I wish there were more to say in terms of update. As I said previously, having made the decision to have surgery, I just want to get on with it.
I've been calling the Spine Center at U-W every day for a week trying to get something to happen. Nothing. Go through the phone tree, leave messages, no return calls.
Correction, I did have someone call me and tell me I needed to fill out a form acknowledging their privacy policy.
Sigh.
[rant]How long does it take to schedule someone for an initial consult? I'm guessing with some reasonable scheduling software and access to a phone I could probably schedule 30-40 people in an hour. It'd go like this:
Me: Hello, I'm calling from U-W Spine to set up an appointment for your initial consultation.
Patient: Great!
Me: When are you available to come in?
Patient: (Doesn't really matter what the answer is)
Me: Sorry, nothing available then, how about xxx on the yyy date?
Patient: No, I can't come in then, do you have anything after that?
Me: Yes, on the following Tuesday at 10:00
Patient: That'll work
You get the idea.
Seriously, how hard can it be?
[/rant]
In the meantime, my condition is essentially unchanged. Depending on where exactly my sciatic nerve is getting pressed at the moment my left leg hurts or burns (or both) somewhere, either its full length or isolated to the calf, hamstring or glute. Sometimes a combination. My forefoot is numb or tingling all of the time. I walk with a pronounced limp and can't walk very much without the pain getting worse.
The pain isn't debilitating but still is pretty painful and I'm not sleeping very well as a result.
Although I've been keeping busy it's probably not surprising that not riding for 2-4 hours 5 days a week leaves a pretty huge hole in your day. Given my limited ability to do anything remotely physical (I can't even take a walk) I'm pretty well bored out of my mind. I can only read, do small chores, screw around on the internet so much. Not to mention I can't sit that long, or stand that long, or walk that long, or ...
On the keeping busy front, I've built a wheel:
and continued to sell bikes. Given my inability to sit/stand/whatever for any length of time, advertising, packing and shipping bikes is quite a challenge but I've managed to get it done. I suspect I'm probably making my back worse by doing anything and should instead remain bedridden but it's likely I'd go insane from the boredom.
So that's the update for now. Wish there were more to report.
Stay tuned!
