I had a doctor’s visit yesterday, originally as a follow-up to some of the other medications I’m on right now to help with my sleep disorder and my (slightly) underactive thyroid. So, of course, we ended up talking mostly about my back. The doc wrote me a work excuse for the last two weeks as well as for all of next week, so I’m good to go on that front. He also approved me to be able to work from home, provided my office can set me up with remote access to the servers at Purdue.
Probably the best news from the appointment, though, is that he changed my medical referral from the pain management group to a neurosurgeon. He took a closer look at my MRI results and decided that, given the level of the herniation in the disk, it’s unlikely that therapy, exercise, medication, and steroid injections will provide any lasting relief or even necessarily bring me back to a functional level of mobility. Apparently, it’s a pretty sizeable herniation, and he thinks that seeing a surgeon will probably serve me better at this point. What’s even better is that we weren’t home from the doctor’s office for more than maybe 10 or 20 minutes and the surgeon’s office was already calling to set up an appointment – for Monday. So, they’re right on the ball over there, and I’m hopeful about being able to find a good and lasting solution to my recent back problems.
I fully expect to be scheduled for surgery sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’m not exactly excited by that prospect – I’ve already had one surgery in my life, and the recovery time wasn’t exactly fun. I’m also under no illusions that surgery will eliminate all of my back problems. In my experience, there are rarely any kind of miracle cures for back issues. But by the same token, I’m also optimistic that surgery will alleviate all this uncomfortable pressure on my sciatic nerve and reduce the pain and give me feeling back to my toes. So, here’s hoping something better comes out of this than what the pain management folks would have been able to provide.
