# New to this forum. Desperate for advice.



## CoffeeBean (2 Jul 2015)

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I used to ride mountain bikes and did so for over 10 years. Thats every weekend and every Wednesday night. Every holiday involved cycling and every shopping trip involved bike stuff (yes girls like to shop for bike stuff too). Now and for the past 2 and half years ive not been able to ride due to ill health. What i'd like to know is how do people cope? what do you do to get by every day when your injured or unwell? Its been so long for me now its like my personality is missing. I cant go in the garage as my beautiful Orange Five Pro is waiting for me, i work weekends to avoid the question of are you cycling and every time i slip back into looking at a cycling mag or catching a clip on facebook im just in pieces.
I've come on to this forum as my boyfriend has gone on a mtb trip to Morzine with his mates and its the first time ive actually felt like i have no one that can relate to how i feel and how to get by while he is away.
Any advice will be much appreciated?


----------



## Milkfloat (2 Jul 2015)

Firstly sorry to hear about your ill health. 

Obviously I don't know what ill health you suffer from, but there are not too many health issues that stop you cycling altogether. MTB may be out of the question, but there are plenty of other options. 

Failing all that have you tried knitting?


----------



## jefmcg (3 Jul 2015)

Is there something else you can do? A tricycle perhaps? Or a recumbent tricycle? - those things are fast. A turbo trainer? On the back of a tandem with your boyfriend, just pedalling as much as you can?

Without asking for your private medical condition, there are often ways around not being able to cycle. There musty be something cycle related you can do.

Edit: Welcome!!


----------



## HarryTheDog (3 Jul 2015)

Sorry to hear you are unable to cycle. With me and the missus it is the opposite way around, we have injuries that stop us doing our old sports . Me, knackered shoulder and back had to give up running and wieghtlifting. My wife also knackered back had to give up boot camp, horse riding,sailing and adventure racing. My conversion to cycling was 9 yrs ago, my wifes a year ago. We just had to look around and see what else we could do. If there is no sport you can particapate in then you can always move into the organisation of cycle events, races etc. Clubs etc are always short of those types of people, it will make you feel involved at least and get you out on a weekend.


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (3 Jul 2015)

Welcome to the forum and I can tell you, you are not alone in being unable to ride due to injury or ill health. There are plenty of us here sadly.
You don't say what why you can't ride, so it is hard to offer any assistance in getting you back on your bike (if that is possible). But, like many others here, I know exactly how you feel.

I have 3 bikes sitting in my back bedroom that I can't use at present and may not be able to ever use them again, including a mountain bike and I have to accept that my days of trail riding are probably over. My days of jumps are certainly over. I have struggled with injury and or ill health stopping me cycling on and off for the last 20 years, so half my life and it is not easy, but there are often ways around the problems. Right now I am struggling to come to terms with being left partially paralysed after a ruptured disc in my spine back in November. I am now on a recumbent trike (which we bought specifically for my recovery back in February) and had my longest ride today since my recovery started. It has taken me since February to get to the point where I can manage 29.5 miles... (don't ask, if I had known I would have gone out and done an extra 1/2 mile!) 

It is hard, and I can not imagine how you feel knowing that your boyfriend is out on holiday with his mates cycling. My husband pretty much stopped cycling back in November when my back went (sadly about 4 weeks after I had bought him a new road bike!) and has done very little since. All of my recovery rides are during his working hours so I either ride alone or I have just found a riding partner for a short period whilst I train her for a long sponsored ride she is doing. Then I will be back to riding alone again. I have had to accept that my crutches come everywhere with me, I have had to accept that I am slow, and I have had to accept that I take twice as long to go anywhere as I did previously (and I am not kidding about being half the speed I used to be) and I have had to accept that I am the centre of attention being on a recumbent trike. But it has meant I have been able to get back out cycling again and that is something I needed.


----------



## CoffeeBean (3 Jul 2015)

Thank for your replies, i am very greatful 
I had a disectomy with decompression L5/SI last September and although it has alleviated some symptoms i was getting i still have varying ongoing problems which are being looked at by my GP/hospital. My physio thinks i may have a problem with my SI joint (between sacrum and pelvis) which could explain why ,when i try to exercise, i'm in a great deal of pain and even end up bent over and cannot straighten for few days. Im completing exercises everyday and know it will be a few months before i see results but its very frustrating having to wait so long for answers and be in pain/discomfort in the meantime. Its like my life is on hold. 
I've gone back to college and hope to start University next year so in some ways i am keeping busy but its the relaxation, enjoyment i cannot get (even sitting is an issue). I love the outdoors and do go for walks, it keeps me refreshed and is about the only thing i can manage as i can go as slow as i like. Its just not the same and i keep finding tracks to try out on a bike lol.
I know i'm not the only one with health issues and often give myself a virtual slap as some people are much worse off than me. Massive respect to you who can keep going and get out cycling regardless, its tough staying strong.

Knitting?....hmmm


----------



## Zojam (3 Jul 2015)

I had 2 bonemarrow transplants in 2006 which have left me with a condition called graft versus host disease where the donor cells attack the connective tissue in my right lower leg, this has caused me to snap my Achilles' tendon which was worse than the cancer itself as I had to have plaster on for 12 weeks ( absolute nightmare )
Have found getting back in to cycling very therapeutic in helping my state of mind

Hope you find this helpful.

Cycling to Brighton on Sunday morning early


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (3 Jul 2015)

You are not alone. I have had exactly the same. I had a L5-S1 decompression and discectomy back in December, 5 weeks after my disc ruptured leaving me partially paralysed down the right leg. That recovered about 75% of the use of my leg and did alleviate some of the sciatica symptoms I had but not many. I also get a lot of pain in the SI joint and my consultant has actually diagnosed a malformed spine. An MRI shows that my sacrum didn't form properly and my consultant thinks that the disc that ruptured was probably malformed as well. The one above it is incorrectly shaped, but looks sound. If it goes he thinks it will probably go in the same way that this one did and that is to shatter, rather than rupture. I had one other complication though, I could not (and still can not) sit up. That is a work in progress! I have literally been bedbound since it happened until I purchased a riser recliner chair which allows me to lie down in it. That got me out of the bedroom and into the sitting room once I could manage the stairs again. With my right leg issues, it has taken a while. My right leg still sufferers from some paralysis and likes to give way on me, or just not do what I want it to do.

I now live off morphine - literally. I am on 12 hour time release morphine tablets (40mg zomorph) and also take oramorph as well. I can't exercise without the addition oramorph and basically take 2.33 of the standard morphine dose to be able to exercise and that includes walking. I am also on the absolute maximum of pregabalin which has worked really well for my sciatica and the nerve pain I get, though it has not cured it by any means. 

I had a revision of the L5-S1 discectomy and a L5-S1 fusion 7 weeks ago and it has been the best thing that could have happened for me. My back is much more comfortable and I am finally seeing some progress.

This is my story - 54 pages of it, so feel free to skip a few  https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/well-thats-me-off-my-bike-for-a-while.168606/

@roadrash had his spine fused at L4-L5 a week before I did, I haven't heard much from him recently, but he was progressing well the last I heard.
@User9609 hasn't had his fused, but has a bad back as well... same issues iirc.

I am back on my 'bike' by having purchased a custom build recumbent trike. It wiped out all of our savings, but it got me back out and is pretty much still the only way I see anything because I still can't travel in any vehicle not being able to sit up.


----------



## Drago (3 Jul 2015)

I didn't ride for 4 months this year following a heart attack. During that to e each of my bikes got a full strip and surgical clean, I bought some more bike clothing, and ale t time outside in my shed of bikes admiring them. To be fair, I might have had trouble stretching it put much longer.


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (3 Jul 2015)

@CoffeeBean if you like cooking at all, I have found that sourdough bread making is fantastic for someone with a bad back... you make the sourdough culture from the starter on day 1, you make the bread on day 2, you then leave it overnight proving in the fridge, day 3 you can choose to either continue the proving (thus making it more tangy) or cook it. Day 4 you need to cook it. You do a little, perhaps 15-20 minutes each day.... (sorry it came out of desperation - I too am an outdoors person and finding myself bedbound was hell and it was like that from November through to April when I was finally good enough to manage a rise recliner chair (or my OAP chair as I call it) and I found sourdough bread. Prior to that I was learning Spanish and watching a lot of videos. Now I'm a touch more active, in that I have a trike ride or walk in the morning (very slow walk) and a very slow walk in the evening with an ever understanding husband who still after 8/9 months has to help me dress and wash. The trike was one of the best moves we have made, my (new) consultant deciding to fuse my spine was the next best. Knitting - I have considered it and am still, but I am not a knitting person, I am a wicker work person or a carving person, I am an outdoors person and I haven't worked out how to do that partially recumbent in a riser recliner chair yet... Crocheting has also been considered (briefly) and vetoed... at which point even my physio has run out of ideas... sourdough however is very therapeutic, I just need a husband to eat it much faster so I can make more of it (the kenwood chef does most of the kneading... I still can't manage that and I have to arrange for it to be brought out of the cupboard and the loaf tins got out of the drawer in the oven (can't bend down that far etc).) I assume you have organised your photo collection and categorised it etc?


----------



## roadrash (4 Jul 2015)

Hi, @CoffeeBean , i must admit i feel a bit of a fraud posting on cyclechat lately , not actually doing too much cycling at the moment , ive only managed a couple of very short ,( what i will describe as trial runs) rides in the last week to ten days.
its gonna be a bit of a slog but i am determined to get there ,

you dont say what is wrong with your health and quite rightly thats up to you , you will find most on here are non judgementle ( spelling) and could maybe offer suggestions of help, other than that its also a good place to get things off your chest.
best of luck
RR


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (4 Jul 2015)

roadrash said:


> you dont say what is wrong with your health





CoffeeBean said:


> I had a disectomy with decompression L5/SI last September and although it has alleviated some symptoms i was getting i still have varying ongoing problems which are being looked at by my GP/hospital. My physio thinks i may have a problem with my SI joint (between sacrum and pelvis) which could explain why ,when i try to exercise, i'm in a great deal of pain and even end up bent over and cannot straighten for few days. Im completing exercises everyday and know it will be a few months before i see results but its very frustrating having to wait so long for answers and be in pain/discomfort in the meantime. Its like my life is on hold.


hence me paging you...


@roadrash Is there a reason for you only just getting back on your bike? Just wondering because my consultant said I could try at the 3 week stage, but I left it until week 5 because I was ill with other issues... just curious that's all.


----------



## roadrash (4 Jul 2015)

I havent recovered as fast as I had hoped. Still havong issues with pins amd needles and numbness in my right leg my first follow appointment os 10 august. Unbelievable cosidering op was 5th may. Still got a lot of discomfort at fusion site
Lots of questions to ask


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (4 Jul 2015)

roadrash said:


> I havent recovered as fast as I had hoped. Still havong issues with pins amd needles and numbness in my right leg my first follow appointment os 10 august. Unbelievable cosidering op was 5th may. Still got a lot of discomfort at fusion site
> Lots of questions to ask


sorry to hear that. My 2nd follow up (I'm not progressing as fast as they would like) is 11th August.
The fusion site for me is really comfortable and as you know has been from day 1. I have had a lot of SI joint pain and still got issues with my right leg some of which I have no doubts are permanent. Sitting is still an issue for me, but getting better slowly so I hold out a hope that I may one day be able to sit normally at a dinner table again! I did at least manage to use the car to get to my follow up appointment last week rather than an ambulance, but did need the wheelchair! Can't win them all. I have the numbness issues as well, plus the leg randomly giving way on me as well... not great fun and makes life interesting. But at least the trike helps. I managed 30 miles on it yesterday, took an age mind you but it was most I have done to date.


----------



## roadrash (4 Jul 2015)

Well done on the 30 miles. . Im sure I should have had a follow up before august been looking at recumbent myself but not an option fina cialy for me unfortunately


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (4 Jul 2015)

yeh - I know that feeling. it wiped out all of our savings as well, but my oh was insistent because of how much it would help my recovery, not to mention it being the only way I could get further than a few hundred meters from my front door for the last 9 months!


----------



## Milkfloat (4 Jul 2015)

I had an L4/L5 discectomy and decompression 5 weeks ago today. I was back on a Turbo Traner within a week, so I count myself very lucky (plus a little stupid). It took me a few weeks before I could sit properly, but strangely cycling causes no pain. I spend most of my time standing or lying down, but to be honest it is a dream compared to my pre-surgery state.

A lot of my friends have had similar operations, or fusions and so far it is a 100% success rate for those of us who were lucky enough to have private insurance and 100% failure for those via the NHS. I am not sure if this is luck, but I am certain private gets you the best surgeons and exactly the right treatment when you need it. I tried something called IDD before my surgery, but unfortunately although bring pretty expensive it did not work.

I really feel for those who sound like you have it much worse than I did, I know how you feel, but what I can say is don't give up, I had many days pre treatment that were horrific when I thought that it would never get better. I doubted if any treatment would work and was wondering if the next 40-50 years would be driven by pain. Now I feel a completly new lease of life, I am not 100% fixed and not sure if I ever will be, but wow things are great.

Fingers crossed for all of you that you get your breakthrough too.

P.S. There is still knitting to look into.


----------



## jonny jeez (4 Jul 2015)

I sort of bumped into this thread and whilst I cant offer any help or suggestions...I just want to sort of wish everyone all the best. 

In an odd way, I feel a little ashamed at not making more of fair health. Perhaps you guys have inspired me to get fit.

Thanks.


----------



## CoffeeBean (7 Jul 2015)

Hey everyone. I'm in turmoil as Nick (my boyfriend) has fallen off his bike and is in hospital in France. He has had a knee operation including pins and a plate so my time is now focused on him and what i can get sorted from here. It's very frustrating not being with him so i'll be trying to get over there, not sure how long he will need to stay/how he can get home etc. 

I'll be back when things settle xx


----------



## Saluki (7 Jul 2015)

Oh blimey. Take care @CoffeeBean and good luck with getting to France and back for your BF. Healing thoughts all around.


----------



## Milkfloat (7 Jul 2015)

Ouch - you guys are not having fun. Hopefully he has insurance that will help him get home. If not he could be in for a long wait in France. On a positive note - it sounds like you will have someone to learn to knit with soon. Good luck to you both!


----------



## jonny jeez (9 Jul 2015)

CoffeeBean said:


> Hey everyone. I'm in turmoil as Nick (my boyfriend) has fallen off his bike and is in hospital in France. He has had a knee operation including pins and a plate so my time is now focused on him and what i can get sorted from here. It's very frustrating not being with him so i'll be trying to get over there, not sure how long he will need to stay/how he can get home etc.
> 
> I'll be back when things settle xx


Crikey...all the beat with that, at least you can both recover together now...every cloud.


----------



## CoffeeBean (23 Jul 2015)

I'm/We're back! I flew out to Hospiteux du leman last week and brought him home the next day. Dogtag his insurance company were great and arranged for the both of us to get home. It all went pretty smooth, the only blip was when we checked in at Geneva airport to be told that the 3 seats needed for Nick to rest his leg on in the plane were in seperate places lol (im still giggling at such an error). Luckily they shuffled some people and even managed to get me sat on the same row.
All in all its been pretty hectic times but things have settled down now and its been nice not to think about my own problems, its like ive had a break from myself. Its going to be a while before Nick gets back out on his bike but by the time he is ready i may well be ready myself and we can recover together. We may even knit our own tandem to ride lol! 
Please keep the comments coming though i enjoy reading them and it all helps so much


----------



## Milkfloat (24 Jul 2015)

Glad to hear you are both on the mend, albeit slowly. I am glad he had insurance to help out. So who does all the household chores now?


----------



## GetAGrip (24 Jul 2015)

Wishing you both a speedy and full recovery. Stay in touch and keep us informed of your progress. In the meantime all I can offer is a


----------



## BrumJim (4 Aug 2015)

Do you suffer any other joint subluxing problems?


----------



## CoffeeBean (8 Sep 2015)

Hi sorry its been a while but just a quick update...were both doing well, im doing more physio at home now which is helping my mind and my back and we have loaned a spin bike which we are both using and i may even try my own bike in next couple of weeks. Nick is due hydro therapy on Thursday so he should be able to start weight bearing soon after (i hope) and ive got an appointment with the rheumatologist on Friday and i should get my brain scan results soon too.


Milkfloat said:


> So who does all the household chores now?


 nothing has changed if we weren't broken we'd be out on our bikes lol.

What are 'joint subluxing' problems BrumJim ?


----------



## BrumJim (9 Sep 2015)

CoffeeBean said:


> Hi sorry its been a while but just a quick update...were both doing well, im doing more physio at home now which is helping my mind and my back and we have loaned a spin bike which we are both using and i may even try my own bike in next couple of weeks. Nick is due hydro therapy on Thursday so he should be able to start weight bearing soon after (i hope) and ive got an appointment with the rheumatologist on Friday and i should get my brain scan results soon too.
> nothing has changed if we weren't broken we'd be out on our bikes lol.
> 
> What are 'joint subluxing' problems BrumJim ?



Partial dislocations.


----------



## CoffeeBean (9 Sep 2015)

No subluxing but my joints (feet and hands) do ache and I get pins and needles sensation all over my body. Im looking forward to seeing the rheumatologist on friday as they may shed some light on this.


----------



## steveindenmark (14 Sep 2015)

This will not be of much use. But I already know that when I have to give in cycling altogether, I am going to get one of those electric 4 wheel vehicles that the elderly have. Have you seen how fast they go? At least it will get me away from the house.

If it is the pedalling action that causes the pain. Have you thought of a hand powered bike.

A good video with great Music for a change.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Gsecsx198


A guy comes by my house with one. Even uphill it is fast.

I would love to know who the Singer is.


----------



## CoffeeBean (15 Sep 2015)

Yep those 4 wheeled things (do they even have a name?) are quick. Ive had a few pass me as ive hobbled down the road when my back was bad, i was very jealous i could not have one. Not sure about those hand bikes though. They look like fun but im still hanging onto the idea i will get back on my bike. Ive been managing our spin bike and though i may need some slight positioning changes im sure my current bikes will be fine to ride in a few weeks. 

We have good news...Nick has been to another physio session today and can now walk without his crutches..you know what that means? Yep he can now carry things for himself and even brought me my first brew today its a good day today.


----------



## SatNavSaysStraightOn (15 Sep 2015)

CoffeeBean said:


> (do they even have a name?)


Mobility scooters.


----------

