Trials and Tribs

It's been almost a month since my last post. I haven't been lazy (well, not, completely) - it's been a pretty rough month.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Somewhat uneventful, but we ate well and got a game of mah jongg in. The following weekend was Big Game weekend, so I was pretty psyched.

I recently mentioned I've had some pain in my right leg. The grueling walking and standing associated with college football season in Berkeley has not been helping. Gradually, I started to get a tingling feeling, like my foot has been asleep and was "waking up." I have been getting therapy from the chiropractor, and it was loosening a little, so I wasn't too worried.

I was pretty exhausted the day before the Big Game because we had done some Christmas shopping at Valley Fair. For those who don't know, this is a pretty big mall. I was sore and tightening up, but I stretched and went to sleep. Of course, my back seized up when I woke up, and the pain wouldn't subside.

I have had a herniated disc in my back for about five years. It was bad enough I went on short-term disability and needed a cortisone shot. I didn't have it operated on, and every year or so it flares up and I go down for a couple of days. I have gotten good about treating the symptoms and doing the proper exercises, so I can minimize downtime to about 48 hours.

With the Big Game only a few hours away though, this wasn't any comfort. I tried stretching and ice and was popping Advil like M&M's, but there was no way I could make it. It didn't help that cal lost to Stanford for the first time in the Tedford Era.

So that was a pretty crappy weekend. Unfortunately, the shooting pain down the sciatic nerve (from my lower back down to my foot) wasn't backing down. Sleeping was interrupted every four hours when the pain medication wore off. I knew I was going to have to miss some work, so I shot off an e-mail to my team to let them know they had a man down.

By Monday the pain had eased and the back muscles relaxed enough that I could move around a little. This is about the time I can usually resume my life. Except my right leg below my knee was numb. Not just tingly and not painful, but numb.

On the doctor's advice, I took the rest of the week off. By Thursday I was stumbling and shuffling around the house. Most of my muscles were ready to go, except the ones in my right foot and leg. So my brain was telling them to move as usual, but my muscles weren't paying attention. This resulted in a couple of near spills.

A week later, I had gone back to work, and I had regained some feeling and control, but I'm still not one hundred percent. If I walk very slowly and deliberately, I'm fine; but if I try to hurry, I start to shuffle or limp. I couldn't stand being cooped up and we were running out of food, so we went to Costco Wednesday and it practically killed me. I felt like I'd walked miles the next day.

I'm pretty sure what I have is Common Peroneal Nerve Dysfunction and a foot drop. My chiropractor thinks this stems from an injury I could've had in high school, because all the muscles in both legs are unusually tight. I'm not real sure if it's an untreated injury, genetics (I have flat-ass feet), poor living habits, the herniated disc, or a combination. All I know is it sucks.

I did get a Nexcare brace from Target the other night. It's supposed to be for plantar fasciitis but after doing some reading on websites about foot drop (stroke and MS websites, as if it wasn't scary enough), I thought it would help since it keeps the foot at a ninety degree angle to the calf. I've been sleeping with it on and using it when putting my foot up to rest, and although it's uncomfortable, my circulation feels a lot better when I take it off. Some of the feeling has returned - unfortunately, with that so has pain.

So now my leg is less numb and more weak than anything, and the muscles are tight and sore. So I'm getting back to where I was a month ago. Had to do lots of shopping online this Christmas.

It hasn't been fun for me, but it's been much, much worse for a lot of our friends and family. I doubt those folks are reading this post since they have bigger things to worry about, but they've been in our prayers. It's been pretty hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year; hopefully 2008 will be kinder.