This should post at about the time targeted for a doctor check up and a return to coaching in the Mid Satanic.

It was a long, two month crawl to full crutch mobility, then another two months hanging between those things. My current activity is daily:

20 hours typical fast time.

1 hour prone exercises

2 hours writing/reading

30 minutes upright exercises

2-6 hours household chores or walking

2 hours writing/reading

30 minutes prone exercises

4 hours drinking alcohol [I try and live a balanced life]

8 hours sleeping [Morpheus gets 2 Dionysian hours twice a week]

Now, the shambles that was once an over-aged, under-sized aspiring fighter has the following functional parameters:

The compressed right lumbar spine is up to 30% of pre-injury strength, 100% of pre-injury flexibility. Disc irritation is nearly gone.

Torn right hip labrum has not improved and not worsened. The supporting muscles of this joint are at 80% of pre-injury flexibility and 50% strength.

Abdominal strength has gone from 3 to 30 crunches and from 0 to 30 pullovers [1] and is limited in increase by irritation to the femoral nerve after 30 reps and lumbar distress after 2 sets as well as rib attachment injuries in the left side that inflame after 30 pull overs. [2]

Right inner leg strength remains at 10% of pre-injury.

Femoral nerve pain levels range between 4 resting and 8, doing extreme sports like walking at ½ a mile per an hour with cane, on crutches, or without cane. Strength and flexibility exercises for the inner leg irritates the nerve and decreases strength and stability.

Front right thigh stands at 80% of pre-injury flexibility and 10% strength. Attempts to increase strength destabilizes knee.

Walking on level and down hill is ½ MPH.

Decreases and increases in elevations have to be done in a step drag fashion. The lame leg must lead going down and follow going up. Steps are easier than 10% grades. 25% grades reduce pace to half foot step drags. Grades steeper than 30% require switch back walking.

Pushing off with the right foot or stepping back into a right side reverse triangle, and or doing forward shift marches and reverse shift counter marches bring the nerve to a sizzling 8 pain level.

The left hip and left knee have weakened.

The left femoral nerve is beginning to demonstrate irritation down to the ankle and banging spasms down to the knee, though not with the pain associated with this in the right leg.

Both of what I thought of as small hernias in the left and right, after my experience undergoing nerve conduction testing on both sides by Doctor Park, were, and are, obviously impinged femoral nerves in the lower abdomen above the testicles and parallel with the hips.

I can now carry a 20 pound load short distances or in a backpack with crutches, making visits possible.

Shoulders are trashed from crutch and cane. I hope that access to a speed bag and dumbbells will improve this.

I have been able to do light yard work, such as raking leaves, with no irritation.

Cleaning house interior has been therapeutic, with only the mopping of the floors having to be limited in duration.

Twisting could be a disaster.

Bending to the sides is touchy.

Traction exercises for 1 to 5 minutes every two hours reduce end of day compression.

Seated writing with back brace and pillows under knees can be tolerated for 4 hours daily, about the limit of normal eye tolerance of screen time.

…

Activity Assessments

Using current activity and progress over the past 4 months as a guide, I am expecting the following spring activity limits.

Normal walking on the level at 1 mph without distress.

Women’s work in the house.

Lifting and packing limited to an upper range of 30 pounds.

Weapon training limited to walk up defense drills and step drag pocket sparring. The right knee is a total mystery and does not function predictably. I do not expect to be able to even demonstrate triangle steps, shifts or lunges in slow motion.

Boxing offers more possibilities as shown by recent limited shadow boxing. I can do half the foot work in left hand lead and the other half in right hand lead. I cannot pivot on or push off with the right leg. I hope to be able to coach by staying in the pocket and mimicking a power puncher or counter puncher. Boxing from the outside, even in slow motion, is unlikely.

Sean has asked me to coach and corner at the 2024 Man Weekend. If someone is headed there from the Mid-Satanic, I will drag along.

The medicine I am on to dampen the pain in the femoral nerve, which kept me from sleeping for 7 weeks and prevented exercise with that leg, has reduced my cognition, reaction time and expressive acuity. I expect to be an even more limited coach. I hope access to punching bags will enable me to develop power and pocket drills for training as my ability to demonstrate mobility is on the decline.

As I explore the athletic function that remains, I have targeted the exact time of the initial injury to the right femoral nerve in the groin at December 2016, three months after I tore the labrum in the left hip running to catch a bus down Glenoak Avenue. This showed up when I tried to push a floor scrubber that was locked.

Thinking this was a hernia, I did not pursue more abdominal strength which increased lumbar risk over time. Pain in the left groin, which is now expressing down the femoral nerve to the knee, began in November 2022.

The abdominal surgeon who examined me noted that in men my age, abdominal pain that mimics a hernia is often associated with hip injury. Both of my hips have been torn and are at this time injured and not improving. Therefore, setting my goal for a return to: hiking, ditching, wood cutting, fighting, etc., is hazardous and could result in a plunge back into the pit of shrimping, crabbing, crawling and scooting as a human crustacean on some floor. This state did not permit me to write, as I could not stand, kneel or sit.

Writing is the bargain I made with my mind for remaining in this shambles of a carcass under the Shadow of Uncle Satan. The goal is light travel and writing at the current level, which is more than 8 books and less than 12 books per year: hopefully 4 novels, 4 journals, 2 memoirs and 2 histories.

…

Notes

-1. The pull over is done by placing the head on the corner of the bed, grabbing the mattress corner under the head and pulling the knees over the chest and feet over head.

-2. The highest rep prone exercise, that has helped the most with the lumbar, is alternate cross hip leg extensions.