Bed BACK and Beyond
Sharing positive stories of recovery after a herniated disc or other spinal cord injury. Join herniated disc champion CK as she has informative and encouraging conversations with other back injury survivors. From people who elected to have back surgery (microdiscectomy, laminectomy, fusion, etc) to those who used more conservative methods, plus all things in between, join our podcast, and let's talk about how life can move beyond the bed after injury. If you are dealing with the isolation and despair that often accompanies a serious back or neck injury, then you'll love being a part of these stories of hope and recovery.
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Bed BACK and Beyond
Nurse to Patient: Chelsea's Journey Through a Herniated Disc and Back Surgery Recovery
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Journey to Recovery From Herniated Disc
Speaker 1Welcome to Bed Back and Beyond , sharing positive stories of recovery from serious back or neck injury . Your host is CK , a fellow champion who draws on her own experience with herniated disc surgery . Join her as she talks with others who have overcome the physical and emotional trauma of a painful injury and discover for yourself how you can find hope and encouragement in recovery .
Speaker 2Hi Chelsea . Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Bed , back and Beyond . Before we dive into your injury , do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself ?
Speaker 3Yeah , I am 34 , almost 35 years old . I am a nurse practitioner and I live in Florida .
Speaker 2Nice , and you do book reviews on TikTok right .
Speaker 3Yes , yes , hopefully it doesn't go anywhere . I'm still holding out hope . I know I'm hoping Do you have a .
Speaker 2What favorite book do you ? Do you tend to read ? What types of book ?
Speaker 3Um , honestly , I go back and forth between like romanacy , romanacy , like fantasy romance and then thrillers . So I kind of like bounce back and forth between like fantasy romance and then thrillers . So I kind of like bounce back and forth between the two .
Speaker 2Okay , I'm currently reading the Quiet Tenant . Have you read that yet ? I have not . Okay , okay , I did see other people reviewing it on TikTok . Yeah , so far , so good . So when did you get hurt ? How did your herniated disc journey start ?
Speaker 3So March of 2024 , I had went to SeaWorld with my mom and my kids and just normal stuff , didn't even ride any rides , and I remember I was pushing the stroller like normal , but just normal stuff . And then probably three days later I noticed like an ache in my lower back and I thought that's weird , which I've had some muscle pain before obviously with being a nurse it happens but it was just like really aching . And then the next day I was like kind of having to hunch over to where it wouldn't hurt so I could walk . Then the following morning I woke up and I just took one step out of bed and it was excruciating pain going down my right leg . It wasn't even my back hurting , it was just that nerve pain from that sciatic nerve that was shooting down my right leg . I couldn't walk . I was literally bawling on the floor and my husband ended up having to leave work and come home and get me and take me to the ER . So that's kind of where we started with the journey .
Speaker 2Okay , and as a nurse practitioner , were you saying kind of where we started with the journey ? Okay , and as a nurse practitioner , were you saying this is a herniated disc .
Speaker 3I know it , or yeah , I was like something's not right and the first thing I thought of was it's got to be something like . It's not a muscle . I knew that and I was like , maybe a disc . I never had any issues with my discs or back or anything before that , so I just knew it was not a muscle and something was real wrong and I knew it was affecting my static nerve , but I didn't know exactly what it was .
Speaker 2Okay , did they take images that day in the emergency room ?
Speaker 3No . So the crazy thing was that was why I went there . I wanted , I wanted to answer like what was going on ? Um , so I went to the first ER and they gave me like a muscle relaxer and a lidocaine patch and said , well , you need an MRI , but we're not going to do that here , so you need to follow up . And I was like , okay , which this is my own fault . I don't have a primary care doctor . I'm 34 . I've had babies and never had any other issues , so I just never had one . So I thought , okay , well , now I'm going to have a long journey to just get a primary care doctor , which in Florida it's really hard to do because there's just so many people .
Speaker 3Um , so I waited like a week and then I ended up having to go back to the ER . I wasn't sleeping at all because the pain was so bad and I was . I felt like I was losing my mind . To be completely honest with you , I was like getting real dark and depressed . I couldn't sleep . I was trying NyQuil , benadryl , anything to help me sleep Melatonin . I would maybe get an hour of sleep at night and then I would just start walking because it felt a little bit better to try and walk , even though I was walking slowly . Bit better to try and walk even though I was walking slowly .
Speaker 3Um , so I went back to the ER and I told them I don't want anything for pain that's not why I'm here , even though it hurts . But I just want to know what this is . Something's not right . And the doctor sat down and looked at me and said well , I got to be completely honest with you . You need an MRI , but we're not going to do that here because you haven't lost sensation of your bowel and bladder . And basically said well , we could do a CT , but it's probably not going to show anything . It's going to waste your time and your money . So you really need to follow up with a neurosurgeon . And I thought , okay , like again I'm , I'm just getting shoved out the door .
Speaker 3Basically , yeah , so same thing . He wrote for um more like actual pain medicine , um , muscle relaxers , like anything . They were just throwing everything at me which wasn't helping . I , I didn't want that Right .
Speaker 3Um , thank God that they followed up someone along the lines of the trail at that second year visit , followed up and called me and asked how my pain was , and I was like excruciating . And he was like , well , I'm going to refer you to pain management . And I was like , ok , so lo and behold , the one like person care team , whatever that I didn't feel like I needed ended up being the one to like help me because I got to pain management , needed ended up being the one to like help me because I got to pain management . And that amazing nurse practitioner ordered an MRI for me and I told her that's all I want right now , I just want to know what's wrong with me . But she also , instead of giving me just pain medicine , um , sent in a prescription for gabapentin for me and duloxetine , which I had never been on any of those , but I had read that it helps a lot of people with that nerve pain . So she got the ball rolling with my MRI finally , yeah , that was just my same experience .
Speaker 2Well , I went to the emergency room just one time and I saw a physician assistant and he just said this sounds like a herniated disc here . They gave me a shot for pain and then three days of a steroid and said go see a back doctor . And I had to , you know , make an appointment and wait see a back doctor , who then which was like a week wait who then ordered the MRI , and that was another week wait .
Speaker 3It's fun . Yeah , it's a really big struggle , which I understand , why they can't just , you know , run an MRI on every person that comes into the ER with some back pain . But it's so hard to get across . Like you know your body and you're you know you have to fight with the providers that assume you're drug seeking and then the providers that assume it's really not that bad , cause you're not , you know scratching at the handrail , so you know it's not that bad , you're probably fine .
Speaker 3And it's amazing to me because I saw those two different ER doctors the pain management doctor and a chiropractor all within this short realm of trying to like figure out what was wrong with me . And when I finally got my MRI read back that showed a 20 millimeter herniation , the chiropractor was like , how are you walking ? Like you shouldn't even functioning right now , like they were all just so taken aback . And he did tell me , which you know said well , thankfully you didn't get the MRI that day , because you would have had emergency surgery that day and not been prepared for you know , the what to expect after right .
Speaker 2So did you try ? Did they put you in physical therapy at all ? Or they like nope this surgery ?
Speaker 3surprisingly they didn't , which I was nervous because I had already at this point waited three or four months before my surgery date , just with the normal hoops and everything . They did make me do a like epidural back injection , which I didn't want to do , but they made me do that for insurance purposes , to approve the surgery . And they said they may have to have me do physical therapy . But I think they ended up writing off my chiropractor visits because I had been going for months as like a form of physical therapy and I don't know . Somehow they ended up saying I didn't need it . And then I asked if I needed it after surgery and he said no , I was healing fine , symptoms were good , so they didn't have me do it .
Speaker 2Okay , had to cancel patients at this point Like completely no .
Speaker 3So are you still trying to work ? Surprisingly , I was still working , but it was bad . I had to lay down on the floor in between patients and I had ice packs . I had heating pads on me , I was taking my medicine , the duloxetine and gabapentin , just trying to get through because between the doctor's appointments I was having to go to and I had to leave work twice with the pain to go to those ERs .
Speaker 3I didn't want to lose all my PTO , so I'm just like try it by and miraculously I looking back at it now I don't know how I did it because that pain was so intense , but somehow I got through it , because you're a woman . Exactly .
Speaker 2So how did you ? Did you get recommended to a neurosurgeon or did you have to decide neuro versus ortho ?
Speaker 3So , yes , the day I went to that second ER visit , they like put a referral neurosurgeon on that paper for me and I actually had called them like that next day to try and get in with them . And then when the pain management place that visit came , I ended up . The neurosurgeon visit ended up getting scheduled like two weeks after the pain management visit , which worked out because then I had my MRI to take to that neurosurgeon's office .
Speaker 2Right , right
Recovery Challenges After Back Surgery
Speaker 2. So how long was it in between hurting yourself and then actually going in for surgery ?
Speaker 3I hurt myself in March . My surgery was the beginning of August .
Speaker 2Oh , wow , okay yeah .
Speaker 3Several was five months I think yeah , it was yeah , I just basically lived in a back brace with the gabapentin and the duloxetine and got through .
Speaker 2Did you find a comfortable position to sleep in ? It's always , though it's always the biggest question how do I ?
Speaker 3sleep . No , and I tried all the things . I tried the lifting your legs up , like your knees having a bent . I honestly , I slept well , quote unquote slept on the couch for a good probably month . My , my mattress was too soft and I didn't know that at the time , which , learning all the things I've learned since going through this , all the things you have to change in your life for like better back health , that was one thing . I bought a brand new mattress that was like firm and hard and that ended up being great . But now I slept on the couch for a little bit . I laid on the floor for a few nights . We have these nugget couches that are like my kids play couches . I tried those . Slept in my son's bunk bed one night . I mean , it was just any position I could try to get into was what I did to get some sleep .
Speaker 2And were you in and out of the surgery in the hospital one day , or did you have to stay the night ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it was same day surgery . I went home a few hours after waking up from anesthesia , so it was really nice .
Speaker 2No , that's great . I got stuck there . I had to stay there three nights . I had a . Yeah , my herniated disc was glued to the Dora around my spinal cord and so they tore the Dora , and so they , I think they did a blood patch . So I had to stay in the hospital flat on my back for three nights . Did you have a drain as ?
Speaker 3well , did I have a what ? I'm sorry ? Did you have a drain ? No , oh , that's good , that's good .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , and thankfully I don't have children , so I didn't have that concern .
Speaker 3On top of all of that , yeah , that was another added thing , and that's what I was most nervous about was the surgery . Like you know , it's your back , it's your spine . Anything could go wrong . Like the doctor could sneeze and there goes your mobility . Like I was just more worried about that part of it and he kept telling me you'll be out of here same day as long as nothing goes wrong , we don't have to place a drain . I kept thinking , oh my goodness , I'm going to be the one that has to end up having a drain . Like I was so worried about it . But it worked out , thankfully . And how young are your kids ? So they range in ages from 13 to one and a half .
Speaker 2Oh , my goodness yeah they're four .
Speaker 3Were you dealing with mom guilt at all ? Were you able to ? It was hard because the baby I couldn't pick her up Like . My neurosurgeon told me flat out like you're not going to be picking her up anymore , I had to stop basically doing a lot of the two little ones' care , which was really really hard . And even after the recovery he was like you know , you can't lift over 10 pounds for so many weeks and then 15 pounds , so that was really hard , like not being able to pick up my baby like that . It like killed me .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , I see that a lot on the threads just moms like , yeah , with my baby , forgive me , like this . I try to say this is just a brief moment in time . A year will pass in no time . Yeah , that's what .
Speaker 3I have myself . I'm just like she's not gonna remember it . I mean , you know it's . It's that's what I kept telling myself . I'm just like she's not gonna remember it .
Speaker 2I mean , you know it's it's me that's remember , it's not her . She won't remember that . Did you struggle emotionally at all afterwards with like the anxiety of re herniating , or do you feel like your medical background helped ?
Speaker 3protect you a little bit . It's a double edged sword . Honestly . It helps that I know some things and know what to do and what not to do , but I also know some things that also make it to where I'm nervous constantly , like I still have anxiety about reherniating and I keep telling myself if I can get to the one year post you know , post op mark that'll be even more like solid rebuilding in my back and stuff , you know , just healing but I still have that constant fear because I don't know what it was that caused my herniation and that was my biggest thing .
Speaker 3I kept asking you know everyone well , what caused this ? What ? What did I do ? And he just , basically my neurosurgeon told me it could be genetics , it could be the fact I'm five foot tall and I've had four babies and that's a lot of weight on your back . Also , working as a nurse in the hospital , you are doing a lot of patient lifting , just proper body mechanics , not drinking enough water , I mean there's so many things that could go into causing it and that's my biggest fear . I don't know what I did or what exactly caused it and I don't want that to happen again ever . So yeah , I definitely have that anxiety .
Navigating Recovery From Back Surgery
Speaker 2Have you made plans on what you're going to do as far as spine health goes , any kind of exercise programs you're looking into ?
Speaker 3So I've been . I want to get back in the gym . Big , that's my big thing . Honestly , I'm still trying to figure that out Because I'm scared to do a whole lot of anything . And you know , you read that walking and running is good for you in some senses , but then it's not good for your discs to some sense . So I'm like in the middle right now of trying to navigate what I should do , um , to just strengthen those muscles in my back and just keep remembering , you know , proper bending , lifting , all that stuff , um , but I'm still trying to figure that part out .
Speaker 2Yeah , you said you weren't required to do physical therapy after surgery , right ?
Speaker 3Wasn't . And again I'm like , oh , that might have helped some more honestly after surgery obviously . But they said I didn't need it , so I'm like , okay .
Speaker 2I found physical therapy so helpful in the realm of getting over the fear of moving again . You know they are telling you how , to teaching you how to bend and how to lift and helping you to twist again , because you know they said no twisting for six weeks but it was like three months and I'm still , you know , moving in a stiff way and physical therapy was a great emotional support , I feel like , for me .
Speaker 3How long did you do it for ?
Speaker 2The physical therapy . I think it was gosh . My surgery was 2019 . I'm trying to remember . I want to say eight weeks , but I'm not positive .
Speaker 3Okay , and do you ever still have that fear of re-herniating or you feel like a brand new person ?
Speaker 2The first year after my surgery I was an emotional wreck . It felt like PTSD and any little twinge I would just break down and sob . So like it took me six months to feel normal physically and I think it took me a year to start to recover emotionally from it . I still I do still get flare ups where if I had a really hard day at work or something , I'll have to heat my back and just relax , but the next day I'm I'm back to being pain-free , so I'm not worried about reherniating Like I was that first year after the surgery . Yeah , in fact it's other people that drive me crazy now that are like Christine , you shouldn't be doing that .
Speaker 3I'm like , I'm okay , yeah that that is so true though , like I think so many people don't understand that just how much emotionally that messes with you . Like I've had people reach out to me and you know , tell me they were like depressed and had thoughts of suicide because they were in so much pain with their back and they didn't know where to go . There was nothing that was touching it , helping , and it really is a dark place to be in and you're through that , you don't want to go back to that and I think that's where that fear comes from for a lot of people .
Speaker 2Yeah , now , how was your recovery process ? Was it pretty smooth or did you have a lot of flares during it ? Yeah , now , how was your recovery process , was it ?
Speaker 3pretty smooth or did you have a lot of flares during it ? Honestly , it's been amazing and I was really worried about that . But no , I just really stuck to what the neurosurgeon told me . As far as restrictions , every once in a while I still get my right calf will spasm and like almost like a Charlie horse and cramp up , and my right butt like spasms as well . Um , and , like you said , I think it's all dependent on what I've did that day , um , and just things like that , because the next day it's gone and it's never pain . It's just that like tightening , I can feel it like jumping almost yeah , and are you back to lifting and everything at work ?
Speaker 2are you still a little bit on restrictions ?
Speaker 3yeah , he told me life as normal . Basically , just , you know , don't do anything that wouldn't make sense to do , like his example was , don't , if you're gardening , don't be the one to pick up the bag of mulch , like let your husband do it , and things like that . So yeah , I pick up my baby now . She's like 22 , 23 pounds , so I do hold her now but I lift correctly now Like I bend down with my knees , pick her up and then stand straight up and keep her close to me , not you know , out swinging or anything with my arms with her , like that .
Speaker 2Wow , that's great . Is there anything you would like people who are currently in this situation to know ?
Speaker 3Um , honestly , just to keep advocating for yourself . Don't let anyone tell you or diminish your pain . I don't know how many times I heard when my MRI was read that , oh , I thought it was just going to be three or four millimeters . I didn't think it was anything big . I just you know your body and advocate for yourself , Like if something's not right , you have to speak up and keep trying to find , navigate a way to get an answer .
Speaker 2Basically , yeah , that's great ,
Inspiring Tales of Recovery
Speaker 2Chelsea . Thank you so much for agreeing to be on the show and share your journey with us . I'm so glad to see that you're feeling better and back to work .
Speaker 3Yeah , thank you . I appreciate it and I like hearing your story as well . It really is helpful to know someone went through this and they came out on the right side of things . So it's great , because a lot of times it's always a negative . We hear and I'm just happy to hear that you've been through this and you're doing good . Yeah , doing great .
Speaker 2If you are a listener and you have a positive story of recovery from a serious neck or back injury , head over to bedbackbeyondcom and click share your story . I would love to include your voice on the show .