Ok, let me begin with that procedure hurt one heck of a lot more than I ever thought possible. If I thought my pain levels in my left leg and hip were hitting 10 every ow and then – the Dr. turned it up to ELEVEN when the injections were made. At least the initial injection site for the laterally herniated L3/L4.
The good news. This means he was spot-on the proper site for the injection. And in all honesty despite my blood pressure shooting up to something like 180/100 and my heart rate rapidly reaching lower zone 4, that initial pain dropped within 10 seconds. Thankfully the two attending nurses saw my discomfort and were quick to start calming me down.
Second inject at the l5/S1 (first S,I have 2 look it up a rare genetic anomaly probably tracing back to my neanderthal roots) was only a nine. Felt significantly better.
I have to say the team at the Hoag Spine Institute took excellent care of me. Procedure really did go well and Dr. Sinha took the few barbs I tossed his way about the pain/discomfort totally in stride. Both Dr. Sinha and Dr. Fahmy provided excellent pain advice, treatment, and the necessary procedure for what looks to be a rather quick and perhaps complete, at least for a long period of time, recovery.
So with that out of the way – I am doing much better today. Really poor sleep last night due in large part to the steroids and a little to the coffee/cookie reward I had at 2 PM.
Other data points compliments of my Garmin Venue 3 and Garmin Connect. (Note: keep trying to find some sports medics doctors/researchers interested in collecting real time data on senior athletes / sports wannabes to no success) My resting heart rate trend is beyond horrible Last night saw me hit 47 bpm (steroids no doubt) a level I haven’t seen since I was 12. Worse the HRV was done at 24 ms again another bad record. Sleep score a lowly 48, another downward trend line, and of course after doing the Morning Review the Garmin watch politely told me: Your Body Needs Rest! No kidding.
All that aside, a few weeks of PT and the Red Rocket is calling. Perhaps the Ride Across America 2 Cure Cancer will be back on for 2026. TBD
RAAM2CC© 
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