Microdiscectomy Recovery Week 10 back to work

This week I have worked from home for 4 days.  I'm an Oracle DBA (work with computers) so it's all sitting.  At home I have my kneeling chair which keeps me shifting position and creates a very different body angle to a normal office chair.  I have been asking my employer for a chair like this at work for some time. 

The first 3 days of  work were fine and I did quite long days (8 or 9 hours) with plenty of getting up and down. I haven't walked at all outside and walked only 2km on the treadmill one evening.  Treadmill walking is hard going.  It seems to take longer to get any distance and it's so boring.

Thursday my back was so sore I had to go for a lie down for 20 minutes at one point, but this helped and I still managed a full days work and stood through our brownie night in the evening.  I did cancel a visit to a music recital at the local church though knowing that adding one more thing to a painful day could break the camel's back - literally.

I have thrown my toys a bit at home though, the bed is unchanged and unmade, the bin is not emptied and the pile for the recycling bins grows daily.  I leave pots next to the dishwasher and shirts are not ironed.  I expect he will notice by Christmas

My employers have become less flexible and have said if driving is my main issue they will pay for a taxi to and from work for the period of my 'limited mobility' note from the doctor.  So today I had a taxi to work and an assessment from Occupational Health.  They now understand about the chair and also the general problems I would have as a can't 'do' heavy security turnstiles, heavy old fashioned fire doors and the like.  They sent me home and said I can carry on working from home until the chair comes and then they will reassess.   I am seriously hoping my recovery will have caught up with where I was at before the week 7 reherniation scare and I'll be driving ok and my back will be a little stronger by then anyway.

It felt good to go back into the office, except for the pain and that's where the problem is mainly, I am ready to take my life back now but my body hasn't quite caught up yet.

So the usual medical round up is: less butt ache but increased muscle spasms around that area.  Sore lower side of leg that increases to calf pain after being sat or even on kneeling chair for too long (45 minutes). Lower back dull ache.  Sharp pains middle back.  Icing is keeping on top of it, as is general rest.  I've noticed that since I've stopped walking so much I'm actually weaker all over and lifting things has become a little harder, I tried to carry about 2kg around the local co-op on Wednesday and it was hard work and made my back hurt a lot.

I would like to start walking again, a little further, maybe, when the weather picks up again I'll also be more ready to do it.  Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately this weekend is Brownie Pack holiday and we are already our main leader down.  I'm not sleeping over which will make it easier on my back in terms of not having to carry bedding, go in and out of a holdall for stuff, badly set up showers (for bad backs!) etc but it does mean a bit of driving for 3 days.  I'm not cooking - no way I could do that very hard job on PH.  I just must not 'do' stuff, I must just 'be there' but it's not really my nature so it's going to be hard.

Still, I have Monday as holiday from work to rest it out again.