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After malfunctions and consequently tricky landings in the Atlas and Pirenei mountains i have suffered of hernia in L5-S1.
One month ago i have had an operation to make me free of this fucking pain.
Just to know if somebody have lived something similar and if now is jumping or not, if yes how long after the operation to come back in action?
Stories and advices are well appreciated!

RIOT

What kind of hernia?

Expelled hernia at L5-S1.

Lots of aggressive traction worked fine for me.

Last year in late June I ruptured my L4-L5 disc Through a combination of working out and working on my house. I had severe pain followed by parallysis of my left leg and some more severe pain.
I spent eight days in hospital just to get the pain under control prior to surgery. A micro-discectomy. Almost immediately after waking from the anesthesia I felt enormous relief. the pain went down quickly and after about 3 months of rehab
I was ready to jump again and did. However the the true recovery time is more like 1 year and you'll never be at 100%. My advice is lots of swimming, if you can and plenty of stretching when your body will allow. I still have pain to this day but it tends to go away when I surf or swim. My advice though would be to stay away from 3sec slider down jumps. The slider is your friend.
Cheers.

I have had a hernia surgery after a double rupture of the disc between L4-L5. I could not walk. After surgery, total relief, no more pain. Some numbness in the feet that went away after 2 weeks.

The operation was May 11, first jump (skydive, hop and pop) July 7 (all in 2001). Then, on a skydive mid of August I had a slammer of an opening skydiving, jumping camera. I hurt my neck, stiff for 3 days, but my back was OK. Did my first base someday in September, go and throw.

I keep away from 3" delays slider down. Actually, I believe that is bad for everybody in the long run, not just us operated people.
Then, as said already, recovery is never 100%. When I work to hard (say, gardening) I sometime get the nerve pain back slightly. Also, about once a year, I get muscle cramps in my back (I don't know the english word)

So, in short, if surgery went fine, with precautions after that you should be OK for base

Ronald

I had an L5-S1 discectomy back in early Jan 2003. I think I recovered from that pretty darn quick - jumping again in late Mar or so.

Thanks everybody to share this experience.

RIOT

L5-S1 is potentially "worse" than L4-L5: L4-L5 affects leg(s), L5-S1 may affect pipi and poopoo functions for the rest of one's life.

Luckily, I only experienced pain that shot down my leg, no urine or other nasties. I think, as you indicated, the nerve originated higher, its just the L5-S1 disc that had bulged out and pressed on it.

http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=23914&highlight=josh+briggs

Did it BASE (landing), paragliding, and various other imprudent activities.