bkrownd

The root of my problem turned out to be spondylolisthesis - a mis-aligned spine and a deformed vertebra. Look that up on wikipedia and you'll see what it is, except my S1 is shaped wrong as well. Explains occasional mild lower back pain I've had for about 10-15 years, which was slowly increasing. I had always assumed it was muscle-related. I never had an x-ray of my lower back before this herniated disk, which would have saved me a world of trouble if I had one about 10 years ago. If I had known about the misalignment 10-20 years ago this event could have been avoided.

I was moving around quite a bit after 3 weeks. The sciatica (phantom leg pain and spasms) was pretty much gone after 5 weeks. The site of the herniated disk is occasionally tender, but some days everything is normal. However, the disk is always going to be at risk of rupturing again, so I'm going to have to manage all of my activities to minimize risk from now on. (That is, choose the risk) I'm back at work, and can gently do my wilderness expeditions again, though at a much slower pace than I'm accustomed to.

I'm not sure when I'll try to ride the bike to work again. It will have to be very cautious at first. Riding around the block was the event that precipitated the herniated disk, so I'm naturally nervous about it. I had not worked those muscles in a while, and just pushed it too hard. My route to/from work is all hills and traffic, so there's no gentle way to get back into it. I used to ride fast and furious, but now I'll have to find new gears and go a lot slower.

I have been a sprinter and jumper by nature for over 40 years. This is going to be a difficult change of pace.