We don’t tend to see images like this in Biology classes at school.  If you have a spinal problem, unfortunately you may have seen an MRI of your spine.

This one is interesting because it is the MRI of the person who supplied us with our Accu-SPINA, that’s the machine we use for IDD Therapy.

Steve is happy for us to share.  As he says, it’s the ultimate irony that the guy dealing with the technology to help people with disc problems, should suffer with a herniated disc himself!

Steve would describe himself as a heathy and reasonably fit middle aged male.  When he injured his back, at first it was diagnosed as a sprain which is quite common.

However, symptoms in his right leg developed.  The dreaded sciatica or nerve pain.  In Steve’s case it was his L3L4 disc.  In the image you can see the red circle.

The discs in our spine are sandwiched between the vertebrae to act as shock absorbers.  L refers to lumbar spine (lower back) and each vertebra (bone) has a number.  The disc separating the vertebrae is given the number of the vertebrae surrounding it.

At the clinic we tend to see the discs at the bottom of the spine, the L5S1 and L4L5 are the most common.

In the photo, the image on the left shows Steve’s spine.  For reference, imagine Steve is facing to the left.

Discs are spherical, on the image they look like rectangles.  In the disc above the red circle, the wall of the disc is normal.  In Steve’s case the centre of the L3L4 disc has pushed through the wall, a herniation.

Now, at a given time any of use may have a bulging or herniated disc.  It only usually becomes a problem when nerves are involved.

The image on the right is taken as a slice.  We can see the disc, the white triangle is the spinal cord.  And nerves exit the spinal cord through the spaces shown.  However, in Steve’s case, we can see the disc has completely taken up that space.

This will cause compression on the nerves, as well as an irritation.  The result as Steve discovered in his case was excruciating pain.

He described lying on the floor in tears.  Pain in his hip, thigh and inside of his knee.  The pain in his thigh feeling like a red hot poker had been stuck and twisted in his leg.

Like many patients we see in pain, he couldn’t sleep which left him exhausted, he couldn’t stand for long and going to the toilet was a real problem.  And he had to train people in using IDD Therapy.

Initially he tried manual therapy and the standard treatments, but it wasn’t touching the pain.  So he started IDD Therapy at a provider near him.

Steve says “I am used to talking about how patients can benefit from IDD Therapy.  I have seen them, I used to own a clinic where we helped patients every day, but I guess I only truly ‘got it’, when IDD started to help me.”

He’s now out of pain. He has some numbness in his knee which can take a while to fully resolve, but he is at work and installing IDD machines.

This is quite a severe disc herniation.  The usual treatment would likely have been to try an injection, lots of pain meds and if not resolving surgery would be a consideration.  He underwent a programme of IDD Therapy.

Here at the clinic we are passionate about IDD Therapy.  We use it for people like Steve, younger and older.

Click this link to find more details. We hope you don’t have a problem like this, but if you do, we’re here to help.

(Steve has shared his scan with us and has consented for us to use it).