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 ?

Hello .... anyone out there ?

Hi the site was loading slow for awhile so I'm sure that affected any comments..

Was it the same dr as before? what does he say about it?

I think bulges and such can heal if given the proper care and time..

Did you get a copy of both MRI written reports?
That would be a good way to actually compare the wording.

I don't think the nerves ever get used to any aggravation..I think that is why most pain meds aren't 100% effective on direct nerve pain.
But I'm not a dr ..

Your relatively unchanged MRI findings down the road from your initial problems when you had a period of no issues only to be tailed by an exacerbation of your problems are probably the rule and not the exception. Countless cases are documented where complaints are horrific at the beginning and meager later on with no change in initial vs. interim MRI findings. As I have related countless times, MRI findings are only supportive of complaints and clinical findings. They mean little by themselves, at times, otherwise!

Sounds like you answered your own question. I've herniated discs many times, and they seem to heal in time (usually a few weeks for me), though I have a few places where there's no appreciable disc material left (bone-on-bone). My surgeon advised me from the get-go that there would be some natural adaptation/healing in the form of auto-fusing of vertebrae, and imaging shows that has happened, and is continuing to happen. Over time some things hurt less—other things hurt more.

Doc

Doc, this is not direct at you, rather just a general response.

Take two points in time one year apart. The first, you have raging back pain and leg symptoms. A year later, you have minimal or no lower back pain and no real leg symptoms. Forget everything else...diagnosis, treatment, etc. If two MRI's were done, one at each point, it is not uncommon for both to be relatively the same, showing the same root compression despite no "root" symptoms associated with the latter. Or, you may show, significant dehydration of the disc, retraction from the root or early disc height loss and beginning of marginal spurs. The point is, forget about looking at MRI's and saying, "what are my symptoms," rather use MRI's to decide "if your current symptoms are supported by your MRI findings."

I entirely agree with "Dubious" that MRI results by themselves can be somewhat meaningless when it comes to pain, in fact my initial post demonstrates this quite well - little change in MRI findings but a world apart in symptoms! - (I guess the body just gets used the changes and either stops sending false signals to the brain or the brain ignores the false information.?)

But my initial post was not intended to be about interoperating MRI results with regard to pain. I am more curious as to if the intervertabal discs ever heal and return to normal. Even with the lack of symptoms from that disc I was a little disappointed that the disc was pretty much in its flattened, bulging dehydrated mess it was in several years previous.

I guess the analogy would be that you can only put mileage on a car...you can't take it off!

Short answer - yes, but it not yet a perfected science. Stem cell injections, specifically MSC stem cells, have been shown to be capable of rehydrating the disc. Restoring disc height is still a ways away.

--disc herniations can "close up" in time, with the exuded material reabsorbed by the body.

This might result in a lessening of inflammatory or compression based symptoms--nerve roots may no longer be impinged if the material compressing it slowly recedes--but, as previously mentioned, it's hard to get the original full disc height and sponginess back.