SQJ Taipei

I had back surgery 2 months ago.

I’ve been trying to be a good patient. It is somewhat difficult here because you never know when what you are doing will be met with shock and horror by our Taiwanese friends.

Bananas… the PERFECT food, right?!?! One friend who shall remain nameless reminded me SEVERAL times how BAD it would be for me to eat bananas during my recovery.

Several people in my building think that I’m either

• superhuman

or

• superidiotic

because I do something like… GO OUTSIDE! The truth is: I’m just “regular” human and am as big of an idiot (at times) as any human is. But here in the “Land of Comparison” no one is “normal”.

Anyway… I really believe that each person knows his/her body better than any one else (including the doctor) so the best course of action is to rely on some parameters given by the doctor and then listen to what your body is telling you.

My body said: “Go for a bike ride”. The weather was also saying it.

I used to go every Thursday night and I hope to get back at it. I thought I’d just go about 10K on this first time back, but I felt good (except that my legs and backside were out of the habit) so I kept going… ended up going 26.85km which is about what I used to do in the time I can spend. I did get passed at the end of my trip out, which doesn’t happen very often… and I had to push pretty hard to get home as it is against the wind as always when I ride by the river.

My back, as I suspected, is totally fine today… my legs (knees mostly) are hurting today, but only as one would expect after getting back on a bike.

So, as you can see, my back recovery is going nicely. I’m able to play basketball with kids, but need to hold off on sports with twisting, like squash, for a while longer.