Hi All
I am in the final two days of a hospital stay which started with me in the emergency ward at 3am 3 days ago in the fetal position convulsing and yelling in pain with tears flowing into a puddle on the floor. It was the worst pain I could possibly imagine. The CAT scan showed a protruding disc that was compressing the nerve. Unimaginable pain in the SI area and the worst sciatica symptoms of my life.
I am 95% sure of the chain of events which caused this. I had a bad downhill mountain bike accident about 18 years ago that caused the disc herniation, but it only caused minor issues at that time and when I got into weight training I did not experience any problems for many, many years. Throughout those years I was no longer biking (I am a triathlon voyeur and have not done a race since the early 90’s). When I got a new road bike during COVID, I immediately experienced this back pain but it was nowhere near this bad (about 2 years ago) and it subsided. Then I took another long break until a friend coaxed me into doing the community stage of the Tour de France in July and I knew I had to start on the bike again. Immediately I experienced the symptoms again and suddenly after a week of very gradually increasing the duration I experienced severe symptoms. I can honestly say that nothing compares to nerve pain and I can’t even imagine what burn victims go through.
After that long winded opening, my question is this…
Have you experienced this and is it best to not go back to biking or were you able to get on the bike again? If so, how did you build it up so you could tolerate biking? I would love to hear from anyone that has experienced this or professionals that have treated this.
Big thanks in advance :)
________________
Adrian in Vancouver
I am in the final two days of a hospital stay which started with me in the emergency ward at 3am 3 days ago in the fetal position convulsing and yelling in pain with tears flowing into a puddle on the floor. It was the worst pain I could possibly imagine. The CAT scan showed a protruding disc that was compressing the nerve. Unimaginable pain in the SI area and the worst sciatica symptoms of my life.
I am 95% sure of the chain of events which caused this. I had a bad downhill mountain bike accident about 18 years ago that caused the disc herniation, but it only caused minor issues at that time and when I got into weight training I did not experience any problems for many, many years. Throughout those years I was no longer biking (I am a triathlon voyeur and have not done a race since the early 90’s). When I got a new road bike during COVID, I immediately experienced this back pain but it was nowhere near this bad (about 2 years ago) and it subsided. Then I took another long break until a friend coaxed me into doing the community stage of the Tour de France in July and I knew I had to start on the bike again. Immediately I experienced the symptoms again and suddenly after a week of very gradually increasing the duration I experienced severe symptoms. I can honestly say that nothing compares to nerve pain and I can’t even imagine what burn victims go through.
After that long winded opening, my question is this…
Have you experienced this and is it best to not go back to biking or were you able to get on the bike again? If so, how did you build it up so you could tolerate biking? I would love to hear from anyone that has experienced this or professionals that have treated this.
Big thanks in advance :)
________________
Adrian in Vancouver