Hey Mary-
I am glad to hear that they cleared you for surgery and you have that scheduled. I had a microdiscectemy in May of 2001 (L4-L5). I was in the hospital overnight, they had me walking around the floor the next day before I went home. The biggest thing was that while my back hurt from being cut into, as soon as I was out of surgery I had no pain down my leg at all! It was amazing!

I am sure that your doctors will tell you all this, but during recovery the best exercise you can do will be walking... walk lots. They probably won't want you to ride the bike on the road for a while since the disc will have to heal, and they dont' want you to fall during that time and re-injure the disc. I am sure that they will be OK with you riding on the trainer pretty quickly.

Good luck, and keep us up to date about both you and your husband.