Micro Discectomy at 17 yrs old

Best of luck to your son ADBONO...I think often times many of the "strength coaches" at schools are really just teachers with some knowledge of weight training (hopefully).  

I had a micro discectomy at appx age 30.  Ill explain it like this....after the surgery it felt like the electricity was turned off in my back and leg (had numbness from the disc touching the nerve)....for appx a year had a ton of relief...after that the numbness came back a bit and some pain and now (im 46) its bad again....given the fact your son is young he should come out fine...make sure to see a good physical therapist and strengthen the area...best of luck to your son

adbono posted:

My son felt something wrong while doing squats with his teammates. (There is no good reason for baseball players to ever do squats.

It is unfortunate that your son was injured doing squats, but you assertion that there is no good reason for baseball players to ever do squats is incorrect. When PROPERLY LOADED and EXECUTED, squats can and should be a foundational exercise that forms part of the core of a SUPERVISED baseball strength & conditioning program.

adbono posted:

 The point of this ramble is to advise all of you to be informed about what weight lifting is going on at your son's HS and who is supervising it. Trusting HS age kids to do things right in a weight room (w/ no supervision or training) is a recipe for disaster - and my son is proof of that. 

Agree, and I hope others heed your warning and learn from your experience.

Many people focus on the "improved performance" benefit of strength & conditioning. However, just as important is the "injury prevention" benefit of strength & conditioning.  A good program should not only make you a better player, but also make you more resilient and less likely to be injured.  If your strength & conditioning program is the cause of your injuries, than that program has failed you as an athlete.

EDIT: Above all else, I wish your son a quick and successful recovery.

adbono posted:

My 2018 has experienced something very unfortunate that can be a learning opportunity for others - hopefully.  At the end of last fall his HS team went into an off-season program that involved weight lifting (on campus) with no coaching supervision and no strength coach. You can probably guess where this is going.  Mind you, this is a very large, affluent public high school with all kinds of resources. My son felt something wrong while doing squats with his teammates. (There is no good reason for baseball players to ever do squats. Leg strength can be achieved in many safer ways, but many times weight lifting is not sport specific in HS - and many coaches don't even understand the purpose behind lifting weights for baseball. All they know is "bigger & stronger is better", when the goal should be to increase quickness and flexibility.) We discovered that he had 2 bulging discs (lowest 2). He went through rehab and was able to play through 2017 HS season at about 70% of his potential - which he only told me as the season was coming to an end. New MRI last week shows that surgery is the only option. He should be able to return to play in 4 to 6 months following the procedure (assuming he wants to) and can expect to return to 100% (I am told). However he will miss this summer and fall of his senior year - all the prime recruiting time - which is a bummer as he is a very good player on a very good travel team and has a high ceiling to be recruited - at least he did. The point of this ramble is to advise all of you to be informed about what weight lifting is going on at your son's HS and who is supervising it. Trusting HS age kids to do things right in a weight room (w/ no supervision or training) is a recipe for disaster - and my son is proof of that. Also, if anyone has had firsthand experience with this procedure I would be interested to hear what you could share - either in this forum or by DM.

Sorry to hear about this and wishing your son a full and speedy recovery. 

Sorry to hear this and also hope for speedy recovery for your son.

Can you go into detail about the squatting he was doing....how much weight, how many reps, spotter/no spotter, belt/no belt etc? What was the mentality in the weight room like? (How much weight can you do vs how well you do the weight?) How about your sons physical makeup? Strong abdominals? His experience with weights up to the point of injury?

The details can helps us all learn to prevent and protect.

GMNK,  All good questions - and I'm not sure I know the answers to all of them. But I do know there was no belt & no direction given as to how much weight & number of reps, etc.  I assume his teammates acted as spotters but I don't know that to be true.  My son is a big athletic kid - 6'-2'' & 215 lbs - with strong legs.  He is not a novice weight lifter but also not sure how much he knows about proper technique. That's why a coach should supervise imo. My understanding is that the kids were sent to the weight room during 7th period to "go get bigger & stronger" while the HC did something else. My son lives with his mom so I don't see him every day - hence my influence on what he does is less than optimal.  As a former D1 baseball player, I will maintain my position that certain lifts (squats, dead lift, military press) are not good for baseball players and should be avoided - they are too high risk vs potential reward. If nothing else I think everybody should have a conversation about this with their kid.

I do have to ask why, at his age, is surgery the only option? How far are the bulges and where? I ask because we just went through this with my son. He was down from Labor day until less than a month ago. We tried all sorts of therapy and chiropractic work to no avail. An MRI was done and bulging discs found at L5 protruding 4mm. Surgery was discussed. However, when we finally got to a spine surgeon, he decided he was almost positive that the bulge was NOT associated with the pain. 

Here's the dirty little secret concerning bulging discs - a LOT of people have them and suffer no symptoms. There have been two major studies performed where MRI's were obtained for healthy subjects of varying ages. These were people who had never experienced back pain. What they found was that as the age groups increased, there were increased instances of bulging discs found in the MRI's. In fact, even in the group of people 18-28, they found over 20% had at least one bulging disc and no pain. Once you get to 60, it was somewhere around 80%.

This explains a ton of instances where people have back pain, an MRI shows a bulging disc and, yet, after a micro-discectomy, the pain remains. The reason is that the bulging disc wasn't necessarily the cause of the pain - simply a coincidence. 

Another little secret - bulging discs - especially in young people - often heal themselves with time. Basically, they can kind of suck right back in. 

With my son, after a lot of viewing video from the previous couple of years, it suddenly hit me that he had become an over-the-top pitcher somewhere around late summer last year when he used to be a high-three-quarters guy. We've done two things. We worked hard to lower his arm slot and he's undergone weekly traction sessions with his physical therapist. He's now pitching with little back pain after months of excruciating pain in his lower back. Additionally, he just had a second MRI last week. The bulge is now almost unnoticeable. It has receded. 

I don't remember if it was Dr. Andrews or Dr. Fleisig who once said that if you wanted to operate on a pitcher's shoulder, just do an MRI and you'll have your justification. His point was that athletes MRI's will always look like an explosion went off - it's just part of being an athlete.

I don't know if this is true with your son, but I'd get a second opinion before any cutting even as minor as this procedure now is. If he has hopes in baseball, just having that on his medical record could suck.

adbono posted:

GMNK,  All good questions - and I'm not sure I know the answers to all of them. But I do know there was no belt & no direction given as to how much weight & number of reps, etc.  I assume his teammates acted as spotters but I don't know that to be true.  My son is a big athletic kid - 6'-2'' & 215 lbs - with strong legs.  He is not a novice weight lifter but also not sure how much he knows about proper technique. That's why a coach should supervise imo. My understanding is that the kids were sent to the weight room during 7th period to "go get bigger & stronger" while the HC did something else. My son lives with his mom so I don't see him every day - hence my influence on what he does is less than optimal.  As a former D1 baseball player, I will maintain my position that certain lifts (squats, dead lift, military press) are not good for baseball players and should be avoided - they are too high risk vs potential reward. If nothing else I think everybody should have a conversation about this with their kid.

 

 

Last year I hired a trainer to specifically teach my son to squat properly, as well as a few other basic lifts.

That doesn't eliminate the risk of unsupervised weight lifting, particularly with other HS students around, testosterone/peer pressure taking over.  But is was something.