Prolapsed Intervertebral Disc

Currently At My Father’s Office

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Been doing a little research on

PID (Prolapsed Intervertebral Disc)

You see, my friend had this disease when she was still in high school.

She was a childhood friend. She went to different secondary school so I didn’t get much news about her.

I met her yesterday and heard from my aunt about that she always got sick during school.

I was quite intrigued so I asked her myself.

It was true and she did skip classes for a whole year. 

So she told me her story.

She told me one of the many discs in her backbone slipped.

(More specifically, lumbar 4/lumbar 5 slipped.)

Backbone disc slipped?!

Is it like a stack of books that aren’t properly aligned?

LIKE THIS?!

Of course I asked for details. She even told me the slipped discs were REMOVED.

?????!


.........

 I mean, WHAT!!!!! How am I supposed to imagine THAT?

What about your nerve inside it? What’ll happen to your growth? etc…

I didn’t really get the picture, so I did a little research…




It turned out the disc is something that’s sandwiched between the vertebrae (bones).

No wonder she said “lumbar4/lumbar5”.

And I thought 2 bones slipped…haha

I seriously need to dig out my high school biology book.

Here’s a picture of the backbone 
(vertebral column).

You can see where the lumbar is situated.
I hope the picture is large enough. 
The writings quite small…

So, We’re Back to Square One. 

The Main Question

HOW DOES THE DISC SLIPPED?

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia.

The popular term slipped disc is misleading, as an intervertebral disc, being tightly sandwiched between two vertebrae to which the disc is attached, cannot actually "slip", "slide", or even get "out of place". The disc is actually grown together with the adjacent vertebrae and can be squeezed, stretched and twisted, all in small degrees. It can also be torn, ripped, herniated, and degenerated, but it cannot "slip".[2] "The term 'slipped disc' may be harmful as it leads to a false idea of what is happening and therefore of the likely outcome."[3][4] However, one vertebral body can slip relative to an adjacent vertebral body. This is called spondylolisthesis and can damage the disc between the two vertebrae.

I totally agree. Haha

The disc ‘slipped’ when the soft part of the disc bulges through the circle of connective tissue, like the picture below.

                                        

From what I read, a slipped disc can be symptom free. In fact, 20 % of the sufferers never experience any pain.

The pain is primarily due to the pressure on the nerve roots, the spinal cord or the cauda equina (I don’t know exactly what and where it is located, but it is a structure in the spinal column).

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At last, one misinterpretation gone.

I think I can sleep soundly tonight.

Heheh…★

Anyway, thanks for reading! ^^♪