Recovery after Microdiscectomy

Has anyone here had microdiscectomy for their herniated disc, my question is how long does it take to recover and how fast can i start working out.

I had a discectomy done on my L5/S1 disc along with a foraminotomy to open up the passages in the vertabrae that the nerve branches off into from the spinal cord ... my disc was actually ruptured, not herniated ... the surgery was the best decision of my life ... I was in constant pain from my sciatica nerve for over 9 months ... the surgery was done right as I was getting "slapfoot" where I was starting to lose use of my leg and foot ...

I awoke from surgery at 10:30 am and was walking down the hall unassisted at noon ... it took about month for the nerve pain to subside since my nerve was soooo swollen and irritated ... after 2 months, the nerve pain would come and go, but for the most part was not there and after 3 months, I had no nerve pain at all ...

After the surgery, I was told to walk as much as possible ... I was not allowed to do anything more than that for a month. After a month, I was allowed to ride a bike on smooth terain, but not for long ... more walking ... and I started to stretch. I slowly started stiff legg bends with a super correct form ... everything since then has had to be with the absolute strictest of form ... NO EXCEPTIONS!

You will find that if all your excercises are done with the strictest of form, that injury is highly unlikely at all ...

At the beginning of my third month, I started going back to the gym, but only did excercises that did not involve loading my lower back ... for instance, I would do flat bench, but would not do incline as that would increase the load on my disc ... this meant I could do leg extensions (light), but not shoulder presses ... you have to be inventive and extremely (if not overly) cautious during this time ... I also at this time started to add weight to my stiff leg bends (which made then stiff leg deads), and only small weight ... I actually started out with 5 lb dumbells in each hand ... and every day, I would increase the weight slightly ... eventually I moved up to the straight bar ... even though I could lift more, it was not my lower back I was trying to strengthen ... it was my core and the other muscles supporting my spine ...

About 6 months later I was lifting up some 70 lb dumbells for incline presses and heard a pop ... it was not a serious injury but very painful for about a month ... I tore some of the ligaments that wrap around the backbone ... I twisted and lifted instead of bending, lifting and turning my whole body after ... moral of this story ... "execute every movement in proper form"

My surgery was 12/5/02 ... now a year and a half later, my back is better than it has ever been ... I now deadlift 365 for 10 - 12 reps and squat 405 for 8 - 10 reps deep with no pain in my disc at all ... take your time and you will be fine ... good luck ...

bro you have no idea how much i appreciate your response. In your opininion do you think i will be ready to attend school in 20 days. My semester starts on Aug 30 and the surgery will be around the 10th. And next semester is going to be very tough so i dont want to attend unless i can put in 100%. so what do u recommend.

I was back at work in 2 weeks ... no lifting of course ... you wont be able to carry a lot of books, but when they say no lifting, they mean it ... putting on your shoes and wiping your ass is gonna be fun while not twisting ... you should be able to do it, but its going to be tough ... you wont be able to sit for more than 15 min ... thats what my doc told me and since sitting hurt my damn back so much, I did a lot of standing ... when standing, I had no pain from my disc ... but I was in pain for at least 3 weeks to 1 month ... and the muscle relaxers and pain meds (which you will get) tend to make it a little harder to concentrate ... that should be the hardest part for you ....