Bob's Blog

2019-06-19 Day 9 without pain meds Woke up with pain. That usually makes for a very long day. No motivation to get out of bed.  I cannot say I’d like consistency. Like consistent pain! But really frustrating waking up not knowing what level of pain I will have to deal with that day. Another trip to the hospital and 45min in the car and the pain was worse. 45min trip home and I had to spend time on legs up on the exercise ball and back on the floor. Attended a soccer game and spent the entire game pacing the sideline. 90 minutes of walking help pain management a lot. I have talked to several people and each had a different method for pain management. Walking help me the most. Followed by McKenzie Protocol  and Wall Slides . Night time brought very strong tingling in my right big toe and right index toe and complete numbness on the middle toe. Maybe the posts on reddit  in r/backpain and r/ChronicPain  hold more truth then I thought! 🤔 ...

2019-06-18 Day 8 without pain meds In the morning things were ok. Couple hours into working and back start to hurt. Had to drive for almost 90min to get to the hospital and and then (mostly) sit for a 90min educational class. I left the hospital and things did not feel very good. Took about 45min to get home so that additional drive time made things worse. Spent time with my leg up on the exercise ball, back flat on the floor, and got some relief from the nerve pain. Index toe very numb tonight. RenCat  sent me a pretty good write up on the procedure I am about to under go and I found some positive “back surgery” stories. I’ll post those later.

2019-06-17 Day 7 without pain meds Day started with my back feel ok. Tingling in the right big toe. Index toe a little numb. Foot felt ok. Day ended with nerve pain in my back, tingling in my big toe and  index toe. Top of my foot went numb to the ankle. Radiating pain that starts in the gluteus maximus, down to the quadricep, ending in the ankle. My neck also was hurting. Posting this message to let anyone who reading this that the pain is always there but in different degrees. Some days are better than other days.

2019-06-16 Day 6 without pain meds. The day started with minimal pain. In the afternoon things started hurting. Usually the tingling in my big toe gets worse, spreads to the index toe, and the middle toe. Top of my foot goes numb to the angle. Radiating pain that starts in the gluteus maximus, down to the quadricep, ending in the ankle. My neck also was hurting. Used TENS  for some relief. LaCross ball for breaking up the fascia .

2019-06-15 Day 5 without pain meds. Today started ok. Some days I wake up and think “I’m fine”. Today is a day like that.

2019-06-14 Day 4 without pain meds. I said I’d try to keep things positive. So I’m positive not having anything to reduce the pain sucks! If you never had sciatica you do not really understand the constant unrelenting pain. Need to be off all pain meds for 7 days. 4 days down. 3 to go.

I am writing a series of blog post about my L5/S1 herniated disc and what I did to treat the problem. It’s June 2019 but the injury occurred in January 2019. I’ll be back dating the posts to show the timeline of events. I plan to make my posts a positive read. Doing my own research on herniated discs I found so many negative posts. Scary  posts on reddit  in r/backpain and r/ChronicPain Google searches filled with failed treatments, bad surgeries, extreme nerve pain Don’t now where this will go. Stay tuned for back dated posts.

2019-06-13 Day 3 without pain meds

2019-06-12 Day 2 without pain meds

2019-06-11 Day 1 without pain meds 

I don’t remember how the topic came up but the question was asked, “Should I wash my belt?" I wash my belt. Your belt is the one things you wear every time you train. It will alway touch the mat. The belts are made of thick material and have lots of places for nasty things to live. Tim Blackstone told me the same thing when I was a white belt. Here is how I wash my belt. I put my belt into a laundry bag. The laundry bag helps keep the belt from getting tangled. You needs this if you have an upright clothes washer. I put OdoBan (Damian recommended) into the rinse cycle. My clothes washer has a compartment for putting stuff into you want dispensed in the rinse cycle. Amazon Link . I air dry my belt stretched over the drying rack.  I never dry my belt in the clothes dryer. See the pictures for how I stretch the belt over the drying rack. If I need to speed up the drying process I make a fan blow onto the belt. The belt will shrink a little. I find once I start sweating it stretches ...

http://youtu.be/rY5eGjpGxAk