L5-S1 dsic laterally which on the left side causes equivocal encroachment on the left exiting nerve root at the foramen. More superiorly the L1-2 through the L4-5 discs are all normal with normal apperance of the marrow signal pattern. The conus is normal".

I am going to speak to a spinal speicalist, but I don't really know too much about what the above actually means, can anyone help?

[thetruejedi]

I just wanted to note take my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and caraccident were probably about 6 months apart, however for the last three months I was working out heavily which could have argervated something.

[J Dimitrakov]

Although I cannot make a medical comment (and in this case, the diagnosis IS clinical) I think there is nothing disconcerting.

Interestingly, I was attending a conference at the NIH at the beginning of this year and listened to a talk given by Dr. Wesselmann from the Johns Hopkins University. She is a research neurologist and results from her lab show that nerve injury or damage at the level you describe which can present with low back pain and symptoms of herniated disk can actually be also referred to the pelvic area and manifest as "prostatic" or "bladder" pain even when there is nothing wrong with them.

So, excessive weightlifting appears as a plausible candidate for the classic model for inducing neuropathic experimental pain.

I'll keep you updated as I find out more. The details are:

"prominent posterior central and inferior extrusion of the L5-S1 disc with considerable enroachment and effacement of the anterior margin of the sac. There is mild right and left protrusion of the L5-S1 dsic laterally which on the left side causes equivocal encroachment on the left exiting nerve root at the foramen. More superiorly the L1-2 through the L4-5 discs are all normal with normal apperance of the marrow signal pattern. The conus is normal".

I am going to speak to a spinal speicalist, but I don't really know too much about what the above actually means, can anyone help?

[Ralph]

I'll keep you updated as I find out more. The details are:

"prominent posterior central and inferior extrusion of the L5-S1 disc with considerable enroachment and effacement of the anterior margin of the sac. There is mild right and left protrusion of the L5-S1 dsic laterally which on the left side causes equivocal encroachment on the left exiting nerve root at the foramen. More superiorly the L1-2 through the L4-5 discs are all normal with normal apperance of the marrow signal pattern. The conus is normal".

I am going to speak to a spinal speicalist, but I don't really know too much about what the above actually means, can anyone help?

Basically it means you have disc herniation at the L5-S1 level. The "sac" that is referred to, is the thecal sac in which contains CSF (cerebralspinal fluid) and the nerves which are hair- thin and "float around "in the fluid. The conus medularis is the actual end of the spinal cord and that occurs high up in the lumbar spine, about L1 level. Everything below that is thecal sac, CSF and nerves (called cauda equina for "horse hair"). No actual spinal cord. The fact that your disc herniation is central means it can affect both legs or just cause back pain. Of coarse you could also be asymptomatic at this level and the herniation is not clinically relavent. In other words, it might be important, but then again, it might not. Big help huh? That's why xray (MRI) reports go to your doctor and not to the patient directly. They always need to be correlated with the specific problem and put into perspective. Reference to the normal marrow signal means you probably don't have Leukemia, anemia or metastatic cancer to your spine...........................................but then, I could be wrong

Seriously, the thoughts on weight lifting causing spine damage and initiating CPPS/IC interests me. I strongly suspect there is an element of a post-traumatic neuropathy with this disorder, be it RSD , post-infectious, autoimmune, whatever. It's all just too weird.

[thetruejedi]

I thank you for the insight. What sort of treatments are avaiable for this, if any? I am really agaist surgey, but it seems like this might be the only possible way to me.. Currently, I don't really have the same symptoms I started out with. Now I don't have any real pain in the pelvis but my legs feel tingly sometimes like there are getting enough blood flow. I also noticed that during the winter my hands got much colder then they where used to with gloves on. Its usualy tingly on my inner thighs and calfs. Also I have frequency problems as I have to wake up at most once in the night to urine. My initail symptoms where I felt like I had to be every 10 mintues but that has passed. I always have to pee after I awake up too even though I urnited during the nite.

Also during weight lifting I noticed that when I did chest dips and pull ups, I felt a tingling senseation in my grion. What could this mean?

Thanks in advance.

[Ralph]

There's no way for me, or anyone else, to accurately answer your questions. Your doctor is the only one that can do that. I can't tell you if you need surgery for the disc. That depends on your response to conservative therapy (anti-inflmm, physical therapy, rest etc). The symptoms you have in your hands are not related to the disc herniation in your lumbar spine. The two are separate. As far as the urinary symptoms go, that's also probably not related, but I can't say 100%. The pain and other problems radiating down the legs, certainly can be disc related, but impossible say without a physical exam and complete history. You're going to have to depend on your doctor, who I hope is someone you feel you can trust.