My Three Months of Hell With a Disc Herniation
…And the Relapses Since Then

This was unquestionably one of the side effects of being floxed…the antibiotic poisoning. It became recognized as a side effect in the late 2000’s, after I’d already suffered the consequences.

Long story short: I was lying down to sleep late at night and had caught a cold/flu, which doesn’t happen often for me. There were others sleeping nearby, and I didn’t want my cough to wake them.

I had an uncontrollable cough, one of those miserable conditions most of us (I think) have experienced where we can’t control our coughing.

So I was stifling the cough, as we often do.

Nothing unusual…

…but something “popped” in the process, and the next day, I could barely move, let along get up from off the floor (I sleep on the floor, have since the early 2000’s, which is actually, normally, great for my back; a carpeted floor).

And there began three months of a living hell.

I could whine about having had already been through enough with the floxing, but I’ll refrain from both doing that, and expressing a mild…or not-so-mild…hatred of the medical community for contributing to it.

I could barely get myself upright. Walking was almost impossible but do-able. The pain circumvented my entire lower back and hip area as muscles tried to compensate, and as I desperately tried to “pull up” my spine to relieve the pressure, and as the nerves shot fun sciatica down my right leg.

With time I was able to manage the pain well enough to get around very slowly. Getting up from sleeping and getting in and out of my car was absolute torture every day. Sometimes I could barely manage it.

I knew a respected chiropractor in my area and went to see him. This was before an MRI, and he assessed the problem perfectly.

And then asked if I’d be willing to be put on display for his class so students could see the joys of L5-S1 disc hernations, and I (kinda reluctantly) agreed.

I stayed on the bed he had me on and a few moments later a dozen young people came in as he explained what a pathetic case I was.

I then had to push myself up sideways from the bed, as I do when getting up each morning, and let out a few embarrassing little shrieks that may’ve sounded like a teenage girl at a One-Direction concert…except my shrieks were from the agony of defeat and not the joy of boy-band lust.

I briefly caught the look in the eyes of a couple of the students and they looked genuinely frightened. I don’t know if they were frightened of me in general (it happens) or of the effect of seeing an older man contorting himself in strange ways just to get comfortable.

Obviously a chiropractic adjustment was not applicable to this situation, and he told me to go get an MRI, which I did, and I still own to this day (I think I was supposed to return it, but never did).

It showed a pretty massive L5-S1 herniation.

I then went to at least two different surgeons over the next three months expecting that I’d need surgery. The pain was not going away.

…But as had been my new lifestyle at this point, I was determined to see if there WAS a way I could fix this on my own.

So I tried lots of stuff. I won’t go into the list, no point.

Finally tried systemic enzymes. I was going on my research with the idea of “well, this IS a form of “inflammation”…let me TREAT it as such, as see if I can find something alternative and as healthy as possible to bring down my inflammatory response.

Landed on the systemic enzyme approach.

Used therapeutic sized dosages suggested on the bottle, along with a lot of water and on an empty stomach…and three days later dramatic improvement began to set in.

It’s funny how it happens, those who experience discomfort and pain chronically can related to this: you’re just trying to manage life, when suddenly you realize “Hey! I can DO this with a lot less PAIN right now!!!”

And then life begins to change for the better again.

And it did.

I kept up the doses for the entire bottle, and regained my full back function with little residual issue.

NOW: From that point, I ended up having a “relapse” about once a year or slightly less than once a year. Those of you who’ve followed me on youtube have seen me do a couple videos during those times, one was with me holding two canes just to walk.

I’d do something…either lift something wrong or simply twist the wrong way on a couple occasions…and I’d *instantly* recognize that “POP” sensation that over the next few minutes would then disable me more, and more and more to the point of absolute pain-hell and near-inability to walk or move.

It sure is one heck of a unique form of pain. Anything nerve related is.

So I’d have someone go get me another bottle of the enzymes if I didn’t have any on hand as is, and I’d do the therapeutic size dosages again, and FLOOD my body with a TON of water, about a gallon a day.

And over the course of a week, every single time (knock on wood, about ten times as of this writing) it would fix the issue again like clockwork.

I’ve also been strengthening my lower back more (very gently!) AND strengthening my glutes which I have found to be of EQUAL importance (and gave me one hella booty; considering sporting one of those new “thong” thingys that are all the rage right now).

So that’s my story. I’m getting my relapses less and less thank goodness, and between the exercise, enzymes and water, I think I’ll be able to manage this situation successfully for the rest of my life.

The enzymes are below. There seem to be a lot to choose from on the market, but these worked great for me, so it’s a “don’t fix what ain’t broke” pun here; no reason for me to switch brands when I know what is already producing the results I need: