Power Quest 4 the 2busy - Page 5

Just wanted to drop in quickly and tell jsirabella that I have read the struggle that you have endured and the long recovery time. I sincerely hope that you will be able to fully recover and be pain free once again. I hate to hear anyone having a dibilitating injury.

Jesse

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Hi Jessie,

Thanks for the kind words. I am actually heading to the gym now and continue with my PT. I can not deny that this year has been more than tough. I took a really big tumble from where I was in december. I was feeling on top of the world physically.

It is funny as I have experienced broken bones, pulled and torn muscles but never nerve pain. God I do not wish this on my worst enemy. It is a type of pain that can not be matched and mine is considered mild.

I have one in my T-3/4 which only came out after I stopped exercising and the main one in the L4/L5 area. It was a freak accident as probably if the guy did not catch me the ground would have absorbed quite a bit of the fall but it also could have been one of those herniated discs from sneezing type. You know the story if a guy sneezes and gets a herniation but it was not the sneeze but all the stuff leading up to it.

It has been a long 6 mos now of continue downhill until only the last 1-2 mos of recovery and I definitely have my good and bad days. I have totally changed my life to the extreme as I designed a standing desk in my office, do yoga throughout the day, accupuncture...everything to lay stress off the back to heal. I get quite a few looks and quite a few told you so in the office. I am trying everything to avoid surgery and that is my goal short term. All the docs believe I should recover and not need it. I am proud to say even when I had to lay on the floor to take phone calls that I did not miss a day of work...but that was a sight to behold.

Anyway I saw your post in the other thread and be careful with that lower back. That sciatica nerve is nasty. I mean evil nasty. Keep a close eye out over the next few weeks as the first indication for me of a problem was a drop in power steadily for no real reason.

We all have our goals this year so I know yours will involve your weekend group rides so lets see how we all do. Ofcourse KO maybe can give me more less impact body weight exercises to get strong again. I did 3x10 yesterday of dips and I feel like I lifted a house....lol.

-js

Injuries and layoffs due to injuries are really horrible. It's hard enough to get on your bike and make progress when work and family compete for time; but throw in physical injuries, and it becomes a different equation.

JS, the one thing you do have going for you in NYC are some great docs at Columbia/ HSS. For a nonsurgical guy, try and get in to see Greg Lutz. Surgery scares the crap out of me, so I would keep it as a last resort. I don't do a lot of work in Metro NYC area any more, but I did use Lutz in the past and he is great. Actually, I've seen him on the Today show and other NY based morning shows as well. If you do need surgery, don't go anywhere else but HSS.

I had my bout last December and was lucky it went away. It was bad enough that I dropped the heavy lifting and switched to this body weight stuff, which has been great. I've even been doing back limbers lately (against the wall) so I really have virtually no back pain.

Good luck.

As an aside, a "date night" with my wife last night changed my schedule so that I will be jumping on my bike tonite--I just did an abreviated gymnastic routine last night. It might be TMI, but sitting on the bike for 60 minutes at night in my condition does not help my performance in that area at all.

Where I work we have sit/stand desks that are height adjustable and have 'preset' height adjustments. They're rather neat and as part of the setup process we undergo a whole ergomomic evalutaion.

We also have a little program on the PC (wellnomics "workpace")that forces us to take breaks and even displays useful exercises and stretches that can be done at or near our desks. If we manually cancel too many 'recommended breaks' our supervisor receives notification of this and it's "chat time". LOL

Wellnomics Ltd

Greg Lutz...thanks for the referral. I will definitely contact him. I have been to every type of doc, ortho, NS, PM and spine ortho. All say the same thing I should heal in time but the mis-diagnosis has made in tough as I was working on pirformis syndrome and not a herniated disc which are different. There could be more than the MRI shows but with the two epis I will try and beat it. I feel getting better but a very rocky road and need my diclofenic to really do enough PT. I will start to use less in the coming month.

I do not want any part of surgery as too many stories of people cascading into multiple surgery and fusions. No thanks unless I am bed ridden which I can not see right now. The cane has been gone for more than a month now.

Good luck tonite, (TMI?) and do not aggrevate it...let us know how it goes. Looking forward to the winter training posts...

-js

Wow that seems a bit much but after you go through a compressed nerve it seems like something we should all do. The changes I have done have made a big difference in how I am doing but no where out of the woods. Driving has become tougher for one thing as I have moved the pain up with the PT, it is tougher to sit for long periods of time.

But I would definitely heed your computer if just in part...

-js

TMI = too much information. Its the shorthand for the person that shares too much private or intimate stuff. But I can't say I don't wonder if others have the same issue following a "hard" session on the trainer "getting up" to do something "hard" later on that same night. For me, its trainer specific. On the road, it seems that I am doing enough standing and sitting,. See, it very easily gets TMI.

LOL...well be glad your have someone who wants to push you "hard" as we get older that seems to fade...

Set up the appointment and I see him on the 24th...takes no insurance and man he is expensive but I let the company cover it...lol

Hey its worth it...thanks for the referral..I will let you know how it goes.

Good luck with Dr. Lutz. He has basically written many of the good articles on the non-surgical treatment of disk and back injuries.

On the training side, I got on the bike the first time after a 6 week layoff due to a vasectomy and post op infection. Great weather allowed me to get outside for almost 2 hours. It was a weekend recreation ride just to get the feel back and I averaged 174 watts. I made sure that I was sitting and standing alot to avoid injury to the boys. Tonite, I will jump on for my first 2 x 20 in a few months.

Good luck tonight, don't start too high, expect too much, or be too bummed if the wattages seem low after the layoff. It's like weight training... if you've been there before, you can get back there (it may take awhile but it's NOT starting from scratch)

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Hey who knows maybe you will get the Lance effect...doesn't robin williams always call him the uni-baller of something like that...lol...I am sure you will do fine.

My PT is going well and expect pretty soon that I will be able to walk for a full hour and get in 3 miles. I have also started more strength training but it is pretty much as light as you can go and just getting the motion in. I would say my core is where I am doing the most work combined with those small para central back muscles with all the yoga type stuff.

Saw the doc today and he told me as long as I keep on the same path that he expects that by January I should see a real turn of the corner and by spring the bike may be a possibility. I still have the appointment with Lutz so lets see how it goes.

I did actually sit on the bike seat in the gym for 5 minutes just to feel it again. I notice in the mirror how much you rock which starts the pain. Is there any way to lessen that?

-js

Another setback with this bug that has been going around. I missed work today and only worked a half day yesterday. Maybe I can get on the trainer tommorow.

UHGGGGG!

I feel you pain JS. Even these minor setbacks of a few days or weeks drive me nuts. I don't know how I would handle it if weeks turned into months or the better part of a year.

Good luck.

BTW, I read that Born to Run book. Pretty good read as far as exploring endurance sports. The author went to the same HS as me. I might try some barefoot running. Basically, it is the story of a guy that got frustrated by frequent running injuries--which in part is how I got interested in cycling in the first place. For him, ditching his running shoes and adopting an easy relaxed style of running recharged him. As I said, the book is a lot like a Krakauer book in terms of intersting tangents and a core story.

I am not sure how long since the procedure but you do not need anymore issues so take it easy. And with all the hysteria about the H1N1 definitely take it easy.

Do not want to sound like a martyr but trust me you do not know pain till you have sciatica or some other form of compressed nerve pain. To make a long story short I started like your post above just frustrated and a slow decline with no answers till I got to using a cane. You slowly loose the drive over that period and by the end all you want is the pain to stop. The pain is constant and meds never really do enough. I went to every doc I could even my cousin who is a surgeon at Geisinger medical up in your area. Finally the original doc scheduled me for 2 epis and that with the PT has gotten me to where I am now which is "less than 0" compared to December but I would describe it more as a discomfort. I believe by January I can turn a corner and than by Spring who knows...

But this bout has changed my life forever...the ego filling days are over and I will just be satisfied with walking while the girl next to me on the thread mill is going full speed. Atleast I get a good view...there is one girl who does the stairmaster every morning...wow. They make sure to put those machines right in the front of the windows so all the other machines look at it from the behind...

I will try and get back in the saddle eventually and do more but right now I am happy as hell with my 45 minutes at 3mph hour today and little discomfort. Why not try other things...I see SOT is back at it and wish him luck but honestly 300 watts to me is not as important as it was a year ago. It is fun to try other things like...give other stuff a try...

-js