Good pain

I haven't decided if pain is good or not. Over the last two or so weeks the right knee and shin, which have been totally numb since July 2012 when the Sciatic nerve dropped me to the floor for 4 days, has been giving me pain, so I haven't decided if it's the nerves coming alive or real pain since it's just nerves.

The other pain is the muscle in both legs when and where the pain varys with the walk and later in the day after the walk. Some weeks I don't get shin splints during any of the walks that week and some weeks I get them for the first one to two miles into the walk for two or three consecutive days.

The last pain is the lower back. It fades in and out over the weeks from the normal mild pain from sitting too much later in the day or too long in one position too long at a time to the moderate pain where it hurts in the first few steps of walking but then fades with walking.

What I have noticed is that whatever the back pain, it always goes away during the walks, and only returns after the walk. I also noticed that during walks I noticed I can't stop for more than a minute or so because the legs feel tired and sore when I start walking again, and sometimes it fades with walking and sometimes not for the rest of the walk.

So I haven't figured out if the pain is just my body communicating with me for a variety of reason and it's not really pain as just noise or whining. At my age, some days that's all the body knows what to do, whine, and you have to tell the nerves whining and more so yelling doesn't help the conversation.

Other than the pain, I balance problems with both legs but especially the left leg, fades and returns, but overall is getting better. Not what it was before the Sciatic nerve problem by any measure, but better after all the ups and downs of it.

Anyway, that's it. It still sucks as hiking didn't happen this year and likely won't until next spring or summer. I'm still limited to 8+ miles where the legs hurt too much later with longer walks and 15-20 lbs with the backpack and even then there's back pain later.

On the plus side, I've lost much of the fat around the body and am slowly losing it on and around the abdomen, albeit slower with this fat, but it's better than a year ago. And no, I don't weigh myself to know if and how much I've lost. I'm trying to find a place (clinic, etc.) to weigh myself for free.

That's it for now.