No, I'm not sick!

Some of my friends, and even my chiropractor, have commented on how much weight I'm losing.  They're concerned that I'm sick or something, and I have to explain that it's not anything like that, it's just how my body reacts to an injury.  I've had my left shoulder rebuilt twice, and each time, the reaction was the same; I drop size and weight...and folks start worrying that I've got some kind of disease.  The only disease I'm suffering from is a messed up cervical disc.  Once that gets resolved and I'm able to get my life back, then I'll be back to normal.  Which I can't wait for!!!

Key West, I hardly knew ye.

Unfortunately, I had another rough night with the neck, so I had to make the painful (no pun intended) decision this morning to back out of the Key West trip.  It's been over a week with no real improvement. I'm still unable to sit, stand, or drive for any length of time so there's no reason to risk making things even worse by going.

I'm expecting a call-back from Brigham & Women's neurology department to set up a consult appointment.  Their on-line information sounds promising about surgery.  It appears they require a minimum of 4-6 weeks of other treatment options before they'll discuss surgery, but that's ok with me.  I've already logged about 3 weeks of chiropractic - which has helped before, but doesn't seem to be fixing things this time around.  They may require that I do a cortisone shot...which I'm not excited about, but if that's what it takes, then I'll do it.

Hey, they just called me back.  Their first available slot is three weeks away; March 12th.

This sucks.

Cold Feet

My neck started feeling really, really good yesterday morning and my spirits were high about the recovery process.  Last night, however, it acted up again pretty badly, so I'm back to worrying about the trip...which starts tomorrow afternoon.

If I weren't facing the prospect of losing $1,600+ by cancelling the flight and bike, I'd back out of the trip in a heartbeat.  I guess you could say I'm getting cold feet about the whole thing.  Which is kind of ironic if you think about it...because how can my feet be cold if I'm in Key West?

Wish me luck...

For Better Or Worse...

My neck has leveled off in terms of recovery.  The past few days haven't been terrible, but nor have they been great.  I had another adjustment at the chiro this morning and will be seeing him again in the morning.  My fingers are proverbially crossed that the neck will settle down a bit more before the plane takes off.

Yes, that's right; for better or worse, I've decided to make the trip to Key West.  Time will tell if it's a foolish decision or not, but I felt it was worth the risk.  If I'd cancelled the trip and then felt fine on Thursday morning, I'd be kicking myself.

Of course, I may get down there and have a relapse, in which case I'll be kicking myself anyways...

...but at least I'll be away from this horrific winter weather!

What Is The Snow Equivalent Of An Ark?

So we're getting another whopper of a snow storm this weekend.  The weather folks haven't fully dialed it in yet as to what the snow totals will be, but it looks like we're in for well over a foot.  Wonderful.  This winter has been insane!  We made it virtually snow-free through Dec and Jan, only to have Feb slam us over and over again.

The last time we had purported precipitation of this magnitude, some guy named Noah built and Ark.  But that was for rain.  What does one build for snow?  A ski lodge?

Warmer weather will be most welcome when it arrives this year.  Hopefully it will be before July...

The Neck Saga Continues

So let's get caught up, shall we?  The neck is still causing me quite a bit of pain and at this point I'm facing the realization that I may not be able to make the Key West trip next Thursday.  That...would royally suck.  I told the guys that I'll make a final decision...probably a week from today (Monday).  I am really, REALLY hoping that my neck will settle down by then...but I have to admit that things aren't looking promising.  It's been 9 days since this thing flared up, and I can't say there's been any real improvement.  So with only 10 days before departure, I don't know that the odds are with me.

What else...I stopped taking the pain meds that the docs had prescribed.  They were some seriously high-test stuff and they weren't doing anything to fix the problem, so why take a chance with them?  I was only on them for 5 days, but after I stopped taking them, that night; I was wired.  I couldn't sleep and it wasn't because of the neck pain.  I just wasn't tired.  It didn't make any sense to me, but I was talking with my chiropractor afterward and he postulated that even though I'd only been on the meds for 5 days, my brain had started to get used to them (I don't want to say addicted...it was only 5 days, after all).  But still...after that little experience, I can see how folks get hooked on these things so easily.  Yikes.

So that's where things stand.  I'm seeing the chiropractor every day or so at this point as he's the one who's been able to get me fixed when this neck thing has popped up before.  In retrospect, I should have gone to him right away, rather than wasting almost a week by chasing down an MRI and trying to line up surgery.  It would have given me a few extra days of treatments from him.  Would it have helped?  Hard to say.

Ok, back to the spreadsheets.  Oh yeah - I worked the entire weekend; Saturday and Sunday.  That probably didn't help my neck at all, but there's just too much work to do.  Good thing I'm paid by the hour.

Oh crap...I'm salaried...

MRI - Aye Yi Yi!!

So I got the MRI results and went to the spine specialists this morning to discuss my options.  I told them I wanted surgery.  They said no, absolutely not.  When I asked why, they said due to the inherent risks involved, particularly since it's on the neck, surgery would be the very least option.  And since history has shown that this can be managed without surgery, then that option is off of the table.

Which unfortunately leaves me with the possibility of this recurring every couple of years, which I'm not excited about in the least.  But, the specialists feel that with physical therapy and medication (when this thing flares up), that I will be ok.

Ha, thought I.  That's because you guys aren't dealing with the pain that I'm dealing with!  What's that?  Oh...it seems the doc I was talking to also has the exact same herniation that I have, and he hasn't gone for surgery.  Ok...*sigh*...fine.

Oh, wanna see what my herniation looks like?

There you go.  If you click on the pic to open it up, you'll see right in the middle, there's a tiny little arrow pointing to the indentation on the left side of my spinal cord.  And that little indentation is the cause of all my discomfort.  Stupid little indentation!

I didn't come in to work yesterday because I was in too much pain.  Quite surprising to me was that I slept most of the day.  I know I've been losing sleep because of this thing but I didn't realize I'd lost THAT much.  I guess I really needed to catch up.  This morning when I woke up, I actually felt marginally better, and that was before I took any of the pain meds.

I'm in at work today and the pain has returned to some degree.  Not as bad as it was, and I'm truly hopeful that this flare-up is on it's way down, but time will tell.

Wish me luck...

Irony

For those that weren't aware; the herniated disc in my neck has become an issue again.  It first started acting up a couple of weeks ago but instead of going quietly back into the night as it normally does, it went the less-traveled route of flaring up into a full-blown issue.  This happens once every couple of years and to be honest with you; I'm completely tired of it.  I want it operated on and fixed, once and for all.

The first step in that process is to get an MRI done.  Which I accomplished this afternoon...and within which lies the story behind this posts' title.

For as much pain as I'm in already, having to lie flat on my back, perfectly still, inside a coffin-like tube for over half an hour, raised the level of pain to entirely new levels.  And as I'm laying there with my neck, upper back and right arm literally feeling like they're on fire, what song should come through the headphones they put on me?

Painkiller, by Judas Priest.

I did get a chuckle out of that...for about a millisecond.

My doc should have the MRI results today and then is supposed to call me in a day or two and we'll discuss my options.  I'm seriously pushing for surgery.  We'll see how I make out.