The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

As I type this in my zero-gravity recliner from my living room, I'm happy to report I'm not in the horrible, excruciating pain I feared I might be.

Surgery was yesterday at the crack of dawn. I was, understandably, pretty nervous. Say what you will about Stanford, they really have their stuff together at the Ambulatory Surgery Center. My surgeons wisely gave my wife my prescriptions before surgery, and there is a Walgreens in the building. I had Vicodin waiting for me when I woke up.

I didn't speak to the surgeon, but my wife did. It turns out the disk extrusion had calcified, it had been there so long. Ewww. And it turns out I may be in a for a lifetime of back problems due to my genealogical bone structure. Just peachy. At least I know it's not entirely my fault. I'll know more in six weeks at my follow-up.

I slept a lot of yesterday off. My back feels like someone ripped it open and jabbed a bunch of instruments in there, probably because that's what happened. On the other hand, I was not expecting so much pain in my throat and sinuses. While I was out, they stuck a breathing tube down my throat. The result is a raspy voice, pain while swallowing, and coughing up blood.

All in all, not doing too bad. The sciatic nerve is irritated, but that's to be expected. It feels like I already have some strength back in my right foot, which is really encouraging considering it hasn't been very long, and the chances for recovery were not that high. Icing my back for twenty minutes regularly, as that should reduce inflammation as well as force blood to rush into the area to repair the damage.

Standing feels best. I stupidly laid on my back on a foam wedge at first, before realizing it was a lot less painful to lay face down while putting on the ice. Lying in bed on my left side results in virtually no pain, but it's pretty boring unless I'm sleeping. The couch is too soft to lie on. The zero-grav chair I bought is fine as long as I stay in one place, and since I can use the laptop and watch HDTV from there, that's where I've set up camp.

This morning, I made a bowl of cereal, made coffee, and even ventured outside to get the paper (with my grabber, no bending over). So I already feel like I'm making some progress. Things could be better, but they certainly could be a lot worse.

My Post-Op Playlist

If you're interested in the playlist I built to keep me positive, you can check that out from my last.fm journal.

Under the Knife

June went by without a single blog post. I would say I haven't had the time, but as the people who follow me on Twitter can attest, that isn't true.

The largest reason is I have had back issues, alluded to previously on this blog. I finally decided to get that checked out after it flared up again in early June.

A rather unpleasant procedure called an electromyography (EMG) and a new MRI confirmed I have three, not one, herniated discs. My first consult with a neurosurgeon said I not only needed surgery, but emergency surgery.

I had a second opinion with the Stanford Orthopaedic Spine Center. Yes, that Stanford - which I hate with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. Seeing as how the weakness began during Cal football season and the first episode of pain hit on the day of the Big Game, this is only fitting.

Luckily, my surgeon is a Cal alum.

Anyway, I had a difficult choice to make. The first surgeon said I absolutely needed surgery to avoid permanent nerve damage. He recommended an open lumbar laminectomy. Dr. Ivan Cheng at Stanford recommended a microscope surgery, called a microdecompression/microdiscectomy.

The two surgeries are basically the same - cut away a piece of the lamina of the vertebrae to relive pressure, then temporary move the nerve out of the way to cut off the disc herniations. The open surgery meant a much longer recovery, but the micro surgery presents a higher risk of recurrence. Both surgeries might only give me about a 50/50 chance to regain strength in my right foot.

I decided to go with the micro surgery. When the chances of full recovery are that low, I don't see the point in getting the more invasive surgery. If I re-herniate, I'm not even sure I'd go back in for a second surgery. But I figure I have to give my 30-year-old body at least a coin flip at repairing itself.

So I go under the knife in less than twelve hours. I'm not extremely nervous, but I've never had major surgery or been in a hospital, so I've been anxious about this for weeks. Luckily, if all goes well, the micro surgery is outpatient and I could be writhing in pain in my own bed by lunchtime tomorrow.

I've decided to look at this as a wake-up call. I can't just sit at a desk all day, eating junk food and staying sedentary. I really can't do that if I expect to stay away from an operating table for a second time.

These are the steps I have taken:

1. I have built a playlist of music to motivate me and keep me focused.
   
2. I bought Giants Crocs so I won't slip and kill myself.
   
3. I bought a PikStik Pro. This is my favorite new toy in months.
   
4. I bought a pedometer to track my progress and make sure I don't push too hard. I wore it today to get a baseline and took 2072 steps so far. That is pathetic. It has USB so I can be a true geek and make charts and stuff.
   

These are my goals, in descending order of importance:

1. Re-gain strength in my right leg and foot.
   
2. After six months, don't be worse off than when I started.
   
3. Make it to my cousin's wedding in three weeks. I bought a plane ticket, so I fully intend to be there.
   
4. Get down to a reasonable weight by Christmas.
   
5. Try to be able to set comfortably enough to see "The Dark Knight". This is totally beyond my control.
   
6. Watch Battlestar Galactica, season one.
   

I'm sure I will be spending a lot of time online, in between episodes of Battlestar. If you want to keep tabs on my recovery (and I don't post anything here), try the following sources:

• My Facebook profile
  
• Follow me on Twitter
  
• FriendFeed - I'm new to this, but it should aggregate all the other sources.
  

Thanks everyone for their well wishes and concerns. I don't plan on being down for long.

Playing Catch-Up

Almost two months since my last post. I suck at this.

Let's hit the high/lowlights of March and April:

• I started Twittering (Twitting? Tweeting? Damn Web 2.0 doublespeak). Well, in any case, Twitter is sort of like a mini-blog, where you can post short entries about anything, no matter how mundane. My three most recent "tweets" are in the sidebar on the right of this page, or you can sign up and "follow" me. I have been spending a lot of time on this lately, probably slowing down my blog output.
  
• In sports, out with college hoops season. Out with Ben Braun. In with Mike Montgomery. In with baseball season. Out with Giants' playoff hopes, then back in. (Same for entertainment value of 2008 Giants.) Out with Warriors' playoff hopes. In with Cal NFL prospects, out with little remaining faith in the 49ers' front office. Lastly, out with Sharks hockey.
  
• Democrats still haven't picked a player. Starting to wonder if an election seemingly ripe for the taking will go by the wayside. Hilary doing McCain's work for him. Obama unable to close the deal. Sigh.
  
• Back flare-up two weekends ago. Using leaf blower and doing actual work apparently through me all out of whack. That's all gone now but still some nerve impingement in my leg, and I think that is still causing me some weakness (although the pain is mostly gone). I am convinced the extra thirty pounds I put on after my wedding is causing all this, and I need to lose at least twenty. So all-you-can-eat ribs tonight were probably a bad idea.
  
• Layoffs on the way at Sun. What else is new? Seriously, I love working at Sun so I'm hoping that I (again) will make it through unscathed. I think they are on the right track and were just stung by the sluggish U.S. economy. I put full blame for our current stock price on the guy in the white house on Pennsylvania Ave.
  
• I have four (yes, four) fantasy baseball teams this season, including two in 20-team leagues. That is taking up far too much of my time.
  

That's all for now. See you in ...July?

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.

Rough weekend and beyond.

It was a ugly weekend, in more ways than one. Rhonda and I headed up to Berkeley Saturday for the big Cal-U$C showdown. The weather forecast was for showers. Unfortunately, it was a little off. Rhonda made me buy her a disposable poncho, and after half-an-hour, I swallowed my pride and bought a second one for myself.

Four hours and two interceptions later, Cal had lost a winnable game and I had added about five pounds in water to my wardrobe. It was literally like I had gone swimming in my clothes. I've been having some pain in my leg lately, and my calves are still sore and knotted from standing in the cold.

Tonight I'm still recovering. We watched the Niners game, or at least tried - they are terrible. The jury is still out on whether Alex Smith stinks, or if he needs receivers, or both. At least Cal has been competitive when they lose this season.

Also, I've been following the WGA strike. Whereas at first it just meant Daily Show re-runs, it now looks like a long wait until next baseball season. If there's no 24 or Lost and they stop running The Office, I might as well cancel my cable and save a few hundred bucks.

So to summarize, my leg hurts, my teams stink, my clothes are still damp, and I could be bored to tears this spring.