- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Oh, Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- And together we are the most
famous physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- Brad, we get a lot of questions.
They want people wanna know
if they have a herniated disc or not,
herniated disc, slipped disc, prolapsed disc
there's all these different names for it
basically the disc comes out, you know
where it shouldn't be and it's pushing on a nerve.
So we're gonna show you three quick tests.
Now this isn't making you a doctor
this isn't something you're gonna, you wanna rely upon
but it is something that maybe you can, you know
it might prompt you then to go to your doctor
if you're having some of the,
- Right.
- Signs are positive or,
and some of the symptoms are
that we'll mention at the end of the video.
- Right.
- So just three quick tests.
These are tests the doctor may do with you.
The first one for certain they'll do with you.
(slaps bench)
Why don't you go ahead and lay down Brad?
- Sure.
I'm ready for an nap.
- This is a straight leg raise.
This is probably the gold standard for,
for a herniated disc.
And it's best if you do have somebody else
that can help you do this,
you could try it on your own.
We're gonna say that Brad's getting pain on the left side
on the left leg, down the left leg.
So what you're gonna do,
keeping the leg straight.
Toe pointed straight up,
I'm just gonna bring the leg up like this.
And for a lot of the patients I've had
that have had a herniated disc.
- Ow, ow!
- This starts bringing it on right away.
Yeah. Somewhere in this range,
they'll start getting the pain right away.
And what you can even do is back off a little bit
till the pain is off
and then have him push your toe,
- Ow!
- Toward him, toward his chin.
And if that brings it on again,
not just stretching pain
but that pain that you've been feeling down the leg,
that's a pretty positive sign
that you're getting sciatic nerve pain.
That's you know, that a herniated disc
is pushing on the nerve
and causing pain down the leg.
- Right.
- So this is the number one test that people do
to see if they have a herniated disc.
- And also Bob, if I can talk,
- Sure.
(laughs)
- A lot of times the pain will be up in the back.
You know, you'll do that and they'll say,
"I feel pain in the buttock, or up in the low back."
And that's even more positive
because you're not stretching any tissues.
- Very good point.
- Up in the back, so.
- When you're allowed to talk, you say good things.
(scoffs)
The other thing is it could cause pain in the back
and it could also cause the pain going all the way
down the leg-
- Sure, yeah.
- All right, the second one, Brad,
and this is just a quick test, too.
Go ahead and stand up.
(groans)
We have, you'll say a lot of doctors
are gonna have you do em.
Lonnie, if you can kind of pan down
Brad's gonna show you
what we have patients doing.
This is checking for weakness
or even sometimes pain with this.
- [Brad] Right.
So forgive the floor.
We're getting our new floors in, in a couple months.
So just put up with the checkers.
Okay. So you'll, they'll have you do this.
Walk on your heels, they'll say.
Doctor or therapist, I do this a lot with my patients
or walk on your toes.
Now, if you find that on one leg, you can do this
and the other leg that doesn't, that would be a positive.
You're unable to pull that toe up like that.
That's a positive sign.
- [Bob] Or if you can't stay on your toes.
- [Brad] Yeah or it might go like this,
and you're doing that.
- [Bob] Or you might be having pain with that.
- [Brad] Come back up here, Lonnie.
- Yeah, Lonnie find us.
Yeah. If you're having pain with that
now this could be other things too.
- Right.
- But, but just another possibility of that.
It's a herniated disc.
The third one is, is a seated test, Brad.
- Mm-hmm.
- Seated or slump test.
I wonder if this might be better off to the side even.
- Oh, sure.
Let's bring it this way.
- Okay, I'll sit at the end here.
Okay.
(exclaims)
- Be careful, Bob.
- So anyway,
what you're gonna do is you're gonna go ahead and slump
- Round the back.
- I'm sitting on my (indistinct) as they call it.
- Mm-hmm.
- So now, right.
We're in this position.
You're gonna go ahead and straighten the leg
and pull the toe toward you.
- Right here.
- And it's kinda like the same
as the straight leg rest test.
And if you start getting pain up in the back
or pain all the way down the leg, it's kind
of, that's somewhat positive.
If you even do this, bring the head down and it gets worse,
- Right.
- That's even more of a sign
that it might be somewhere along your spinal cord
on the dura.
- Right.
- It's it's getting pushed and there's getting some pain.
So it maybe your herniated disc.
- Right.
- So those are the three quick tests, Brad.
Why don't we talk about some of the things
that you're typically gonna feel
when you have a herniated disc,
some of the, some of the symptoms.
- Sure.
Classic symptom, number one,
you are gonna have pain, numbness, and tingling sensations
below the knee, down into the foot.
- Right? A lot of times you can get pain
going down the back of your leg
to the knee and it's not necessarily a herniated disc.
There's a lot of other back problems.
That'll give you pain that far.
- Right.
- But once you start going below the knee,
that's a pretty good sign
you've got sciatica or a herniated disc.
- Sure.
- The other thing is typically it is on one side, Brad.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's very unusual to go down both legs.
If someone says it's going down both legs,
I'm thinking spinal stenosis
or I'm thinking something else
that that is not typical at all.
- Right.
- Unusual. So it's typically down one leg.
- Sure.
- We talked about the pins and needles and numbness pain.
Also. You're gonna have weakness quite often.
And that's, that's why we already did that one test.
If you feel like the leg is weak
- It's gonna be uncomfortable, typically to sit
- Yeah.
- Longer time about time periods.
Bending over is very uncomfortable.
And there also may be a shift.
You may see the person shifting,
- Shift away, shift away from the pain.
- So yeah, the right leg will have the symptoms
and their back will be away from that.
And they walk like this.
I was just in that situation (laughs) a few months back,
with a flare up.
- OK, And the final thing,
and people ask you this, you know
are you having increased pain when you cough,
or when you sneeze?
- Mm-hmm.
- or when you bear down, when you're going to the bathroom?
- Sure.
- So they also ask if you're having trouble
with your bowel and bladder,
but that's kind of a specific,
huge problem with the, cauda equina.
- Right, we have a video on that.
- We have a video on that.
So, so those are some of the things,
some of the quick tests
some of the questions you should ask yourself.
Obviously you need to see your doctor,
if these things are going on,
but we thought, you know,
give you a little more knowledge and, and, you know
see what you can do with it.
- You better believe it.
So remember subscribe to us
and we are not professional actors
but we are professional therapists
and we can help you out from here
until you are 102 years old.
- That's right.
- After a hundred, - We'll be with ya.
- Its uh,
- You're on your own,
- Yeah after 102, it's yeah.
- We can't help you anymore.
- Yep. That's it.