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Old 05-29-20, 11:44 PM
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jc907
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
That's tough duty. I'm always like - there's gotta be something one can do. You've done the PT, watched the videos, talked to the surgeon, etc? Dead end? How much can you bend your spine? If you go too far, damage? Don't know anything about this one. One suggestion: Riding Position Discovery
Since it's the last lumber disc, the range of motion is not terribly affected. Nonetheless, your body is an amazing thing in that its ability to detect something wrong and try to keep you from making it worse is really remarkable but also has strange effects. For example: walking is not too much of an issue for me but prolonged sitting or standing is. If I'm on my feet more than 15-20 minutes as I can be at church (I'm Orthodox Christian and there are no pews - luckily, they have a couple of chairs for folks like me along the wall, but the transitioning from sitting to standing is also painful), I start losing feeling in my feet and get pains in my butt, foot soles and outside of my thighs; if I'm sitting, I get pains in my lower back after 15-20 minutes. To address this, I've tried getting ryzotomies which are basically spinal injections to chemically terminate the painfully offending nerves. In theory, that sounds like it might work, but your body gets hip to what you're trying to do and reroutes the pain to other nerves because it knows something's not right in that spot and you need to know about it and the way it tells you and keeps you from making it worse is by sending pain signals from the affected area. I've had several of these procedures and just gave up. Eventually, the next disc level starts to go early because it's picking up the extra work load from the removed disc. I think this is starting to happen in my L4-L5 disc. So, I have to be real careful about how I go about things. I also had a double discetomy in my neck at C4, C5 & C6 in '05. That's an issue because I'll have more noticeable loss of range of motion if I get the next levels taken out which I'm due for. Discectomies only last about 7-10 years before the next levels go. As it is now, I still have almost 90% neck mobility, but I'm starting to have issues with loss of feeling in my hands, neck pains and stiffness again because C4, 5 & 6 is the junction where the nerves going to your hands come out of your neck. Keeping a straight back/neck and not lifting my head back helps and I use one of those tiny mirrors attached to my helmet to see behind me without turning my head. This is why MTB riding on the road is easier for me than my road bike which now sits dormant in the garage. It's quite literally a pain-in-the-neck and ass, but the alternative is what exactly? I suppose I could swim but then I have a 20 minute shlep to the pool - if and when it ever opens up again - or get bored out of my mind on the elliptical. Walking doesn't get the heart rate up enough to get any cardio benefit unless I use the treadmill - again...boring. I can't give up trying to find something that works.
Thanks for the link :-)
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