Easter weekend - WOW

My weekend was a bit hectic and didn't go as planned.  Friday night I went to a Seder dinner given by a Jewish friend - since we were sharing our religious traditions - I took her a chocolate Bunny LOL!  Saturday night, another friend was celebrating her 50th birthday  and her Boss (the owner of the Washington National Baseball team)  picked up the bill for a party that she and her boyfriend were throwing.  all I can say is WOW!  DJ, photographers, food you wouldn't believe.  Then Sunday I was supposed to drive up to Baltimore - visit with Mom for a little while and then have dinner at my sister's.  Nope, that didn't go as planned.  My sister-in-law had been stung by a bee in her backyard Saturday afternoon and woke up with one eye swollen shut and swollen all over.  So Tim and I spent the day in the ER with her.  She had been planning to spend the day with some friends a couple of hours  away since we were doing my family.  SIL and Tim are the only family still in the area (she lives about 10 minutes away while the other 4 siblings live in VA, SC, and FL) so we tend to watch out for each other.  They finally let her go home yesterday afternoon.  She got her car from our house about 3:30pm (we're 5 minutes from the hospital)  and then about 1½ hours later a huge gust of wind tore up a tree in the front yard and it land right where her car was sitting.  Guess her timing was right!!

Latest news on the Medical front

I went for a walk!

Four months ago, three months ago, 2 months ago - if someone had told me that I would actually volunteer to go for a walk, I would have told them they were crazy. At that time, simply walking across the room was painful, but the treatment in January is still holding true, so I ventured out for a walk with Tim. It wasn't the best day, a bit chilly, but to me it was beautiful because of the sheer fact that I was able to do it! YEAH!

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.