Here are common signs and symptom of bulging disc. See if any of these sound familiar.
IMPORTANT NOTE: One, two or three sign/symptoms does not qualify your diagnosis as bulging disc. The more symptoms and sign that are familiar to you, the more likely that your pain are due to bulging disc.
I strongly advise that you do not self diagnose, leave that up to medical professional to figure it out and confirm. However, what I wanted you to do is to be familiar with your symptoms and give them the most information to be able to make the more accurate diagnosis.
So let us begin.
- Sitting almost always aggravates or reproduce your symptom. For example, sitting and working at your desk or sitting and driving, after a period is when you commonly notice the pain.
- Lying down, standing and or walking makes it feel better.
- Morning as typically miserable.
- Forward bending motions such as reaching down to pick up things from floor, tie-ing your shoes, etc are painful!
- The pain can feel like anywhere from burning, shooting, sharp and or achy . While some people only may feel symptoms in the glut area, others feel symptoms traveling down to the leg and ankle/foot. So what is that you ask? To keep it short and sweet, the further down the symptoms travel, the more irritated the nerves are.
Some people may also complain of numbness and or tingling. Let’s clarify the different between numbness and tingling because that is important. I generally describe numbness similar to when your “foot falls asleep” or you can’t really feel that you area when you go to touch it versus tingling feels more like “ants crawling on your skin.”
- Your muscle(s) feel weak. This occurs is most often you have let the symptoms go on for a period of time and or truama.
To get an idea of which nerve roots are involved, check out this cheat sheet of dermatomes and myotomes that maps out which nerve roots provided sensation and muscle activation in the legs.
Typically, with nerve involvement whether it is from a bulging disc, herniated disc, sciatica, etc., you’ll start feeling the pain and odd sensations first then progressively notice muscle weakness.
My suggestion is this. Please don’t wait. If are feeling these signs and symptoms make it a point to go see a physical therapist or your physician.
The sooner you are able to alleviate your symptoms the better prognosis you have!