u/My4dogs4evr

I have driven the entire time I’ve had MS but I haven’t been able to drive since I had my hysterectomy in December. I didn’t do well despite the surgery part being a success the aftermath didn’t go so well and I’ve been battling the recovery from it ever since.

I’ve been afraid to drive again just because of how I’ve been feeling in addition to four weeks after my hysterectomy my husband and I had gone out for a ride just to get out and get some fresh air and drive around when we were in a traffic collision where we were hit on the passenger side and I was trapped for a while so that gave me some real anxiety about driving or being in a vehicle again, but more so it was the symptoms that I’ve been dealing with which a lot of of it is postop surgery stuff, and some issues with a herniated disc

I have been feeling so trapped in this house and I have the world‘s most best husband who has been taking care of everything and he’s constantly encouraging me that it’s going to be OK. I feel bad about him having to run all the errands but he says its perfectly ok and it’s just going to take time a little longer for me then regular people getting a hysterectomy just because the MS has really shown its butt during this whole recovery

well today, I decided it was now or never. I got in the truck and started it up and sat in the driveway for a while just to feel of it again and the sounds. I drove around our neighborhood very carefully and then some little back roads where we live and then I came home, pulled back up into the driveway and just cried. I felt so free.🙏🏻🙌. I I couldn’t believe I finally did it. I was very careful though, but I decided that I’ve been through so much and I could do this and I wasn’t going to let being afraid from that traffic collision or MS or anything else stop me from life. Of course my husband is like having my own cheerleading team. It was an amazing feeling, but I did notice that I’m definitely much weaker than I used to be before surgery which sometimes I wish I never had that hysterectomy unfortunately, that’s crazy talk because my hysterectomy was long overdue and I was in dire condition. It’s just that everything changed after my hysterectomy. I was doing very well and then I had surgery and all hell broke loose.

But I’m not sure what’s causing this. I don’t know if it’s the herniated disc issue the MS or just a hard recovery because of the MS. I’ve already reached out to my MS, neurologist and surgeon that did my surgery, but they have no clue.

I was just curious how many are driving with MS and how do you handle it if you have some symptoms or do you ever worry when you go out that the MS will start acting up and something will happen I hope this makes sense. ❤️❤️‍🩹

I would love to get some input on people dealing with L5 S1, herniated disc and driving

last year when I had an episode of excruciating pain from that disc sciatica, I actually drove myself care clinic. My husband was found asleep from a horrible migraine and I didn’t wanna wake him and the acute care clinic is right down the road for orthopedics remember sitting on an ice pack and I did fine but now the things I’m feeling are a little different. It’s not so much of but that weird left numbness that comes and goes, which makes me rely on my right leg more.

I haven’t driven since before I had my hysterectomy in December because that’s when things changed. They forgot to do the spine protocol in the OR and I think something happened because that’s when I woke up with that weird numbness in my left foot and so forth, the doctors are saying it’s probably just more pronounced now due to surgery and everything I went through laying in the OR and so forth, but I’m not convinced

They said that this is the residual from when I had the horrific episode last November and that while that disc itself is still considered a herniated sort of healed itself and adjusted, and the numbness I have is just residual because the numbness is what takes longer to heal

But today, I decided that I have to get back out there. I just can’t live like this where I’m stuck in the house and my wonderful husband is stuck doing all the errands and such although he would never say that because he’s just such a great guy, but I just missed the independence of driving myself.

So I just took our truck around the neighborhood slowly and carefully to see how I felt and I did pretty good but I just felt very nervous because it’s been several months and I just wanna make sure its safe

I’ll tell you that when I pulled up in the driveway, I sat there and cried. I know it sounds silly, but I just felt like I finally had a little bit of life back in me

My husband is really happy for me. He’s so encouraging but he’s also very protective. He went with me and he said I did really well and the reason he went with me is just to make sure that I didn’t get stuck not being able to drive home or something, but we were just in our neighborhood. I never left our neighborhood.

Does having this issue affect your driving at all? Do you notice anything when you’re driving? Does any of your weakness or numbness or pain affect you and are you still driving through it?

I appreciate you taking the time to experiences with me ❤️