That's awesome. My epics have been just getting my leg over the seat to get on a bike. This back pain is a fucking nightmare. Who's had it? Sciatic, but sorta something else, basically pinched nerves somewhere, sending bolts of searing electricity down the glutes, hammies, quads, ITBs... And what did you do to resolve it????

No access to Osteos or Physios, i've resorted to my doctor, phone consults. I went to the after hours last weekend the pain was so bad. They changed me off diclofenac onto brufens, plus nortriptyline and pregabalin, both anti-depressants, but also neuropathic pain killers. both make me stoned - all the time. it's kinda weird. (reminds me of my mid twenties... (haha)). But the pain persists, just with an edge taken off it. Certain yoga moves kill me, others work nicely thankyou.

Any ideas?

Done did this on Saturday https://www.strava.com/activities/3314347728 . Found some worn old Ikon's in the garage and threw them on the SS pumped up to about 50. Pushing 32:14 into the NW wasn't fun near the end. Good view of the community tho and seeing how people are filling their days. 2pm seemed to be about the time the deckchairs and beers came out. Yesterday the had to be 50 cars parked out the front of bottle lake, feckin disgrace.

swtchbckr wrote:That's awesome. My epics have been just getting my leg over the seat to get on a bike. This back pain is a fucking nightmare. Who's had it? Sciatic, but sorta something else, basically pinched nerves somewhere, sending bolts of searing electricity down the glutes, hammies, quads, ITBs... And what did you do to resolve it????

No access to Osteos or Physios, i've resorted to my doctor, phone consults. I went to the after hours last weekend the pain was so bad. They changed me off diclofenac onto brufens, plus nortriptyline and pregabalin, both anti-depressants, but also neuropathic pain killers. both make me stoned - all the time. it's kinda weird. (reminds me of my mid twenties... (haha)). But the pain persists, just with an edge taken off it. Certain yoga moves kill me, others work nicely thankyou.

Any ideas?

I get those symptoms sometimes, with sciatica all the way down one leg or the other (but not both at once). Mine comes from inflammation of the joints between the pelvis and spine because of a form of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis. Hopefully yours isn’t!

It’s hard to get a handle on what’s wrong without proper medical help, but a few things can help you work out what’s going on. If the pain lessens with exercise and gets worse after rest or when you first wake up it’s likely inflammatory. If not, or it worsens with exercise then more likely to be mechanical. I’ve always been told by my doctors that I should do what exercise I can manage for the inflammatory pain. Mechanical normally needs rest, but not so much for me because rest and inflammation are a very bad idea for AS. Obviously mechanical causes can become inflammatory as well.

If you’re on the standard brufen dose (800 mg) and you don’t feel some improvement in a few days then I’d go back to the doctor, ideally with a list of what makes it better or worse.

Thanks for that advice. Sounds very similar to what i'm getting. and there has been mention of spondylitis, hopefully getting an MRI eventually, will be able to compare to October last year, see what's changed.

sitting at a desk seems to worsen my pain later on, tightens up all the muscles in the legs something chronic, and more pains shooting down the backs of the legs from it when i stand. gonna have to make some major changes to workplace at this rate! time to try to build a standing desk from what little i have in the garage or around the section.

Been doing some riding around the hood, either with the dog or my partner, or both. Getting on the bike is hard, cos spreading the legs when standing rips, but once on i'm all good - tho, lack of power, for sure

swtchbckr wrote:Thanks for that advice. Sounds very similar to what i'm getting. and there has been mention of spondylitis, hopefully getting an MRI eventually, will be able to compare to October last year, see what's changed.

sitting at a desk seems to worsen my pain later on, tightens up all the muscles in the legs something chronic, and more pains shooting down the backs of the legs from it when i stand. gonna have to make some major changes to workplace at this rate! time to try to build a standing desk from what little i have in the garage or around the section.

Been doing some riding around the hood, either with the dog or my partner, or both. Getting on the bike is hard, cos spreading the legs when standing rips, but once on i'm all good - tho, lack of power, for sure

Unfortunately that does sound like it could be AS, although you won't get a firm diagnosis on those symptoms. Typical time from symptoms to firm diagnosis for AS is 10 years, partly because it takes a while to rule out mechanical and lifestyle causes, and partly because traditional diagnosis requires evidence of accumulating chronic damage of an affected joint. It took me about ten years, even with an uncle and mother with the disease. I tend to be pretty open about mine, because of this. It apparently affects about 1-2% of people but most just accumulate damage over the years without ever knowing why.

My sacroiliac joints are the ones I get the most problems with, which would line up with your symptoms. Exercise helps - whatever you can manage. Be careful of trying stretches or new activities that take you a long way past your usual range of motion. Drugs help, but when I get a flare even 4x 800 mg Brufen a day didn't control it. Cortisone though - that's been great for me. Cold and ice packs can give temporary help. I don't find heat packs helpful - they are great at the time and tend to make everything worse afterward.

For what its worth - when I'm back on Brufen for a couple of weeks or more I often start getting weird cramps in nearly any muscle in my body - fingers, jaw, feet. I only take it when the symptoms of the AS are back, so don't know whether its caused by the disease or the drugs or entirely psychosomatic. In your case with the cramps though it could easily just be the sore body leading you to inadvertently loading up the neighboring muscle groups to reduce the pain in movement, and then they start to complain as well.

Are you working with a GP or physio for diagnosis? If any form of arthritis is suspected it would be worth trying to get referred to a rheumatologist. And most of these diseases can be controlled to a reasonable extent in most people. It just takes time. Hang in there!

Went for my first local ride on dirt in ~6 weeks a couple of nights ago. I love riding mountain bicycles.

The empty street hooning during lockdown was fun, but it didn't scratch the itch right.

https://medium.com/@jurgenthoelen/belgi ... df19c77d08

On the basis of these results the scientist advises that for walking the distance of people moving in the same direction in 1 line should be at least 4–5 meter, for running and slow biking it should be 10 meters and for hard biking at least 20 meters.

we are all doomed to ride like triathletes for a while

but
https://www.bicycling.com/news/a3209773 ... imulation/

study not pair reviewed, but it points out the the 1.5m is for when you are standing still.