Just got home from RF Ablation (L2-L5)

[AZRickD]

Sometime around mid-March I started to have a little bit of back tightness. It was a pretty dirtbike-race heavy few weeks. The tightness went away, but more slowly.

In April I started to experience some morning stiffness that I would have to stretch out. Now in May, after last Saturday's 113-mile dualsport ride around Sedona, I'm on Day 4 and still have some moderate muscle tightness (you might call it spasm).

So, it seems like the effects of the procedure are on the down-side of wearing off. I'll go back to the doc to see if I want to hit it up again or do something else.

Although short-lived, it sure was a nice few months.

[Maria]

I've never been anywhere near as active as you and probably never even felt as good as you feel feeling bad!

Hope you stay as good as you are whatever you're doing for treatment!

[AZRickD]

We are all just surfers on a bell-shaped curve. Sometimes I go tubular. Sometimes I get a really bad sunburn.

Last week I was on ice, stiff, and listing to starboard.
Last night I did a 16-mile night mountainbike ride.

I had another ablation scheduled for last week but my mandatory driver had to cancel. I haven't rescheduled.

[Maria]

Have you just tried an injection of 60mg of Toradol? Sometimes the docs make a cocktail and mix it with a bit of steroid material tho I do well just with the Toradol injectable. It's an Nsaid and even tho it's main action is antiinflammatory it acts very well to alleviate muscle spasms for me so maybe it would help with muscle tightness as well?

You were super active tho so if your bod is a bit beat up that makes sense to me Good luck and hope the "tightness" wears off or you get it ablated off or whatever! Maria

[jsewell]

I am happy to hear you are still out there able to live life and do the things you want. I think i am going to have one more surgery to get me the best i can be and see what i can do., No more mountain trail running and i miss it dearly. i went into a pool for the first time in a few years today. i used to swim a mile several days a week , today i almost drowned myself!!

Good luck getting a driver for the next ablation.
judy

[AZRickD]

I miss the trail running, too. I can do it, I suppose, but I have relegated myself to the mountain bike. Swimming and pedaling motion is usually very good for my back. Makes it loosey-goosey. A much better activity than doing trail maintenance for the Forest Service two weeks ago. My back spazzed out for three days after that.

I did the right-side ablation yesterday morning. Mild soreness treated with a series of icepacks. So far, so good.

Doing a night mountain bike ride today. It will be sweaty-hot in Phoenix tonight.

Left side is scheduled in two weeks. Doc is scheduled off for next week.

[jsewell]

Congrats on getting one side done. That is one procedure i have never had . I was in Phoenix once in the summer, it was very hot. I was there for a convention dealing with the blind, which was my field of study. Hot is all i remember.
I am going to keep trying to swim. I can only do strokes that do not involve head movement. (broken neck) I never even tried mountain biking, i loved running so much and never imagined all this back stuff would happen to me.

I hope this ablation holds up well and you have good luck with the other side as well. Keep moving!!
Judy

[AZRickD]

I did the left-side two weeks ago (on June 26th).

So far, the process is going more standardly. Last October I got fairl immediate relief. The docs and literature said that the relief would be minimal at first and then increase as the sensory nerves slowly shut down.

So, while not perfect, it is manageable. I wake each morning to a short series on the inversion table to get me unkinked from a night of crooked sleep. Then I go on the Spinalator table (purchased used from a closed chiro office). Stretching and/or a MTBike ride. I use ice nearly every day, held in place by either a single elasto-back brace or the addition of my block-n-tackle back brace when I need things to straighten up.

Mountain biking tonight, as the temps in Phoenix will drop to a chilly 94F as the sun sets.

[Maria]

Never heard of that.. does it align the spine?