My name is Andy and Im 24 years old. I was diagnosed 2 months ago with a central disc herniation at the l4/l5 region that was seriously compressing my theral/dural (whatever the name of it is) Sac. My symptoms started about 3 months ago with leg stiffness and spasms, twitching, and lower back stiffness and inflammation. What worries me is that I dont have much pain, just stiffness and discomfort in my legs that really bother me if I stand for a while which is what I have to do at work. The stiffness/twitching is mainly in my calf muscles and behind my knees. Sometimes is very hard to walk becuase it feels like my legs are just too tired to move and when standing for a while my legs get ridicoulously stiff and start to burn. I had to wait 2 months to see a neurosurgeon and since im an impatient person i went to chiro and started some decompression treatments of my back. My legs and back started to slowly get better and when i was almost done with my treatments the chiro recomended message therapy treatment. BAD IDEA!!!! After a few treatments my back and leg symptoms came back tenfold, worse than before!!! When i finally saw the nuerosurgeon he said to NEVER see a chiro for a herniated disc problem w/out seeing him first. Now i dont know what to do because my symptoms are worse than b4 and he wants to try epidural shots and if that doesnt help consider surgery. My ? is has anybody out there heard of simliar symptoms with a herniated disc. I always worry that I have something a lot worse (ALS or MS) causing my problems then just a disc because i dont have the typical herniated disc symptoms. If anybody could share there input i would GREATLY appreciate it. Thanks for your time!!!

Andy