I don't know where to start.

Last Saturday (after Tim headed off to Florida for 5 days) my left knee started to hurt/ache.  I tried all kinds of things, ice/heat/elevation/massage - one day it was better, another no, so I made an appointment with the regular doctor for Thursday but by Wednesday I could barely walk.  So when I went to the back doctor on Wednesday, he asked me how I was doing and I told him that my knee was killing me, and he replied "I can't help you there."  We talked and decided that a set of regular steroid shots might reactivate the rhizotomy loss (I still fell that I'm about 45% improved from before the rhizotomy) so we scheduled them for March 1st.  He only does that procedure on Fridays - This coming Friday (2/8) I'm getting ready to leave for Hilton Head with my Mom, 2/15 I'll be coming back from HH, 2/22 I already have 2 other DR appts. scheduled so 3/1 was the first opening.
On Thursday morning when I was headed to the doctor for my knee (of course it felt better because I had the doctor's  appointment )  he said that it could be several things but to try increasing my arthritis medication first before heading off to the orthopedic doctor. Friday it was horrible again and today a little better.  I'm beginning to think that I should just give it up and live on drugs.  No I won't.
Worse than the pain in my knee is my computer is not working (I'm on my backup) so I can't access any of the things I regularly use. Thank God the Internet is not computer specific.  LT withdraw along with knee and back pain would be unimaginable!

But good news - little (?) Miller Patrick made his appearance on January 21st weighing at 8 lbs. 7 ozs.!  I'll get to see him in a week!

New Pain procedure

Well, the steroid shots that I had back in March have worn off and so I back on the pain treadmill again. Off I went back to the doctor and so this morning, we met at the hospital to have more steroid shots and Rhizotomy on six nerve sites. I'm very sore and the doctor says it will be up to two weeks before I know whether they worked on not. I really hope so after what I went through. First the technician and anesthesiologist both had trouble starting an IV, so my BP went up and they had to keep asking me how I felt while the doctor was driving in the 18 needles. If they had just left me alone, I wouldn't have been concentrating on what was happening and made it through a bit easier.

I also had to worry about the time. Tim was scheduled to play golf at 2:30PM at Avenel and the procedure (20 minutes max) was scheduled for 11:45AM. The doctor was late and then the IV issues, we just managed to get out in time for Tim to make to the golf course. Whew, I never would have heard the end of it if he had missed his golf game! Just kidding.

Now just time to rest and read.

48 Hour evaluation

Okay everyone, the first 48 hours are over and there is definite improvement in the pain level area.

Last night for the first time since last summer I was able to actually stand and cook dinner without having to sit down because of the pain in my back. The first hurdle has been passed and I am extremely happy with this step forward. My back does appear to be weaken because of the lack of activity but as I get more comfortable that the pain will not attack me again, I'll work to build up my stamina.

The new doctor said that if these shots didn't work that I would need to get a mylo-gram so that he could look at the soft tissues normally seen in an MRI (I can't have those) and if the findings warranted a laminectomy might be the next step. I feel pretty comfortable with this doctor, far more than with the pain specialists. He seems to want to find the problem and correct it, while the Pain doctors just wanted to stop the pain so they were pushing pills toward the end.

I'm not saying that the pain is completely gone, far from it, but it is at a reduced level.

Medical Update

I had the new round of shots in my back Friday (I think there were eight total if I felt them all) and I'm a bit sore which is to be expected but there seems to be a bit of improvement. The doctor told me I should know if the shots are going to work in the first 48 hours so I'm taking it really easy this weekend and keeping my fingers, and everything else crossed (except my eyes - can't read that way).

So my lazy weekend should help me get caught up on my reading too!

Doctor Update

Boy does this guy move fast!
I went to see the new doctor (Neurosurgeon) this morning. The purple walls were a bit of a turnoff but I managed to stay and see the doctor. LOL

He feels with my history and the test results that I brought with me that he wants to try another set of injections before a mylogram (sp?). Since the injections worked for a short time (June/July) he feels that his method may be able to give me relief that I need and he would refer to give that a try before a riskier procedure. The mylogram would require injecting dye into the area (I have an allergy) and because of the allergy it is riskier than for normal folks. The reason for the mylogram is that we need to see the soft tissues which normal folks would just have an MRI but I can't have those because of metal clips in head from brain surgery when I was little. (The magnet would pull the clips and I would bleed to death before they could stop it.)

So Friday morning I am off to the surgical center to have the shots. Keep your fingers crossed and cross anything else you can. Maybe prayers too? I really want this to work!

New Doctor found

I got the name of a neurologist from a friend who also had back problems as well as the same name from my SIL (he did her back surgery), so this week I am going to call and make an appointment. They said it might take a while to get in, but He is worth every moment of waiting. In the meantime I will have to depend on major drugs and my recliner to survive.... Gee, What can I do while I sit in my chair?

My friends at LibraryThing wonder why I think that Needled to Death seems to describe how I feel lately. Here's my explanation:

I have a severe bad back and have suffered with pain on and off for the last 30 some years but the last 2½ it's been getting progressively worse. May of last year I started going to Pain Mgmt doctors and had a series of 3 steroid injections (NEEDLES) which gave me about 4 weeks of relief before the pain returned. Then I got 2 series of FACET block injections (NEEDLES) which did nothing to relieve the pain. Then I had Radio Frequency ablation (two series of NEEDLES) and that just made things worse.

Even today fell into the NEEDLED to DEATH category. I had a return visit scheduled with the Pain Mgmt office and here's how it went...

I got there at 10:15 (my appt. was 10:30), the sign said everything was running on schedule. At 10:50 I got up and asked what was going on if everything was running on time "Oh, just 5 more minutes.." 11:20, I was called back and asked to pee in a cup - I said "NO I'm not doing anything until I see a doctor." They put me in a room and at 11:40 said that the doctor was behind schedule (no sh-- Sherlock) would the PA be okay? I said yes because at this point I just wanted to get it over with and get out of there. I told the PA that I had made this appt specifically to see the "DOCTOR" because I wanted some answers. They had received the written report on the CT scan I had 3 weeks ago but wanted me to go get the actual films, I said "no - you can get them yourselves - the facilities are 1 floor down from the office." I was not going to be taking anymore time away from work because they were incompetent! He also basically told me the same thing that the PA 2 weeks ago said - options to consider were disco-gram, PT, massage therapy. I asked about acupuncture and was told that insurance probably wouldn't cover it but that it wouldn't hurt anything. They wanted Blood or urine and I felt like making it as tough as possible on them so I said blood and the little tech couldn't even get that right. The PA gave me another prescription (I had to wait another 15 minutes for that) and said to come back in 3 weeks. I think I'm going to look for another Pain Mgmt office. Needless to say I am extremely frustrated, angry and still in pain including 5 needles (trying to draw blood) again today!

BACK IS IS A BUMMER AGAIN

Well, I've had the steroid shots in my back and they relieved the pain for about 4 weeks. So I went back to the Pain management Doctor and we did another series of shots called Facet blocks and those did nothing at all to relieve the pain. I'm headed back to the Pain guy again to talk about the next proposal - Radio frequency ablation.

In the meantime I have started back at water aerobics so lets hope that eases some of the pain. We're headed to Orlando the first week in October and I would like to be able to enjoy some activities while we're there.

I'll keep you posted.

Has it been that long?

Mama mentioned that I hadn't put anything new on my blog and when I looked, I said, OMG, has it been that long?

So let's catch up....

My three "grandchildren" are healthy and growing quickly - Jackson is now 2, Molly Kathryn is 7 months old and Isabella is 4 months old. There is a new grand-baby in the making - Stella Reese Stoehr is expected September 9th or there abouts. So I have been working away on baby things for all my beautiful grand-babies!

February, first, I got my new car for the next 3 years - Town & Country van with a bunch of bells and whistles (2 DVD players, Bluetooth, Navigation system, etc). Tim and I drove it when we went to Hilton Head to visit with Mother and Tina and Mary-Ruth and Peter were there one day with us also. Tina had brought her Wii so I got to try it out and now I have one of my own which I use at least 3 times a week.

March we flew down to Florida for a long weekend to celebrate Mike 's (Tim's Brother) 60th birthday but the afternoon we arrived, he went into the hospital with a possible heart attack so we had to party without him. Luckily no heart attack, but some blockage so he had to have a stint inserted. Doing fine now.

Kathy (Tim's sister) and her hubbie David came up the end of March for the DC tour at the perfect time for the cherry blossoms. It was great to visit.

The end of March and early April were taken up with activities for the Ladies 9 Holers - I'm now the Treasurer as well as the secretary. I played duplicate bridge 3 times with my friend Rosemary and been playing Mah Jongg just about every week.

May has started out busy as well. I'm on the Social committee at the Country Club - and we are starting a Ladies social group called the LILIES - Ladies Involved with Like Interests, Efforts, and Specialties - I worked really hard for that acronym! So I have been working very hard on getting that started (I was named the Committee chair) - getting a list of topics for the gatherings (I don't want to call them meetings) and then finding speakers or experts to talk about the topics. Our first gathering is June 22nd!

Lastly, on the catchup scene, I went to the doctor about my back again, and I have been sent to the Pain Management specialist. Next week I will be starting some special injections into my back to try to relieve the near constant pain in my back. Keep your fingers crossed for me and a few prayers might help.

Needless to say, I have been reading all along, and currently have read 42 books for 2011. If you are interested in what I read, check out my book blog at Cheli's Shelves.

I'll try to do better from now on keeping up with what's happening.

36 years of Wedded Bliss

Our anniversary is almost over and looking back at the entire day, it wasn't exactly what I would have wanted but at least we were together, and that's what's important.

I started the day out visiting the Orthopedic doctor because both of my knees have been a major PAIN! since I started PT for my back. So when the Physical Therapist kicked me out because I couldn't do some of the work because of my knees, I headed back to the Ortho. So at 9:30AM this morning I was having pictures taken, not for my anniversary, but of my knees - XRAYS - which showed thankfully, no issues. So as a gift - what did I get? - a cortisone shot! OUCH!!
Heading home, I remembered getting Cortisone in my shoulder and how I was miserable for two days afterward and hoped that it wasn't going to be the same for my knee. (I only had one knee done to see if it would work.)

I picked up Tim and we headed to the Country Club. Tim had been scheduled to play in a Senior Men's tournament last Tuesday but it was rained out and rescheduled today. So I got to be the official Scorekeeper for Tim and his teammate. We finished around 4:30PM and since my knee was killing me, we headed home. Rather than going out to dinner like we had planned, Tim got takeout (Popeye's) and I sat with my leg up, ice bag on and watched Dancing with the Stars while Tim napped.

Not the most memorable anniversary, but like I said, at least we're together.