Diving with a Bad Back

[rick00001967]

no one can know your physical condition except you and your dr.

short term....dont dive. dont take a chance at making a bad situation worse.

long term....you may have to learn to manage the pain.

i have suffered from a bad back for 40 years. and i made it worse by slipping a disc in the gym a bunch of years ago.

but life goes on. sometimes mine is pretty bad. sometimes it is no trouble at all. but thats me.

moving forward i would be more concerned about diving on the meds. really shallow shore dives might be ok. (check with a doc that knows what they are talking about - most gp's dont know anything about diving) but def nothing deeper. hopefully the meds are temporary.

 

[cfberry]

I have been down the back road from disc to lumbar injections to surgery. My advice (not a doc) would be to do nothing that strains it until you are well into PT recovery and feel good. If you make it worse now the road is potentially ugly.

DONT make things worse and put out diving for your entire future!

 

[34109411]

Just got the bad news of a slipped disc between L1 and L2 after an MRI last week. I’m managing the pain down my right side with gabapentin. Doc says no lifting over 20 lb for next 2-3 months.

I just got a new dry suit and my dive buddy was going to take me on some learning shore dives in shallow water in the next few weeks.

Do you think it’s feasible that if my buddy is willing to help me get my kit to the shore, get it rigged up, inflate the wing and float it to me in chest deep water that I could don it? And then dive safely without hurting myself?

Or do I just need to curb my enthusiasm and heal up a bit more?

i have a very bad back and knees. for my back i use a lumbar support belt. i also do shore diving. i bring all my gear next to the entry point and i usually gear up in the water. Actually once in the water diving is one of the most relaxing thing for my back. At the end i take out bcd and remove tank after.

 

[jameseg]

I would hold off until you're better. I tried to dive a month or two after herniating a disc about 5 years ago and found the motion of diving (kicking, arching my back slightly without thinking about it) made things much worse. I had to call the dive after 20 minutes.

 

[Litefoot]

I would hold off until you're better. I tried to dive a month or two after herniating a disc about 5 years ago and found the motion of diving (kicking, arching my back slightly without thinking about it) made things much worse. I had to call the dive after 20 minutes.

Thanks for that. So what did you do to recover from your herniated disc. I’m scheduled for a lumbar epidural steroid shot in a week. I’d rather use some type of stretching or other exercise to help rather than more drugs in my body.

 

[jameseg]

Thanks for that. So what did you do to recover from your herniated disc. I’m scheduled for a lumbar epidural steroid shot in a week. I’d rather use some type of stretching or other exercise to help rather than more drugs in my body.

I originally injured it in 2015 and it was bad...required surgery. In 2019 I reinjured it at a trampoline park (in hindsight, a total idiot move on my part, but it felt so good for so long after the surgery that I thought I was in the clear). This injury wasn't as bad and I tried all sorts of things...prednisone, cortisone shots, PT, cupping, needling...etc. None of it worked or proved effective long-term. I finally signed up for a strengthening program offered by a local Minneapolis company called Physicians Neck and Back (now part of Tria). They used specialized equipment to isolate the various back muscles and built them up through roughly twice-a-week sessions. After about 9 weeks I finished the program and my PT guy showed me how to replicate the exercises on a hyperextension bench (Roman chair). I bought one for my house and have been doing the 6-minute exercise routine twice a week ever since. Other than little tweaks here and there I've been good ever since. Back to diving as of November 2022. Truly life-changing and highly recommended if you can find a similar program near you.

 

[flymolo]

just wait...

Do PT, work on strengthing and mobility. Having a goal in mind (resuming diving) will help motivate you

 

[Tim Clark Diving]

Besides possibly hurting yourself by adding additional strain to your back, you also need to think about what if something goes wrong and you need to rescue someone else. Can you help your buddy if they need it?

 

[Litefoot]

I originally injured it in 2015 and it was bad...required surgery. In 2019 I reinjured it at a trampoline park (in hindsight, a total idiot move on my part, but it felt so good for so long after the surgery that I thought I was in the clear). This injury wasn't as bad and I tried all sorts of things...prednisone, cortisone shots, PT, cupping, needling...etc. None of it worked or proved effective long-term. I finally signed up for a strengthening program offered by a local Minneapolis company called Physicians Neck and Back (now part of Tria). They used specialized equipment to isolate the various back muscles and built them up through roughly twice-a-week sessions. After about 9 weeks I finished the program and my PT guy showed me how to replicate the exercises on a hyperextension bench (Roman chair). I bought one for my house and have been doing the 6-minute exercise routine twice a week ever since. Other than little tweaks here and there I've been good ever since. Back to diving as of November 2022. Truly life-changing and highly recommended if you can find a similar program near you.

I really believe that regularly and safely decompressing my spine along with the strength exercises you refer to and rest are keys to my healing. I’d love to hear more about your exercises if you wouldn’t mind communicating in a DM.

 

[-JD-]

When I had my L3-L4 disk rupture, I could only be COMPLETELY horizontal. After a week (Xray, MRI) I was finally able to get in with a surgeon who took one look at my MRI, walked out, and came back a few minutes later saying that he had already cleared and coordinated my injections across the hall immediately.

After the first round, I was able to carefully sit again and resume eating. After the second I was mostly able to resume basic activities and start PT. In the end, a laminectomy was the only thing able to fully resolve the nerve impingement.


My next round of herneations were resolved with just the injections and time.

They can work to get you over the hump.