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More injury news for the Padres. Ken Rosenthal is reporting via Twitter that 3B Chase Headley has received an epidural injection to treat a herniated disk in his lower back.
Source: #Padres’ Headley received epidural tonight. Has been bothered by herniated disk for several weeks.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2014
Headley batting just .200 with .616 OPS. Back trouble likely contributed to struggles, but he wanted to endure with other #Padres injured.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2014
Dick Enberg of Fox Sports San Diego says that Headley is currently listed as day to day.
Headley gets epidural to alleviate back pain | padres.com: News
"Chase has been bothered by a sore back. He's been playing through it. He's able to play. From the first day of Spring Training players get banged up," said Padres manager Bud Black. "We'll see where this goes the next couple of days. It's been affecting a little bit of his lower half as well."
Padres third baseman Chase Headley out of lineup with herniated disc | UTSanDiego.com
"(I) hope it helps with the disc," Headley said.
I feel Headley's pain. I've been suffering from sciatica and other back ailments caused by a herniated disk at L5-S1. I've got mild bilateral facet arthropathy with mild to moderate narrowing at the bilateral subarticular recesses and contacts on the transiting S1 spinal nerves. Which is to say I've been in pain pretty consistently since February. It's been life altering, in a bad way.
I had an MRI a few weeks back to finally definitively diagnose the problem and was offered an epidural on Monday. The epidural won't help heal the disk I'm told, it will only bring down the swelling which will hopefully take the pressure off the nerves. The doctor withdrew her epidural invitation when she heard I was on antibiotics for a recent sting ray puncture wound. Did i mention I've been experiencing a streak of bad luck?
Anyway, the disk can usually heal on its own in time as the herniation will be reabsorbed by the body in anywhere from 6 months to a year. The other option is surgery, a discectomy. Many doctors shy away from this surgery because patients usually are no better off after a few years and the surgery can cause scar tissue to form and symptoms to return.
In doing research on the subject I was pointed to a similar back injury that Harrison Ford sustained during the making of Temple of Doom. To relieve the excruciating pain he chose a fad 80's treatment called a "papaya enzyme surgery". It healed him almost instantly and he was able to return to the set in 6 weeks. The procedure is no longer performed because no one is sure if it really works and some patients became paralyzed and others even died.
Me? I'm gonna wait it out and hope to be better next year. I'm in no rush. Headley? I'm going to guess he won't be as patient. I suspect he'll order up a surgical appointment with a side of papaya. Otherwise Headley could be out for some time depending on the seriousness of the herniation.