Post visit follow-up, thoughts on blogging

As I mentioned in response to a question about my last post, I had a video conference with the surgeon yesterday. All in all it went well and to cut to the chase I'm going to be contacted to schedule an in-office exam in 4 weeks with surgery 1-2 weeks after that.

Because I'd previously had the full gamut of surgical options as possibilities, I was less prepared with questions about the specific procedure he was recommending than I'd have liked. He recommended "doing the minimum possible" which is a microdiscectomy. For those who don't pay attention to those things (and number yourself among the blessed if you don't), a little anatomy is in order.

A disc in the spine is like a jelly filled donut. It has a soft, jelly like center (nucleus) encased in a tougher exterior (the annulus). A herniated disc is where the annulus has a tear in it and the nucleus is protruding and irritating a nerve. The surgical treatment removes the portion of the disc that is pressing on the nerve. This is minimally invasive using a small incision and recovery is fairly rapid, generally with only an overnight stay in the hospital.

OK, sounds good so far. But there are some questions I didn't think to ask at the time:

• My reading of literature available on the internet generally suggests that microdiscectomy is only effective in treating sciatica, not low back pain. Given that the first four days of this most recent episode was "OMFG, lightning bolts" of pain in my lower back what, if anything, will a microdiscectomy do for that? I've had several similar episodes (the GSR and 2014 Cascade leap immediately to mind) and although they weren't as bad as this recent go around they were bad enough I'd like never to have them happen again, or at least reduce the probability. It appears to me the microdiscectomy doesn't address that.
• As nearly as I can tell, a herniated disc resolves itself in 6-12 weeks. This resolution means the nucleus retracts into the annulus and is no longer pressing on the nerve. I'm at the 6 week point now with 3-4 weeks before my in-office visit. Suppose it resolves itself in the next month. What, if anything do they do in the surgery? Nothing protruding to snip off.

Wish I'd have known to ask those questions at the time of the video conference but I was spending more time researching more radical options, mostly because they were scarier and I wanted to understand them better. My initial reading about microdiscectomy surgery left me unconcerned enough (overnight stay, minimally invasive, 95% success rate, 5-8% recurrence) that I didn't bother researching or thinking about them further. My mistake.

Oh well, it'll all be resolved in the end.

On to a different topic. This blog.

I started this blog with the intention of writing only about cycling, mostly my own but also about regional rides or other things of interest (well, at least of interest to me) that were cycling related. There are all kinds of blogs out there. People blog about going to the dentist. I was fairly determined not to do that and keep other aspects of my life out of the blog (but I did have a dental appointment a few months back, so now you know).

But lately I've mostly been cataloging my maladies and infirmities. Haven't turned a pedal in anger in 6 weeks so there hasn't really been anything "cycling related" to say other than "I wish I were cycling" :-(

So I've been pondering whether to continue the narrative journey about my ongoing back misadventures on the blog. I wanted to post about the visit since I'd alluded to it previously but am not sure whether my adoring public wants to follow along on this train wreck.

I dunno. I might not post again until I've something to say about riding - meaning I've actually done it - and that might be a while. Optimistically, surgery in 6 weeks and riding a few weeks after that means we're talking mid-September.

Stay tuned (or not)!