Thank you doctor for a thorough answer. It makes me feel far less anxious about my situation. I’m three weeks from surgery today and still feel the occasional twinge and aches where the pain was before. But again, it’s much more tolerable. I am also eager to get back to the point where I can teach spin classes again. I’ve been a spin instructor for a few years and very much enjoy it. Right now, I walk a few miles a day and do 30 mins or so on the elliptical. And a lot of stretching. I generally feel very very good afterward.
In certain positions — such as when I lie down on my back, knees up, and cross my right leg over my left — I will feel a pretty sharp twinge in my right rear. Also if I am laying in the same position with legs straight and shift my legs or hips slightly, the same pain often occurs, though it tends to recede as I stretch. I take it from what you say that I have not reherniated. Only that the nerve is still sensitive and firing off when I tug at it, or otherwise stress is.
Re: Physical therapy, my surgeon basically told me it’s not really necessary for me and encouraged me to do what I do at the gym and gently ramp up over time. But I will ask to see a PT as I suspect part of the reason I herniated in the first place was due to bad form during certain exercises. Thank you again.