Of Doctors, Treatments, and such

I wanted to post an update regarding the visit I had with the spine specialist.

I made my appointment, filled out the paperwork, and waited for the specialist to see me. We spoke, went over my symptoms and ran a few range of movement tests. The results are in: I have a medium to large herniated disk at L4-L5. It is applying pressure to my sciatic nerve and low dosage anti-inflammatory drugs are not doing any good. The doctor gave me the run down and since my pain has bee there at least 6 months, he is going to try steroid therapy on me for a while and if that helps, praise be to God. He did say however that surgery is the most likely treatment for my condition. Since it is difficult to stand for more than 20 minutes or so, pain killers (I am taking Ultracet when the pain gets too great) are not a viable alternative. The doctor asked me if my quality of life was acceptable using pain killers and I told him know. I also told him I was not excited about going under the knife. He then explained that the procedure is now out-patient surgery and there is a 96% success rate. Good news, but I am still a chicken :).

The option to use epidurals was given to me, but he stated the success rate is only about 40%. My problem is a bit more sever and he thinks it would be a waste of time and money.

While I was at the doctor's office, my son called and asked me if we could talk. My mind thought the worst and then I thought he might be asking to move back in. I was wrong on both acocunts. He just wanted to chat. Of course, this was prompted by a call from my lovely wife, but he made the effort to drive to see us. I bought us burgers at Jake's, then we went to get my steroid prescription filled. After we picked up the drugs, we got gas at Kroger and then home.

We chatted about his health, school, career, the Army, his grades, social life, church, finances, his car, etc. He seems to be under control except for finances. He has a mobile phone set up when his current one runs out and he has some very good job options available to him after he graduates and gets out of AIT. The kid looks good in a uniform.

I started my steroid megapack today. I have to take 6 pills today, 5 tomorrow, 4 the next day, etc until they are gone. then I should feel some relief. If not, then the next step is surgery.

It is quiet here at work. We have a lunch get together at Fogo de Chao today in Addison later in the afternoon. The food is so good there, even if I normally do not eat much beef.

Next week is a short week. I work Mon-Wed, go to my wife's office to help on computer stuff on Thursday, have Fri-Wed off and work the last two days of the week. Then we get a long weekend, and then it is back to the grind. The holidays are almost over.