Well, not quite.
Had my post surgical exam this morning. One mistake that I made going in was that I didn't summarize the last 6 weeks or review my notes. The first question was "tell me about the first two weeks post surgery"? Did the best I could from memory and after looking at my notes when I returned home I think I gave a reasonably accurate assessment but I wish I'd have been a bit better prepared. Oh well. D- on the exam.
I was obviously able to describe things in the last couple of weeks much more accurately sans notes. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I hurt my back two days ago. I was sitting down on the stairs so Marcia could put my shoes on and sat down too fast and too far back on the stair so I ended up hitting my back hard on the next stair up. It's really been hurting and I've only been getting a couple of hours sleep per night.
I didn't want the assessment overly colored by that though I did mention it. He said he would have expected more symptoms in my leg and less in my back, I'm hopeful that the back pain is simply a result of my carelessness and it'll dissipate. Before that, I actually had a couple of pretty good days so let's hope that's the trend and that it continues.
The good news is that although I'm supposed to continue to take it easy (no bending at the waist, no lifting) I'm cleared to ride indoors on the trainer or even outdoors if I want. Although he's an avid cyclist, he has a really weird mental image of what the position on a recumbent looks like. He seems to think your knee comes up to your chin on the pedal stroke. Fortunately, I was prepared for that and had pictures of myself taken from the side which showed the position of my back and my legs at various points in the pedal stroke.
So he said I could ride the recumbent or a conventional bike although by "conventional bike" I think he means like a beach cruiser where you sit straight up. I suppose this means I could ride a DF on the trainer (I do have one set up) and just not grab the bars. I might work up to that.
I did a very brief session just to check the setup. I'm experimenting with Rouvy vs my usual Zwift so I wanted to get the trainer and various sensors paired and make sure everything worked since I hate having to stop in the middle of a ride and screw with something.
I rode one whole mile. I. Got. Nothing. Hopefully better days ahead.My plan is to ride the trainer exclusively for at least a week and then perhaps venture out on the roads, all on the recumbent.
After the end of October I can "resume normal activities". I don't reckon this means resuming my Mr Olympia weight training but presumably does remove the 8 pound lifting restriction, I'll be able to bend, etc. He also said I could start core strengthening (planks and bridges). I may wait a bit on that and only "turn one knob" at a time.
Stay tuned!
