So, a little over 3 years ago I had surgery on my L5-S1 disc. An unexpected rupture sent me on a trip to the hospital that ended up with the surgery. At the time, the L5-S1 was protruding 9mm. The MRI also showed that the L4-L5 (just above it) had a bit of a bulge.
After the first surgery, it was a relatively long road due to the nerve damage. I came back pretty good, but was getting some left leg tinglies in strange places. I attributed that to muscle imbalance and various tight muscles.
In early April I dd the San Diego Gran Fondo. I’ve done the medio fondo the past two years. The event crept up on me a bit. I had relatively good form and was climbing a lot, but not in 105 mile ride shape. So I piled on the miles in a short 3 week prep window.
I was getting a lot of hamstring pain and foot numbness.
The foot numbness had been there for at least 18 months on and off when riding. I didn’t think much of it.
After the ride, which was in the rain and managed a head wind the whole way I felt fine. The next morning I was in pain. Strange pain.
I couldn’t walk in the mornings. Leaning forward helped and heat helped. I tried physical therapy, and after a while, my PT thought I was having disc symptoms.
I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Bawa. He ordered an MRI that was refused by my insurance. They neglected to inform us of the refusal. It took a short call with Dr. Bawa and the insurance to get it approved.
The MRI showed a disc protrusion.
Next step was epidural injections.
The injections helped. They helped for about 3 weeks and the pain came back. After the third one, we came to the conclusion that they helped, but I was still not where I needed to be. I couldn’t bike, fish or even walk around the block.
Luckily work was ok. But I had a lot of pain when I needed to travel, so it wasn’t all rosy.
Surgery for my L4-L5 is scheduled for 8-18-2016.