I can only recall little discussion on it but when the disk ruptures there is a chemical released that is extremely irritating to the soft tissue in the area and will really inflame the nerve root. The chemical I believe had "somthing Necrotic factor" I can't remember. Over time, the area can settle down but it seems to take a long long time. If a disk ruptures, the nucleus material is very sticky and like to attach itself to the nerve root. It can put pressure on the nerve root and sort of scar it down or impinge it. The nucleus material can sort of dry up over time, that is what I heard. So, over time that may cause a reduction in pain. Any healing of a disk laceration would probably be with scar tissue. Scar tissue does not have the flexablity that normal disk material has and is subseptable to re-injury. I don't know where I learned that. I just talked to a lot of people through the years. Weird thing about the back is that you can have radiological studies of two people that have very similar studies and one will be in pain and the other will be walking around having fun. Go figure. Surgeons are aware of this and frequently seem talk about it. I think the spine is sort of a one way ticket with injury. It may stop bothering you but that does not mean you have the same back as before you injured it. The body compensates and relearns, you adapt to new pain threshold, hard to tell what happens. My friend was a surgeon. He attributed some of the pain relief from surgery simply from destroying all the nerve tissue in the area when decorticating the bone. The whole thing is interesting but I am very tired of being on the surgical end of the stick. I hope you get better. Terry
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Originally Posted by theBadCormorant
In 2008 I ruptured the L4-L5 disc, the wording on the MRI results went something like "the disc is contacting and displacing the L4 nerve root" The pain I had was astonishing couldn't even get to my feet for a month, another 5 months before mostly pain free, and another 18 months to be back to normal (2 years in total) . A further three years with what I would describe as a fairly healthy trouble free back, then I managed to rupture another disc LS-L5. On the MRI for this they also commented on the condition of L4-L5 where they described it as contacting but not displacing the nerve as markedly as in 2008.
So after 5 years and what I had considered a complete recovery, the disc is very much in the same condition as it was when I was in total agony; All very disappointing, I had guessed it had returned to normal - I wonder if the nerve just gets used to the contact ?
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