Friday, January 13, 2012

The Specialist Speaks!

So Wednesday, the neurosurgeon gave me the word. He had asked me questions and talked for some time when I noticed there was no mention of my neck or the MRI which showed it's travails. I asked, "Do you have the MRI?" He didn't. That was a surreal moment. When the only piece of evidence, the only possible link as to why I am standing here in his examining room at all, is the MRI, and he had not asked me for it or even looked for it or been told it existed...WTF?

I produced the MRI on disc and he looked at it. He tested all my joints for nerve impingement, decided there was none.

The good news is that I have a "normal for your age" neck. Ahhhh. Feel better already. The disc is not herniated, but compressed. The bone spurring is normal and the arthritis is normal.

The really good news is that my head injury and neck pain are not at all related to the other issues of leg and arm pain. The search for answers continues. He referred me to an osteopath for my arm & shoulder problems.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Watch For Falling Trees

As I mentioned earlier, two weeks ago my doc gave me the bad news. The sore neck I've had for several years was actually not just a sore neck. The MRI showed a herniated disc, bone spurs and arthritis. Oh darn! I thought maybe with a little physical therapy I'd be good to go.  I've been relentlessly healthy for decades. Didn't know how good I had it!!

But what happened 3 months ago is that a tree fell on me. No, really. I wouldn't kid about something like that. Usually when I'm telling this, people giggle and wait for the punchline. It wasn't a big tree. But I had to travel 3,000 miles to find this tree.

In August, I returned to my former home at Skiff Lake, New Brunswick, Canada to visit with my buddies, my two best friends, my godchildren, and my former partner (current Skype pal), for the first time in 20 years.

After two glorious weeks of parties, reunions, a slumber party, walks around the lake, deep one-on-one sharing, and the kind of laughter that breaks ribs, I spent my last night in Canada alone in my friend's cabin. Brenda's place is a beautiful cabin set back from Skiff Lake. The loons and ducks came right into the cove.

For the previous week, the big news was a hurricane coming our way. I had lived there 16 years without the whiff of a hurricane. We had big weather all the time, from tree splitting lightning to winds that could blow a car off the road and windchill that turned motors and transmissions into cement, gas into jello. I was skeptical.

However, even downgraded to a Tropical Storm, Irene whipped through Skiff Lake like a tree ripping, roof lifting monster. When a tree fell on Brenda's roof, I went outside to investigate and managed to get under it at the exact moment gravity and wind jarred it free.

I was gifted with a bonk on the noggin like several I've sustained over the years. Not till I was on the plane going home the next day did I wonder why my legs were hurting so much. According to my chiropractor, and the new x-ray, the hit was just enough to upgrade the existing injury. From a hurt neck materialized a full body extravaganza of pain. So the journey has begun for a solution. Wednesday, I talk to the specialist, the guy with the knife.