Saturday, April 21, 2018

Pain Update, Part 3

Monday morning my doctor called about my MRI results. She told me that I had two herniated discs in my neck and that I'd need to see a spine specialist. I was really surprised. I don't know why I was surprised because I knew something was going on but I guess to hear it out loud, confirmed by test results was just a little crazy. I asked her if she could give me a prescription to get me through the nights until I could see the specialist and she prescribed Diclofenac.

I drove out to the doctors office, picked up a referral for the specialist, picked up my prescription and then immediately went home to call said specialist to make an appointment. They were able to get me in just two days later but at 8:30 am which meant Tony had to stay home and get the kids on the bus.
They asked me to get to my appt. 30 minutes early to fill out paperwork and I was there at exactly 8 am. It's a good thing I actually allotted 30 minutes because it was a ton of paperwork!

The specialist I saw was very good about explaining what he saw on my MRI and then had me perform a series of resistance exercises with both of my arms. I was really surprised to see how much weaker my left arm was. I mean, I know the stupid thing hurts like hell, but I hadn't realized how weak it was! I could barely resist any pressure he applied. After the resistance tests he told me that he felt the best course of action would be to have an epidural administered to the herniated disc area and begin physical therapy. I think all the blood must have drained from my face when he said I'd need an epidural in my neck because he was quick to tell me that it was a common procedure to alleviate pain in this instance. He also said he didn't think I was coming to him because I wanted to deal with the pain and that the epidural steroid would block the pain I was feeling.

I've had 3 epidurals in my life, all when I was giving birth, with three different results. My first was with Landon and it was the only one that completely worked. I mean, I was able to sleep after having that one while I was still in full labor! That was THE SHIT. Then, I had one when I was laboring with Harper and it only worked on one side of my body. That was only HALF THE SHIT. And then, I had one while in labor with Dakota and it hadn't worked at all. Which, of course means it was NO SHIT. So, I'm a bit hesitant to even have this done.

He went on to say that we'd revisit how things are going in about 4-6 weeks at which point if there was no progress he'd recommend surgery. I asked what that meant and he said they'd go in and remove the herniated disc and replace it with artificial disc. Here is a link to an interesting video about the procedure. He said I have about a 20% chance of surgery at this point so I am very, very hopeful it won't come to that. (That SHIT looks scary.)

So, I've scheduled my first physical therapy appointment for this coming Monday and the epidural is scheduled for the following Monday, April 30th. I have to quit taking the Diclofenac 5 days before the steroid is administered but after last night I feel like it isn't doing that much anyways.

There's the update for now...I'll try to update again on Monday after my first pt.

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