Despite the fact that I've wavered about whether or not to talk about non-cycling things in this blog I'm writing this mostly to chronicle my own experience but also because a few people that are considering similar surgeries have asked me to continue to post my experience.
As intro, here's my normal daily routine:
- When I first wake up, I lay in bed for a while and do a "self-assessment". How badly do I hurt? Any sciatic symptoms? This seems to be the time of day when I can get the most consistent measure of how I'm doing. This also has the advantage of my being fully awake before I get out of bed so I don't inadvertently twist or bend.
- Have breakfast then take my morning walk. This is usually my longest walk of the day and six weeks on I've worked up to 2 miles.
- Take a second walk in the late afternoon, usually a mile or so.
Interspersed with this is normal (limited) activities: walking around the house, back and forth to my workshop, etc. I typically walk between 7,500 to 11,000 steps per day. Aside from a small amount of stretching (calf and hamstrings) this is my only activity.
So how do things stand?
On balance, I'm certainly better than I was in the first few weeks. Having said that, I'm most definitely not better than I was pre-surgery:
- My self assessment this morning was some tingling in my toes and tightness in my calf.
- As I write this, the tingling is a bit worse and my back aches both in my spine and my low back muscles. On the 1-10 pain scale I'd put it at a solid 2 - not debilitating but it hurts.
- Experience says that these symptoms will get worse over the course of the day. I start my morning walk with a bit of numbness as described above but walk with a normal heel to toe stride. By the end of my walk, my forefoot is numb and I've got a slight limp.
- Typically by the end of the day my back really aches, pain level has gone up at least to a 3 or 4 depending on what I've done during the day.
- I've got nothing for core strength and I've gained 15 lbs in 2020. It's likely that the loss of core strength has at least something to do with my ongoing back pain, in particular the low back muscles.
- Bending or twisting even a small amount results in sciatic and low back pain. I still can't put on my own socks. Washing and drying my feet while showering always results in my foot being numb and my back hurting. I try hard when doing these things to "bring the work to me" and not bend but a small amount of bending is unavoidable.
- Overall, I'm really fragile. It takes nothing to get my back really hurting or provoke more significant sciatica. For example, this morning I sat on the steps to put my shoes on and leaned back against a step behind me. I'm really hurting.
As I've said previously, overall I've been a "model" patient and have followed the post-surgical protocol mostly to the letter. I have done small amounts of bending and twisting but on reflection I think that was actually a good thing. I've looked at a ton of web sites detailing post-microdiscectomy treatment and they uniformly say no bending and twisting. It occurred to me though that if this were really bad they'd likely suggest or prescribe a brace and none of them do. My conclusion is that some movement promotes healing.
No, I've not been doing that. More like standing at the kitchen counter and turning to pick up the pepper shaker.
So that's it. Was having the surgery worth it? Hopefully it is still too early to make a definitive statement. If this is as good as it gets though, the answer is no.
My 6 week post-surgical exam is tomorrow. I'm hoping that I'll be cleared to ride on the trainer and will be able to start PT to rebuild some flexibility and core strength.
Stay tuned!
