Explaining Disc Herniation After A Work Injury

If you have a diagnosis of disc herniation after a work injury, it’s rough. The pain persists no matter what position you take. The pain persists even during the night when you’re supposed to get rejuvenated. Having pain after a work injury may lead your mind to the place where you wonder you why and how you have so much pain at all and what’s occurring deep inside your body to cause pain.

Whenever a disc herniation occurs during a work injury, the fluid inside the disc can escape and drips along the nerve root sheath. Inside the disc is a protein called glycoprotein, which is quite inflammatory, especially if you had a previous work injury to your disc.

Once the disc ruptures, the fluid in the disc eventually finds its way into the tissues. That’s when it’s possible for your body to start attacking the glycoprotein, since it’s not supposed to be there in the tissues at all. This is called an autoimmune reaction.

In fact, three weeks after that disc herniation work injury, antibodies against glycoprotein are found in the blood. Doctors sometimes use this as evidence that the work injury really did cause disc herniation. If someone with a disc herniation after a work injury is on bed rest for a long time, the disc fluid can then form adhesions on the nerves that cause long-term pain.

The bulging spinal disc can also impinge or irritate the surrounding spinal nerves, causing pain, tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness in the legs or arms.

Your Nashville chiropractor will instruct you what to do if you have a disc herniation after a work injury. Often his list will include these things to lessen your pain:

• Stay mobile. Don’t become a couch potato.
• Get regular chiropractic care.
• Use cold packs at home on your back, and aim for at least three times a day.
• Ask your chiropractor to start his best, pain-relieving methods for disc herniation caused by work injury.
• Don’t give up. You can put this part of your lie in the past but you must do your part.

If you're suffering with disc herniation, or any type of spinal pain after a work injury, pick up the phone and give Dr. Sweeney a call. He uses advanced drug-free treatments like chiropractic care and non-surgical spinal decompression to rid patients of spinal pain after a work injury. Get back to a healthier, pain-free life. Contact our Nashville, TN office today.

Reference

 Marshall, L.L., Trethewie, E.R., and Curtain, C.C. Chemical radiculitis. A clinical, physiological and immunological study. Clin Orthop Relat Res 1977 Nov-Dec; (129): 61-7.