I had gastric band to sleeve surgery, recently I had a mri if the spine and they found a couple of bulging discs there. I’ve been having pretty bad spine pain 4 the past year. I had a steroid shot to rid the pain, but it did little to nothing. The pain can be really painful, as the bulges are in the lower spine. Has anyone heard anything like this? Any thoughts?

13 hours ago, Green1 said:

I had gastric band to sleeve surgery, recently I had a mri if the spine and they found a couple of bulging discs there. I’ve been having pretty bad spine pain 4 the past year. I had a steroid shot to rid the pain, but it did little to nothing. The pain can be really painful, as the bulges are in the lower spine. Has anyone heard anything like this? Any thoughts?

Not quite the same, but I've been dealing with back pain due to spinal arthritis, guess that when I was heavier the visceral fat was covering the arthritis to the point where it wasn't being felt. Now that I've dropped a bunch, I can absolutely feel it and boy does it suck! I'm trying to get my insurance to approve some physical therapy so I can start work through the pain. Might be worth looking into for your situation as well. Proper re-alignments and targeted muscle strengthening helps out immensely.

13 hours ago, Green1 said:

I had gastric band to sleeve surgery, recently I had a mri if the spine and they found a couple of bulging discs there. I’ve been having pretty bad spine pain 4 the past year. I had a steroid shot to rid the pain, but it did little to nothing. The pain can be really painful, as the bulges are in the lower spine. Has anyone heard anything like this? Any thoughts?

Unrelated to WLS, but I have had a bulging disc at S4/S5 - It also inverted my pelvis and dropped the left side 6mm. I was walking like the hunchback of Notre Dame. The pain was horrendous. I went through months of Chiropractic therapy, followed by physical therapy and manual therapy. The end result was going to a spine specialist and getting a pain block which finally removed the pain and have had no symptoms in 9 years.

What is a pain block? and who gave it to you?

I've been diagnosed with arthritis throughout my spine(by my PCP) as well as herniated and bulging discs (by a chiropractor). I've been to physical therapy (pre MRI so they were clueless on what to do for me, swear they made it worse) and finally had an MRI done after seeing a back surgeon. Prior to seeing the report being done by the tech at the MRI office he was pointing out specific areas that looked to be issues. As soon as he got the report his story changed and apparently the tech did not see any issues so miraculously neither did the surgeon at this point. I asked how this was possible if I'm having all this pain. He said it's common in people that are overweight. There was nothing he could do to help me and to go see a physical therapist. Funny thing is, the first question from both the surgeons and the MRI receptionists was if I had been in an accident or did I have a work related injury. Not what are your issues or how can we help you.

I went to see a chiropractor about something he offered called "disc decompression therapy" and after about 30 minutes of viewing my MRI pointing out all of my issues and giving me his whole sales pitch he tells me that unfortunately no insurance covers the process so I would have to pay almost 5 grand out of pocket. This has been ongoing for the last 3 years with no results. I am hoping that this surgery and weight loss helps out in some way. It has to a point with my lower back but I still have major pain in my mid back just below my shoulder blades. Standing, reaching and leaning forward triggers it. If I'm carrying something or have weight in my back pack while on my walks it seems to prolong the amount of time before the pain kicks in. My sister suggested I go see a neurosurgeon or neurologist, I forget which but I'll find out and probably try that next.

Sorry for the LONG response @Green1 but I'm hoping that someone may have had similar issues and can share what was done to relieve them. Hopefully it will benefit anyone experiencing this.

I was referred to a place called Novant Health Spine Specialists and one of their Dr's is the one who had me go through PT, MT before the pain block was an option. I'm pretty sure they called it an epidural (yep, just like what they give birthing women). He told me that most people the pain block only lasts 6 months to a year. At this point I was a year and 6 months into the pain so I was willling to try anything (other than surgery).

After the procedure, I recall the Dr making a comment to his colleague saying that was textbook perfect. I guess my veins, or whatever lined up perfectly for the injection to take. I was literally back to "normal" in two days following that.