Not sure what to wish for

I had a conversation with one of the surgeons nurses today so I could ask my follow on questions. I had two questions:

1. If by the time of my surgery in early September my back has resolved itself and I'm no longer in pain, what, if anything would be done?
2. Will a microdiscectomy do anything for back pain?

The answers were:

1. If it's resolved itself by the time of the surgery, they won't do the surgery. I have no choice in the matter.
   
2. The microdiscectomy is primarily to treat sciatic nerve impingement. "They don't chase back pain".
   

One thought before I continue. My understanding of sciatic nerve pain was flawed. Impingement on the sciatic nerve can cause pain anywhere from the low back to the toes so it's likely that the microdiscectomy would in fact address that. It's rather mysterious really how it manifests itself. Regular readers will recall that early this year I had what I thought was a severe strain of the Soleus muscle (part of the calf muscle group). At that time I had zero pain in my back, it was all in my left calf. That was the sciatica.

In the six weeks since this latest round started I've had pain in any one or all of my hamstring, calf, lower back, foot. Some days the only thing that hurts/burns is my calf. Some days it's my hamstring. Some days it's both. Some days it's just my back. You get the idea.

So it's possible, even likely, that a microdiscectomy will solve my problems. I'm encouraged by what I've read both in terms of success rate (95%) and the low probability of recurrence (5%).

So given all that, do I try to keep my back inflamed for the next six weeks so I can have surgery? I mean really, all I need to do is dead lift a couple of hundred pounds and they'll have plenty to work on. This sounds neither wise nor pleasant - it really does hurt! Further, as I've often said, minor surgery is surgery on someone else. If it's on me it's by definition major and avoiding or postponing it seems like a good idea.

But if it resolves itself and I have another episode in the future I'm in the same cycle :

• 2-3 weeks to get an MRI
• 2 weeks calling and leaving messages to try and get an appointment with the surgeon
  
• 2-4 weeks for the appointment
• 6 weeks to pre-surgical exam
• 6 weeks to surgery
  

So if I'm doing the math correctly, from my next episode to surgery is 18-21 weeks. In other words, almost half a year blown. Again. Not to mention no small amount of pain.

So for right now here's what I'm thinking:

• Continue trying to limit my activities so it can heal. I do plan on continuing to try and ride but easy spinning and relatively short distances.
  
• If it does, forego surgery for now. Not really any choice here, they won't do surgery if I'm not experiencing any symptoms.
  
• If I don't have surgery, go on a major core strengthening program - abs of steel will be my goal.
• Resume cycling on the diamond frame and gradually ramp up miles and intensity. It's likely this won't commence in full until September at the earliest.
• Hope it doesn't happen again and that I'm able to resume the full gamut of randonneuring events which includes both 1200K's and SR600K's.
  
• If it DOES happen again then:
• Reevaluate whether or not I still want to continue randonneuring
  
• If I'm still feeling like I want to do long rides, reconsider diamond frame vs recumbent as a possible solution that might be easier on my back
  
• Reconsider whether or not to have surgery

The downside of all this of course is we're talking about "test until failure" where "failure" might involve any or all of incredible pain, being stranded in the middle of nowhere, perhaps in another country. That doesn't sound all that appealing.

Another alternative of course is to give up on randonneuring right now and consign myself to shorter rides at moderate pace. As I've said previously, I'm not there yet.

Stay tuned!