Here is what people are saying about Mr Adam Howard and his surgery.

Comment from Cyclist with Iliac Endofibrosis after Laparoscopic Surgery

'I'm approaching 8 months post surgery and nearly 5 months since returning to cycling. I continued cycling at an endurance level up to 3 months building to 8-10 hours per week with no adverse effects. Since then (the past 6 weeks or so) I've pushed it harder and I would say I feel at a fitness level similar to prior to surgery. 

The sensations I have are as follows. The antero-medial thigh patchy numbness continues to improve month on month and doesn't particular bother me. Cycling-wise I have odd sensations in the leg at endurance intensities. I put this down to one thing and that would be having the leg adapt to working anaerobically for 25 years of having the problem it's going to take time for the muscles to retrain and feel normal at an aerobic state. More interesting is at higher intensities. I am able to push hard, towards maximum though I haven't gone that deep as yet, and don't have any sign of symptoms. Within a mile of leaving home whichever way I go there are a couple of hills which was always a good test as to how bad the leg was going to be in a ride. I have no effect at all now other than the muscles still feeling like they're warming up which is similar for both legs. I was caught by a serious training group a month ago and decided to tag on the back and up a particularly fast hill I noticed my power output went through the roof compared to what I had been doing and over the top of the hill I felt I could have accelerated whereas normally the leg would have felt like it was about to burst! The subsequent part of the ride where normally the leg would be on fire trying to recover it just felt easy. I have increased up to 3 hour length rides and following I feel like the leg recovers easily whereas in the past everything just felt tight and achy for several hours or a day or so following with the left leg suffering from working anaerobically and the right leg suffering for having to compensate for the left.

So to sum up everything is really encouraging for me. My plan now is to train normally over the next 3 months of winter with a progressive training programme mixing endurance, high intensity and indoor weight work and see how my body responds to that. I was open-minded about returning to racing prior to any surgery depending on the outcome so until the end of winter I will still be non-commital in that respect but as things have progressed up to now there is every chance I will give it a go. 

I don't know whether Mr Howard wanted to see me at any point or if he was happy for me to continue updates via email. Subject to no adverse reactions I would plan to update around February time. I can't thank Mr Howard or Mr Hinchliffe enough for how things have turned out so far so I will continue to do my best to maximise the outcome.

Kind regards

Paul'