Originally Posted by muddywaters

Hello all,

I've made it to the 5 month mark. About a month ago just as I was starting to feel fairly normal......the PAWS symptoms were much less severe, and my anxiety and doom were really doing much better at the 4 month mark, just like people on here commented they would, I was doing some Jiu Jitsu and hurt my back.

After a few days of really bad pain my left foot didn't work normally. I couldn't lift it. I dealt with it for about a week, and mentioned it to my cousin who is an ER doctor. Me sent me in for an MRI immediately, and I was put quickly into surgery on my L5/S1 because my disc was severely damaged, leaked, and compressed my nerve. I had to have surgery quickly before the nerve damage became permanent.

I'm 5 weeks out of surgery and my foot shows zero improvement from the nerve damage. It's brought back my anxiety because I'm now paranoid my foot will be never return to normal. I was told I can't do Jiu Jitsu anymore, which I did professionally and taught for 20 years. I feel like I'm loosing my identity, and my body is failing me. It happened to be timed just perfectly when I was feeling and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the symptoms and struggles from fighting to be sober and normal. I was getting into shape to compete again. Now I'm wondering if I'll be able lift my foot to shift my motorcycles again. I'm trying to stay positive but it's been rough. I could use some encouragement.