A 63-year-old patient with an L5-S1 disc herniation experienced lasting relief from sciatica, leg pain, and foot numbness following care at Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Frisco, TX.
Three Years of Sciatica, a Herniated Disc, and Failed Treatment: A Frisco Patient’s Recovery Without Surgery
For three years, a 63-year-old woman lived with pain traveling down her left leg, tingling in her foot, and numbness in her toes. She had followed her doctors’ recommendations, completed six months of physical therapy, received medication and spinal injections, and tried chiropractic care.
Some treatments provided temporary relief. Others made little difference. But the symptoms always returned.
By the time she arrived at Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Frisco, Texas, she was understandably skeptical that another chiropractor could help.
Her lumbar MRI had already identified a 5 mm disc herniation at L5-S1. However, additional weight-bearing X-rays taken during Dr. Jason Venn’s evaluation revealed another important finding: a mild grade 1 spondylolisthesis of L5.
What followed was a gradual recovery involving specific Gonstead chiropractic adjustments, non-surgical spinal decompression, and careful monitoring of her symptoms and function.
Her eventual outcome was remarkable: complete resolution of her reported leg pain, tingling, and numbness, restoration of pain-free lumbar movement, and sustained relief over several years.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this case came afterward, when a follow-up MRI showed that the disc herniation was still present despite the disappearance of her symptoms.
Patient Overview
- Patient: 63-year-old female
- Primary complaint: Chronic left-sided sciatica with foot numbness and tingling
- Symptom duration: Approximately three years before her first visit
- Original MRI: 5 mm L5-S1 disc herniation with disc desiccation
- Additional finding: Grade 1 L5 spondylolisthesis identified on weight-bearing lumbar X-rays
- Previous treatment: Oral steroids, six months of physical therapy, periodic spinal injections, and chiropractic adjustments
- Care at Venn Chiropractic: Specific Gonstead sacral adjustments and non-surgical spinal decompression
- Reported outcome: Resolution of leg pain, foot tingling, and numbness; normal, pain-free lumbar range of motion
- Long-term follow-up: Patient reports remaining symptom-free while continuing periodic maintenance care
Three Years of Following Medical Advice Without Lasting Improvement
When her symptoms first appeared, the patient did what most people would do. She made an appointment with her primary care physician.
Her doctor prescribed a course of steroids and referred her to physical therapy.
She initially experienced some improvement while taking the medication. Unfortunately, once the effects wore off, the pain and neurological symptoms returned.
She continued physical therapy for six months. She trusted her physician and was committed to following the treatment plan, hoping that consistent effort would eventually produce lasting results.
At the end of those six months, however, she reported that her symptoms were essentially unchanged.
She was relieved they had not become worse, but she wasn’t getting better.
An MRI Confirmed a Lumbar Disc Herniation
During this period, her physician ordered a lumbar MRI. The imaging identified a 5 mm disc herniation at L5-S1.
The L5-S1 disc sits between the fifth lumbar vertebra and the sacrum, near the bottom of the spine. A herniation in this region can sometimes irritate or compress nearby nerve structures, contributing to pain, tingling, numbness, or weakness in the leg or foot.
Her physician explained that surgery might eventually need to be considered but wanted to continue exploring conservative treatment options first.
She was referred to pain management.
Spinal Injections Helped, but the Relief Never Lasted
According to the patient, she began receiving spinal injections approximately every few months.
These provided substantial relief, which was encouraging. Unfortunately, the benefit was temporary.
As the effects diminished, her leg pain, tingling, and numbness returned.
She continued with the recommendations because she trusted her doctors and hoped that eventually the problem would improve.
But after years of treatment, she was still dealing with essentially the same symptoms.
Previous Chiropractic Care Also Produced Only Temporary Relief
At one point, she tried chiropractic treatment.
She described the previous chiropractor as someone who would “crack everything.”
She often felt wonderful immediately after an appointment. But by the following day, the symptoms would return to their previous intensity.
There was no meaningful lasting improvement.
Her son, who was already a patient of Dr. Jason Venn, had been encouraging her to visit Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center. He tried to explain how the Gonstead approach differed from the chiropractic care she had previously experienced.
Eventually, after considerable hesitation, she agreed to schedule an evaluation.
Her First Visit: Severe Sciatica and Constant Foot Tingling
When the patient arrived, she made it clear that she didn’t expect much.
She had already tried so many treatments without lasting success that she doubted another approach would make a difference.
Her symptoms included:
- Pain extending down the entire left leg
- Constant tingling in the left foot
- Intermittent numbness affecting several toes
- Persistent numbness in the left little toe
- Significantly increased pain after prolonged sitting
- Nighttime pain severe enough to wake her from sleep
- Temporary improvement during walking, followed by increased discomfort when she walked too far
These symptoms were consistent with a possible lumbar nerve-related pain pattern, especially given her previously documented L5-S1 disc herniation.
However, Dr. Venn wanted to evaluate more than the existing MRI finding.
The Weight-Bearing X-Ray Revealed Something the MRI Had Not Shown
The patient’s previous lumbar MRI had been obtained while she was lying down.
Dr. Venn decided to obtain weight-bearing lumbar X-rays to evaluate spinal alignment under normal standing load.
Those images revealed a finding that had not been identified on the earlier MRI: a mild grade 1 spondylolisthesis involving L5.
Spondylolisthesis occurs when one vertebra is displaced relative to the vertebra below it. Grade 1 indicates a relatively small amount of slippage.
This finding was clinically important because it provided additional information about the alignment and mechanical demands at the same spinal level as her disc herniation.
It did not automatically establish why the herniation developed. But it helped Dr. Venn understand the patient’s spinal mechanics and plan an approach that accounted for the existing vertebral slippage.
The Lumbar Examination Identified a Specific Movement Problem
During the physical examination, the patient demonstrated normal lumbar range of motion in most directions.
One movement stood out.
When she attempted to extend her lower back, her movement was severely restricted and her pain increased.
Considering her symptom history, MRI findings, weight-bearing X-rays, and examination, Dr. Venn determined that the L5-S1 region was an important focus of her care.
His clinical assessment was that dysfunction involving the lumbosacral joint was contributing to the mechanical problems associated with her symptoms.
The objective was not to reverse the spondylolisthesis.
The treatment goal was to improve function at the lumbosacral region while addressing the disc-related problem and associated nerve symptoms.
The Treatment Plan: Specific Gonstead Chiropractic and Spinal Decompression
Dr. Venn developed a treatment approach based on the patient’s individual examination findings.
Rather than routinely adjusting multiple spinal segments, he selected a precise sacral adjustment using the Gonstead System.
The adjustment was performed without rotational movement, with the intention of influencing function at the L5-S1 joint while avoiding a direct attempt to reposition the slipped L5 vertebra.
This was followed by gentle non-surgical spinal decompression.
Why Spinal Decompression Was Important in This Case
The patient’s MRI-confirmed disc herniation and persistent radiating leg symptoms made the disc itself an important part of the treatment strategy.
Non-surgical spinal decompression uses controlled decompression and release cycles that create a pumping action at the disc.
The treatment is intended to reduce mechanical pressure within the disc and encourage fluid movement. Because spinal discs have limited direct blood supply, fluid exchange is important for maintaining their normal environment.
For appropriate patients with disc-related symptoms, the goal is to reduce mechanical irritation and improve comfort and function over time.
In this case, Dr. Venn used Gonstead chiropractic to address the identified joint dysfunction and spinal decompression to address the disc-related component of the patient’s condition.
Learn more about non-surgical spinal decompression at Venn Chiropractic and Dr. Venn’s Gonstead chiropractic approach.
The First Week: An Unexpected Increase in Pain
Before beginning care, Dr. Venn discussed the possibility that the patient’s symptoms could fluctuate during treatment.
After the first visit, she returned the following day reporting that her pain was significantly worse.
This was an important moment in her care.
An increase in symptoms after treatment should not automatically be interpreted as a sign of healing. It requires reassessment to determine whether continuing or modifying treatment is appropriate.
In this patient’s case, Dr. Venn continued monitoring her response and proceeded with the planned conservative care.
After the second visit, her pain settled back to approximately its original level.
She was not better yet, but the initial increase had subsided.
She completed four visits during the first week.
Week Two: The First Sign That Something Was Changing
Dr. Venn recommended continuing care four times during the second week, with ongoing assessment of her response.
When she returned on Monday, she mentioned something that might have seemed insignificant to another person.
She had noticed a little feeling returning to her left little toe.
That toe had been continuously numb for a long time.
It was only a small change, but to her it was exciting. After years of treatment without lasting improvement, she was finally noticing something different.
Her leg pain was still present, and the overall improvement was limited.
Nevertheless, this was the first encouraging milestone she had reported.
Week Three: Tingling Disappeared and Sensation Continued Returning
When she returned the following Monday, she had more encouraging news.
The sensation in her little toe had continued improving, and the change was now lasting.
Even more importantly, she reported that the constant tingling in her left foot had stopped.
Her leg pain, however, remained largely unchanged.
That distinction matters.
Recovery did not occur all at once. Different symptoms improved at different times.
She continued with four visits that week while Dr. Venn monitored her response.
Week Four: Her First Meaningful Reduction in Leg Pain
The next week brought another milestone.
For the first time, she reported a day when her leg pain dropped from a reported intensity of 10 out of 10 to approximately 6 out of 10.
She wasn’t pain-free, and the improvement had not yet become consistent.
But after three years of persistent symptoms, even one substantially better day was meaningful.
It showed that her experience was beginning to change.
The Following Months: More Good Days, Fewer Bad Days
The patient’s improvement was gradual and not perfectly linear.
There were days when she felt significantly better, followed by days when her leg pain returned.
Sometimes she made a noticeable improvement, and then progress seemed to slow.
Over the following months, however, the overall pattern became increasingly encouraging.
She began having more good days and fewer bad days.
The better periods lasted longer.
The painful episodes became less frequent.
Eventually, she returned to the office with the news she had been hoping to share for years.
She was completely free of the leg pain that had troubled her for so long.
Post-Treatment Examination: Pain-Free Movement and Normal Foot Sensation
At her post-treatment examination, the patient’s lumbar range of motion was normal in every direction.
Even lumbar extension, which had been severely restricted and painful at her initial examination, was now performed without pain.
She also reported:
- Complete resolution of left leg pain
- No remaining tingling in the left foot
- Normal sensation throughout the left foot and toes
- No persistent numbness in the little toe
- No pain during lumbar range-of-motion testing
These findings represented a substantial improvement compared with her original presentation.
After three years of recurring symptoms and multiple previous treatments, she had reached the outcome she had been hoping for.
The Follow-Up MRI Revealed a Surprising Result
By this point, the patient’s symptoms had resolved and her functional examination had improved.
Dr. Venn did not consider a repeat MRI necessary simply to confirm that she felt better.
However, the patient wanted to see what had changed in her spine.
A follow-up lumbar MRI was obtained.
The Disc Herniation Had Barely Changed in Size
The original MRI had shown a 5 mm L5-S1 disc herniation.
On the follow-up MRI, the herniation was still visible. Its reported measurement had decreased by only approximately 1 mm.
In other words, the disc herniation had not disappeared.
Yet the patient’s leg pain, tingling, and numbness had completely resolved.
This is one of the most important lessons from the case: improvement in symptoms does not necessarily require a herniated disc to disappear on MRI.
Disc imaging and clinical symptoms are related, but they are not interchangeable. The amount of visible disc displacement does not always predict how much pain or nerve irritation a patient experiences.
The Disc Signal Also Looked Different
There was another interesting observation.
On the original MRI, the L5-S1 disc had shown reduced signal intensity consistent with disc desiccation. It appeared noticeably darker than the surrounding discs on the relevant images.
On the follow-up MRI, Dr. Venn observed a much brighter signal within that disc.
On comparable T2-weighted MRI images, increased disc signal can reflect differences in water content. This made the change particularly interesting given that the original imaging had demonstrated desiccation.
However, MRI signal brightness alone cannot establish that the disc was completely restored to normal health, and differences in imaging technique can affect its appearance.
Nor can these two scans, by themselves, prove that a particular treatment caused the imaging changes.
What the case does document is that the patient experienced substantial clinical recovery while the disc herniation remained visible on follow-up imaging.
Years Later: Still Symptom-Free
It has now been several years since this patient first came to Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center.
According to her most recent reported follow-up, she remains free of the leg pain, numbness, and tingling that once disrupted her life.
She continues to visit approximately every three weeks for maintenance care involving chiropractic adjustment and spinal decompression.
She lives about an hour from the office, making the trip a significant commitment.
But after her previous experiences, she has expressed a strong preference for continuing care with Dr. Venn.
Her long-term symptom-free status is encouraging. Because she continues receiving maintenance treatment, however, this individual case cannot establish whether ongoing visits are necessary to maintain that outcome.
Dr. Jason Venn’s Clinical Perspective: Treat the Patient, Not Just the MRI
One of the most important lessons from this case is that an MRI tells us something about the structure of the spine, but it doesn’t tell the entire story of the patient.
This woman had a documented disc herniation, a mild spondylolisthesis, persistent neurological symptoms, and years of unsuccessful attempts to achieve lasting relief.
Her previous MRI identified the herniation. The additional weight-bearing X-rays helped reveal the vertebral alignment finding that was important to consider when planning her care.
Her examination also showed a specific movement limitation that helped guide treatment.
Dr. Venn’s approach was to consider those findings together rather than focus on the MRI measurement alone.
The treatment was directed toward improving lumbosacral joint function and addressing the disc-related component of her symptoms through specific Gonstead chiropractic and non-surgical spinal decompression.
Her recovery took time. It involved temporary setbacks, small early improvements, and gradual changes over several months.
And when her symptoms finally resolved, the follow-up MRI demonstrated something worth remembering: the disc herniation was still present.
The most meaningful outcome was not the number of millimeters on the MRI. It was the disappearance of her leg pain, the return of normal foot sensation, and her ability to move without pain.
What This Case Means for Patients With Herniated Discs and Sciatica
If you’ve been told you have a lumbar herniated disc, you may wonder whether surgery is inevitable or whether the disc must completely return to its original shape before you can feel better.
This case illustrates why those questions deserve an individualized answer.
A herniated disc can be associated with significant nerve-related symptoms, but the relationship between imaging findings, pain, and function is complex.
For some patients, appropriately selected conservative care may help improve symptoms and function without surgery.
That does not mean every herniated disc can be managed successfully without an operation. Progressive neurological deficits, certain severe symptoms, or other clinical findings may require prompt medical or surgical evaluation.
It does mean that patients with persistent symptoms deserve a careful assessment of their history, imaging, neurological findings, spinal mechanics, and treatment options.
Learn more about herniated disc treatment in Frisco, sciatica and radiating leg pain, and non-surgical spinal decompression.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can sciatica go away even if a herniated disc is still visible on MRI?
Can an L5-S1 herniated disc cause numbness in the foot?
What is grade 1 spondylolisthesis?
Why might standing X-rays show something that a lying-down MRI does not?
Does a darker disc on MRI mean the disc is permanently damaged?
Can spinal decompression help a herniated disc?
Does every patient with an L5-S1 herniated disc need surgery?
Herniated Disc and Sciatica Treatment in Frisco, TX
Dr. Jason Venn has served patients in Frisco and surrounding North Texas communities since 2000.
His clinical focus includes patients with difficult spinal conditions, herniated discs, sciatica, chronic back pain, and nerve-related symptoms, including patients who have not achieved lasting relief from previous care.
At Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center, treatment recommendations are based on a detailed examination and may include precise Gonstead chiropractic, non-surgical spinal decompression, and individualized rehabilitation when appropriate.
If you’re experiencing persistent leg pain, numbness, tingling, or symptoms associated with a lumbar disc herniation, contact Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center to schedule an evaluation.
Patient privacy and outcomes: This case describes one patient’s clinical history and reported results. Individual outcomes vary, and improvement cannot be guaranteed. The case does not establish that the treatment caused the observed MRI changes or that the same approach is appropriate for every patient.
About Dr. Jason Venn, DC
Dr. Jason Venn is the founder of Venn Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Frisco, Texas. With more than 25 years of clinical experience, he focuses on Gonstead chiropractic, non-surgical spinal decompression, and individualized care for patients with spinal disc problems, sciatica, back pain, neck pain, and related nerve symptoms.
Learn more about Dr. Jason Venn’s clinical experience and treatment approach.