A Major Development...11 November 2008
A major development in this on-going saga of how the Cowgirl hurt her back on Labor Day and when is she gonna get back in the saddle again...After 8 weeks of Physical Therapy 3 times a week, on Friday last, I left there in such pain I'm not sure how I drove myself home. After crawling into the house and lying on my heating pad (it's like a constant companion) for awhile, I phoned the Physical Therapy place and talked with the girl who had done my session. She said, "When you come in on Monday, we are going to do a re-evaluation on you. I think there is something more going on with your back." I agreed. Spent Friday night curled up like a pretzel and had to get Tom to help me downstairs on Saturday morning.Ok, that's the background. Here's the scoop: After doing the re-evaluation on Monday, Carla (who is the head P.T.) says to me, "All your symptoms now point to a herniated disc." I had done some reading on the internet about it and said to her, "Yup. I think that must be it. So what am I looking at?" She told me that ordinarily, herniated discs are treated in Physical Therapy with traction. However, since I already have 7 fused vertebrae (from my famous crash and burn in 1988) traction is not an option. I may be looking at surgery. Yuck. Not what I wanted to hear, but at least there is a solution out there.She penned a memo to the orthopedic doctor who has been overseeing my P.T. and told me to call his office today (Tuesday) in the afternoon and ask for him to schedule an MRI for me as soon as possible.In the meantime, I was able to locate the surgeon who fixed me back in 1988. He is currently practicing in Columbus, OH but Tom says that's not a problem if I want to use him, as we can fly the Cessna there in about an hour and a half. Today I called the Shock Trauma unit at University of Maryland Medical System (my alma mater -- where I got fixed in 1988) to try to find the name of the other doctor who worked on me, hoping he might still be in the Baltimore area. I got a call back saying I should contact Medical Records and a phone number. That's great, but by the time I got the message it was already after hours. So I will call tomorrow (Wednesday). I didn't get a call back from the local orthopedic doc about scheduling an MRI either, so I will have to call again in the morning.I've been screwing around with this injury for over two months now and am anxious to have a solution soon. I figure I might as well go for it (whatever "it" is) because I still have really good health insurance (COBRA benefits from the ex's work) and it's coming winter when I don't like to do stuff outside anyway.So, that's it. Keep your fingers crossed for me, friends. The idea of more surgery isn't on my list of favorite things to do, but if that's what I have to do to get back in shape, that's the way it will be. Thank God I've got Tom to help me around here and take care of me.
Replies