Friday, May 17, 2002
Hey everybody, I'm back! (crickets chirping)
Aren't you all glad to see me?
(drowsy voice) huh? You were gone?
Yeah, that's what I get for not posting daily, or for weeks at a time for that matter. So for a little update.
The 15th, a friday, I went in for my MRI. This was a different machine then the one I had my thyroid scan on. This one was the classic little tunnel. I hit at the shoulders and slid on the little bench as it kept sliding into the bunny hole of a medical imaging machine. SooOOoo, I had to rush to Sioux Falls (an hour and a half ride) to use an open sided MRI machine there. They did get me in the same day, which was good, and I got to take two Darvocet for the ride down. Narcotic pain killers make me jolly good company. It was kind of like a date, several hours of kid free time with my wife. We at at Nick's Gyros which is a treat. I took copies of the MRI scans back for my doctor appt on monday.
Monday, the doctor says that I have a moderately bulged L5-S1 disk. The one between my tailbone and spine, it's squeezing the nerve. We're going to try an epidural injection to fight the pain and inject some steroids to combat the swelling.
Tuesday, I have a back spasm. Down low in my back. While in the shower. I am wet, naked, half washed, and gasping in excruciating pain. I am unable to move and barely able to talk. This is the most painful thing I have ever experienced, including 2nd degree burns to 20% of my body (from my nipples to my knees). Luckily I didn't fall down, I couldn't have gotten back up. I feel like I have been cut open to the bone from my heel, up the back of my left leg, across my left cheek, to my tailbone. I had taken 2 Darvocet half an hour earlier as I had been stiff from sleeping, after another 20 minutes of debilitating pain, they finally took effect and I was able to get moved. In the meantime T had called the doctor on call to see what she could do, while they were talking I must have exclaimed in pain. He heard me, asked "Was that him?" she said yes. He told her to take me to the ER, We did. I spent 2 days in the hospital, got the epidural and came home yesterday. It's been a pretty wild week. I'm a little stiff and sore but nowhere near as bad as I was a week ago. Hopefully I'm on the healing path now.
Aren't you all glad to see me?
(drowsy voice) huh? You were gone?
Yeah, that's what I get for not posting daily, or for weeks at a time for that matter. So for a little update.
The 15th, a friday, I went in for my MRI. This was a different machine then the one I had my thyroid scan on. This one was the classic little tunnel. I hit at the shoulders and slid on the little bench as it kept sliding into the bunny hole of a medical imaging machine. SooOOoo, I had to rush to Sioux Falls (an hour and a half ride) to use an open sided MRI machine there. They did get me in the same day, which was good, and I got to take two Darvocet for the ride down. Narcotic pain killers make me jolly good company. It was kind of like a date, several hours of kid free time with my wife. We at at Nick's Gyros which is a treat. I took copies of the MRI scans back for my doctor appt on monday.
Monday, the doctor says that I have a moderately bulged L5-S1 disk. The one between my tailbone and spine, it's squeezing the nerve. We're going to try an epidural injection to fight the pain and inject some steroids to combat the swelling.
Tuesday, I have a back spasm. Down low in my back. While in the shower. I am wet, naked, half washed, and gasping in excruciating pain. I am unable to move and barely able to talk. This is the most painful thing I have ever experienced, including 2nd degree burns to 20% of my body (from my nipples to my knees). Luckily I didn't fall down, I couldn't have gotten back up. I feel like I have been cut open to the bone from my heel, up the back of my left leg, across my left cheek, to my tailbone. I had taken 2 Darvocet half an hour earlier as I had been stiff from sleeping, after another 20 minutes of debilitating pain, they finally took effect and I was able to get moved. In the meantime T had called the doctor on call to see what she could do, while they were talking I must have exclaimed in pain. He heard me, asked "Was that him?" she said yes. He told her to take me to the ER, We did. I spent 2 days in the hospital, got the epidural and came home yesterday. It's been a pretty wild week. I'm a little stiff and sore but nowhere near as bad as I was a week ago. Hopefully I'm on the healing path now.
