Originally Posted by
Minnesota Expat
Okay, 50 Plus cycling issues. Check. Threads about prostrate cancer, retirement, and 3-wheel bicycles. Check. May not like it, but this is the right place.
I'm 55-yo, ride about 2-3k miles a year, no big deal, but tend to ride hard and aggressive. Oh, also bike commute 2-3 times a week about 15-miles round trip.
So an MRI last week shows a disc protusion between L4-L5. This is white-knuckle, grit the teeth and grab the back of a chair sustained and continuous pain.
Steroids and Tramodol help, but I want this fixed and have no fear of surgery. No messing with chiropractic back rubs or more drugs, let's get this fixed.
Here's the question; people knowledgeable about neurosurgery, but no knowledge of cycling, are saying 4-6 weeks off the bike. Sound right?
Sounds about right. PT before and after is a great idea. No surgery unless you can't get relief with PT.
Is this just trimming of the disc or a fusion that is being proposed? Fusion would probably be the longer of the two.
My wife had a C4-C5 fusion and was skiing in 6 weeks. Her pain was less 2 hours after surgery than 2 hours before - dramatic reduction in pain. Her pain symptoms were burning pain down her arm where she was on heavy Vicodin regime for weeks before the surgery. After surgery she was largely pain free from the nerve impingement but obviously sore from the surgery.
Treat aggressively, the longer you have the pain the longer it will take you to recover from the nerve inflammation (which can be an aggravating long time). The sooner you resovle it, the faster you will recover and the sooner you'll be back on the bike. The point here is that procrastinating now isn't going to get you back on the bike faster and if it hurts like you say it does, you're not going to decide go/no go based on time to get back on the bike. Docs I know who have had problems like this let it go days not weeks before they resolve surgically if no benefit from PT.
Good advice to get surgeon recommendations from your PT. Also, to look for in the surgeon is how many of these surgeries that that do. Minimum is probably 1 per month, but you should be able to find one who does at least one per week and if you're in a big city, probably a surgeon that only does that procedure. That is the guy to pick.
J.