Surgery

Oh my... this is scary two posts in the same week? No!!! no brain sucking alien has taken over my keyboard it really is me..

Just a quick update to the other day's post about my back issues. Ron and I went to my dr. yesterday, we looked at the new MRI. What had looked like a small protrusion on last months MRI now looks to be about the size of the tip of my pinkie and where there was no discernable herniation on the l4 l5 lumbar before there is a tiny one showing up now. So.. we discussed and scheduled surgery. I will be having what the dr. termed a diskectomy on Tues the 10th.. We discussed all the risks and benefits and it seems like the most logical step for me at this point. I can't tolerate this pain any longer and if that much damage has occurred in just a month I don't want to put this off too much longer. I am good at damaging myself , so the longer I wait the worse it will be.

The dr did put me on a pain patch thing that is a powerful narcotic. Finally someone that understands the pain I am in and is willing to give me something to relieve it... I am not a junkie.. I am not looking to get high.. I just want to be relatively pain free for a little while. Most of the drs. I have been to will not prescribe any type of pain killer that can be abused and while I do understand the fear of addiction and abuse of drugs I think our doctors need to be educated in pain relief and the necessity of short term drug therapy in some patients. Even long term therapy in some patients is not a worry for addiction but a humane and kind way to alleviate severe pain. I have done a lot of research on the subject and all of the studies I have been able to find indicate that drug therapy for those in severe chronic pain can help those people live more normal lives or at least in some cases relieve the pain for whatever duration of life those people have left and in a large percentage of these patients whether they have terminal conditions or not addiction does not become a problem..My personal opinion is that most of us with severe chronic pain just want to be somewhat normal and be able to do things with our families and not have the burden of pain always with us. This morning I woke up mostly pain free and feeling a lot like the old me.. something I haven't felt much of since Oct when this whole thing began. I am only using half of the patch and it is good for 3 days.. wow sounds like I want to get high don't it?

Ok off the patient rights soapbox.. other than planning for my surgery I think I will try to get some things done around here beforehand. I need to leave my house in good shape. I know I will only be gone for one day but I know my children they can do a lot to a house in 24 hours...

I am outta here for a while.. who knows I may turn up again soon.

Y'all have fun

Back to My Regularly Scheduled Life

I realize it has been a really long time since I have blogged. Sometimes I am too busy to blog. Sometimes there is too much going on around me too post anything. Sometimes I forget I have a blog at all.



There really isn't too much going on right now. The kids are both out of school and both passed to the next grade. Chelsea will be a jr next school year and Kyle will be in 7th grade. They both did really well Kyle passing with all A's and Chelsea passing with mostly A's. Chelsea finished the rest of the school year at home. She was having a lot of problems dealing with all that happened last year and couldn't go back to regular classes but being at home has helped her a lot and she really liked her homebound teacher.



Things are pretty much back to normal all the way around. Ron and I are still very much in love and love being together as often as we can. Not easy sometimes with Chelsea always wanting to go somewhere with the new boyfriend (Caleb) and leaving Kyle at home with us. He doesn't have a lot of friends his age so he likes to hang with Ron and I when Chella is not home. Actually he would prefer to hang with Ron and I anyway. Chelsea picks on him.



My hands are somewhat better. Well actually I don't know if they are better or if they just get lost in the pain from my back. I have recently found out I have two herniated disks that are compressing a bundle of nerves in my back causing pain in both legs and in the back. I was taking part in a research study to inject an enzyme into the protruding part of the disk to dissolve it and that would take care of all the pain problems. I went through all the testing and all the questionaires and things were looking good for the procedure. Then the MRI results came back and where I had only one disk that was protruding in April I now have two which disqualified me for the study. Now I have to go to my ortho on Wed. to discuss my surgical options. I am not afraid of the surgery exactly I am afraid sorta of either it not working at all or of it doing more damage. The only alternative I have to surgery now is to be on pain meds for the rest of my life while every day things do more damage to the back and eventually get it to a point where I won't be able to work or walk or anything else. When it is put that way surgery starts to look like a great option.



Cloe is getting bigger every day and I think the child learns a new word or a new thing every day. She is so smart, she listens to everything said to her, she picks up new words fast, so yes we have to all watch the language around her. There has been one incident involving the "S" word already so we have become very clean mouthed around here. It is hard to believe she will be a year old on the 26th of this month. It doesn't seem like it has been a year yet. She has grown so quickly. She isn't walking yet but she is trying to. As long as no one is looking at her that is. If she is standing alone and no one is watching she is fine but the minute someone looks at her she will sit down and put her arms out to be picked up. Can we say spoiled? I didn't do it.. (much)..



Well Ron just walked over to the graduation for his kids. Today was his last day with students this year and tonight he gets to watch 2 of his students he has had for 3 yrs graduate. That is pretty cool. I am just gonna sit here in his nice air conditioned classroom and read or something. It is like 80 degrees out there and someone had the brilliant idea to have graduation outside.. Ummm not for me.. OK back to my book..



Y'all have fun