My 6-Week Visit

[Bret]

I don't know if I'm a freak or what, but at six weeks, I am healed. I
have a small bump in my lumbar area, but I am ready to do anything. I
hope the others in this group start having a more accelerated
recovery. I will be running a 50K mountain trail race in less than
three weeks and have already resumed my rock climbing pastime
vigorously. I am free of lumbar or associated glute and leg pain and
haven't taken a pain pill for over two weeks. "Overdoing it" on the
weekends causing pain is not part of my experience at all. I
purposefully "overdo it" every day, and I'm feeling great. Is there
some secret I'm missing out on, do I need to gain a few unnecessary
pounds, hunch over, feel unloved, what? I don't get it...

Sorry for being so brash. I'm just excited to be free of a quarter
century of pain and wondering why it's not a similar reaction to the
same procedure for others. Chastise as you see fit. I'm sure I
deserve it.

[richn...@gmail.com]

Hi Bret,
Great news - I'm pleased for you and long may it continue. It sounds
like you had different symptoms to me coming into the surgery i.e. leg
pain. I was getting spasms in my lower back and had a terrible back
alignment.
Have you had any physical theraphy yet ? Just curious, as I was
feeling 100% okay before PT but I was told that the drugs from the
surgery can numb the pain for a lengthy period after surgery and once
the PT started to rejuvenate the nerves around the surgerical area
that's when the discomfort re-surfaced. Definitely don't want to put a
negative spin on this and I really hope your pain free era continues
indefinitetly, just wanted to throw that out there.

Good luck with your 50K trail race in a few weeks - I'm optimistic I
can get back into triathlon racing sometime down the road - I even
signed up for a sprint in September.

I'm a firm believer that exercise is the key to recovery here
(actually started some light running again this week)
Take care
Rich