It seems that I have a bulge between L3 & L4 that is pressing on a nerve. The pain has gotten worse and I'm tired of having to live with it, so the next step is an injection .... and keeping up with physical therapy.
So I go in Wednesday morning for the injection. I keep telling myself that I've had 5 epidurals .... I can do this, but at the moment myself isn't listening .... it's just thinking how very painful this sounds.
Getting old is totally sucking.
On the positive side (cuz I'm looking for any positive I can) .... the doctor said I can keep playing tennis. He said I have "no restrictions" so yay for that. And yay for (hopefully) not playing with pain anymore.
Well, that's about it for tonight. I need to go read a book or eat some chocolate or drink huge amounts of alcohol to take my mind off of my lumbar being punctured.
Later, Peeps.
And Happy Monday.
:)
UPDATE: OK, It's a couple of hours later and I'm now breathing much easier. And no, I didn't read a book, take one bite of chocolate OR drink a drop of alcohol!
I have a wonderful friend who's a pain management doctor and he's the one who was going to do the injection on Wednesday. I took my MRI report over to his house tonight and I'm feeling better, even though I found out that it's not as simple as a bulging disk.
The first thing he told me is that I'd be asleep during an injection. Instant relief! Put me to sleep and I can take anything! Well ......... never mind.
Anyway .... it seems that the disk is a secondary problem. I have something else that seems to be causing most of the pain I'm having. I forgot all of the huge medical words he used but I think it comes down to the spaces in my lumbar getting smaller (thank you to my 6 children and the 5 pregnancies for that, most likely) and the nerves not doing well in small spaces. Who knew that nerves were prone to claustrophobia?!
So, I will go in (not this week, maybe the week after next) and he will inject a "block" to that part of my back (L3-L5) to see if that relieves the pain. And yes, I will be asleep for that. Thank you, God.
If that works ... and I should know hopefully in the recovery room .... he will schedule me to come in and he will do an ablation on those nerves .... burning them to end the pain. Hopefully that will be the end of that, though nerves do regenerate. We're hoping that when they do they'll be less claustrophobic (because really, what nerves would want to get burned away like that again?!). He said that I'll probably have pain for several days after the ablation but then it will start to go away.
Hopefully I won't be bothered by the disk problem, because this nerve-thing seems to be causing most of the pain. We'll have to wait and see.
So there you go. Way more info than any of you wanted to know, but that's what you get for continuing to return.
And thank you for continuing.
:)
4 comments:
If they are doing it via fluoroscopy, the worst part is the IV. You won't remember the rest. It's not the same as an epidural when you're having a baby, just the same TYPE of infection. I got faith in ya!!! Love ya and I hope it works for ya!
Little Bro
Ouch! Sure hope it makes you feel a whole lot better. Bet it will!!
praying for you and to lovingly point you to the Father who is perfect in our weakness. have no fear for He is with you.
survived three back surgeries and so much better for it. praying for you… press on.
Praying for peace as you wait for the procedure, a successful procedure and relief from your pain afterwards!
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