Recent History

The previous posting brings us to this latest news/diagnosis:

In November of 2007, the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, I injured myself. I was screwing around with the dog, and then went into the kitchen and opened the dishwasher and suddenly had excruciating pain in my left hip, inner thigh and knee. For quite awhile I assumed it was an incredible escalation in my usual S-I joint pain. I laid on the couch for quite awhile, using a heating pad. But nothing helped. For many hours I dealt with the excruciating, electric shock-like pain. I thought if I could sleep, maybe I would wake up healed. But I couldn't sleep either. Finally around dinner time Ernest decided it was time to go to the Emergency Room. I didn't argue with him.

We went to said (unnamed) ER. Getting to and fro to the car, out of the car, into the ER was agony. I sat in a wheelchair for an hour or more in the ER. Then I eventually saw a Dr. As I reflect back on it, he never really examined me, certainly didn't even touch me. Instead he diagnosed a pulled muscle. Said there was no point in x-raying, because soft tissue injuries don't show up on x-rays. He had someone give me a shot of demoral and an Rx for Vicadin and said I would have to be off work for 4-5 days. That last statement was a no-brainer because even with the Vicadin I continued to be in such pain, I couldn't sleep, much less get out of bed or into clothes! I stayed home until Thursday then hobbled into work. I called my (new) regular physician and made an appt. I saw her and she did a little work up and was really alarmed by my inability to do much with that left leg. I couldn't lift it very high, or do a leg lift. She referred me to an Orthopedist.

The Orthopedist did a neurological work up (which is surprisingly low-tech--it involves hitting your various joints with that little metal hammer! My regular Dr. had done the same thing), he took x-rays and scheduled me for my first MRI. He asked me what I thought the diagnosis was and I said "my S-I joint" and he said, "No, it's a disc, probably L-3." And he gave me Darvocet--which made me a little loopy, but blessedly took away the pain! I went home that evening and filled the Rx (and the pharmacy was busy and didn't have the Rx ready until 8:30 p.m. I was in such pain, when I finally got the Rx, I took two --embracing the warning "may cause drowsiness.") And I slept through the night! That was the first time in a week that I slept soundly. Ernest said I snored all night and he was thrilled! I woke in the morning, realizing I had slept through the night--and I cried! Really and truly. I had been so exhausted and in pain for a week I was beside myself that I had actually slept! Going to work continued to be a challenge--working in the only non-handicapped building on campus. I have to climb a flight of stairs to get into my office. Which began the several month tradition, of Ernest walking me up and down the stairs to my office. Once I was at work, I could never leave the office.

The MRI confirmed the Dr's. diagnosis of a herniated L-3, L-4 disc. And the week before Christmas I was scheduled for a "nerve root injection." It involved being checked in to an outpatient facility, having anesthesia for the 10 minue procedure of injecting steroids into the nerves coming out of the L-3, L-4 disc. Dr. said I had a "very large" herniation and along with that, pain, numbness and weakness. Those are the big three of disc herniation--sometimes you just get one symptom, but I had all three. There was hope that the steroids would relieve any of those three symptoms and might help the herniation resolve or shrink or go away. I was so weirded out by the idea of anesthesia, but it wasn't bad. And he was right. The pain went away. I still had numbness and weakness, but at least I didn't have the pain. Which meant I didn't have to take the Darvoset--and wouldn't have to worry about being fuzzy-brained at work! Especially as we were headed into my busiest time of year.

We wound up scheduling another nerve root injection (I could have 3) in January. Which of course meant starting my insurance deductible all over again. That was a stress, but I was able to work that out. I had the second injection. Inititially there wasn't any change in my leg, until a week later. That particular Wednesday I was at work and noticed I could lift my left leg as fully as my right. I was so excited because that meant I was getting better and might not have to even consider surgery (which was the next option after the nerve root injections). I was busy showing off and discussing my back problem with a fellow employee when I met the incredible Dr. B.