You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. some may be significant only to you. some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience. - President Hinckley



Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The Back Saga Continues

Found out that the bottom of my spine is fractured/broken, and that the disc between my L5 and another vertebra is smashed and the nerves are exposed- causing the pain down my legs and also in my abdomen.  Excruciating burning pain is what it feels like. Or when it’s down my legs if I have any weight on my legs at all, the bones feel like they are going to break with the pressure.  It is highly unpleasant.  After meeting with the neurosurgeon on Thursday my options were 3 choices:
1.       Manage Pain with chiropractic care (which I’ve already tried), acupuncture, and Physical Therapy
2.      Manage pain with pain pills (not going to happen)
3.      Correct the problem with surgery – take a small piece of the hip to fix the spinal break, and fuse the L5 with the S1.  Hospital time is 3 days recovery/out of work time is 4-6 weeks.
He was very positive about how successful the surgery is.  He told me that I could resume normal activities after I was healed….running, etc.  I was worried about that so I was glad to hear.

Since I have met with him and opted to have the surgery done – I had one of my coworkers tell me about a physical therapy place that he went to prior to having a similar surgery done several years ago.  He said he went 6 times ( it was highly painful) and then he hasn’t been back since and didn’t have to have the surgery.  So, while I am waiting to hear from the insurance about the surgery go ahead, I am going to the PT place to see if I can’t get some relief there?  I figure it’s worth a try to see if I can manage the pain through that rather than having a major surgery.