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...