Seems like an eternity but yesterday marked 4 weeks post surgery so I thought I'd take stock of where things stand.
When friends have asked how things were going with the recovery my response for the last few weeks has been "about the same" and that's mostly true. I would have to say that I'm neither better nor worse than I was pre-surgery: toes/forefoot still tingling or numb depending on what I do, back ranging from sore to outright painful also depending on what I do. It doesn't seem to take much at all to evoke an "electric shock" of pain down my whole leg. Turning over in bed and lifting my leg rather than doing a "log roll" will do it (tough to go back to sleep after that) and although I do try hard to be careful when I move in bed, I sometimes turn in my sleep.
I guess I'm making progress but it's like watching paint dry: you know it's happening but it's happening so slowly it's imperceptible. In this case, I don't know it's happening but I sure hope it is. I remain rather terrified that either by doing something I shouldn't (walking too far, bending too much, lifting too much, etc) I'm going to undo any benefit I might have had from the surgery. I've read numerous accounts on the internet of microdiscectomy recovery and they range from hopeful to terrifying with most trending toward the latter. I keep in mind that it's generally the case that the only people who post restaurant reviews on the internet are those who found a hair in their soup but the accounts are still alarming. I hope this narrative has a happier conclusion.
I'm really fragile. It doesn't take much to get me really hurting. For example, two days ago I decided on a change of venue for my morning walk and went out to the Kickapoo Nature Preserve. I'd never walked there before and they didn't have any trail maps so I just headed out. I've got a good sense of direction so when I'd gone as far as I wanted to go and there was a trail that headed back in the direction of the visitor center, I took it. It dead ended on top of a hill. I retraced my route and saw another trail that I'd passed that also went in the direction of the visitor center. It was a loop that went around the hill I'd just climbed. Long story short, I ended up walking 3.3 rather hilly miles rather than my usual flat 2 miles. Here are a few pictures I took while wandering about.
Yesterday, I really hurt. I stopped taking opiates about two weeks ago but I gave in and took one during the day and another at night in addition to repeated icing sessions. I'm a little bit better today but am going to spend the day sitting around.
And on that topic, I continue to be bored stiff. I've exhausted all of the little tasks I can do and really, keeping yourself occupied isn't the same as doing something "fun" so my days are rather joyless. This is obviously made worse by Covid-19. In "normal" times we'd undoubtedly take a short trip (I can be a passenger for 30-40 minutes before I need to stop and move about) but we don't want to incur the additional risk of restaurants, hotels, etc.
Our plans have changed with respect to the winter as well. We were thinking we'd stay here over the winter but I've been effectively "snowed in" since June 8. I just can't face not being able to ride outdoors until March or April. So we're going to go to Texas again this winter. We'll do what we did when we returned earlier this year: pack the car with food/drink for the drive and go straight through alternating drivers as needed.
Once we're there, the situation is much like here. We don't eat out and our only exposure is going to the grocery store. In a worst case scenario, should something happen that either of us required hospital care (bike accident or something else), I've checked the neighboring hospitals and they seem to have capacity. I'll check again before we go.
My post surgery follow-up visit is in two weeks at which point I'm hoping to be cleared to ride, at least on the recumbent on the trainer. I said in posts pre-surgery that I was hoping to be able to do that three weeks post surgery but there's NFW that I should or could have done that. I'm just hoping that I can in two more weeks.
Stay tuned!
