Originally Posted by
topslop1
You can touch and feel it off / something wrong with your hand alone so I'm going to guess a decent amount?
You cannot feel a disc herniation with your hand.
The disc herniates into the spinal canal or into the vertebral foramen or into the vertebral endplate. These terms are not important, but the important part is that the disc herniates into a bony compartment of your body so it cannot be felt by palpating your back.
If you're feeling something, my guess would be a muscle spasm caused by the disc herniation. [MENTION=107711]datlas[/MENTION] would probably know.
The extent of disc herniation can be measured on the MRI. Its an imaging thing not a physical exam thing.