Wednesday afternoon I had an appointment with my doctor. Before I get to what he told me, I have a question about doctors. Everyone says how smart and brilliant doctors are. I think that is a bunch of crap. If they are so incredibly smart, how come they are unable to schedule their appointments? I am serious. Don't they teach time management in Medical School? Why is it if I show up for a 4:00 appointment, the doctor doesn't get to me until 4:35? Why is his time so much more important than mine? I just pray that one day I am working on a bridge and on the other side of the river is a medical convention, I am going to raise that bridge for a day and a half. And doctors are so smart. When I used to work on hospitals, all I ever saw were doctors smoking. Don't they know that smoking is bad for you? Alright I better stop ragging on doctors before Tree shows this to Heather and then she won't give me an "unofficial" exam or look at my MRI images.
I saw my doctor and he told me that the X-rays came back and I have one disk in my back that is a little more crushed than the rest of them. Probably not a good sign. So he ordered an MRI, which actually I was able to get in and see right after I was done at my doctor's office. I walked in filled out three pages of paper work, jumped on the scanner, laid there for 20 minutes, jumped off the scanner, they gave me a CD with all my images on it and I was out the door. That is how you treat a patient. So the radiologist is going to take a look at the MRI and give that information back to my doctor.
My doctor had me schedule and appointment with their pain management department. He told me that if nothing shows up on the MRI that looks like surgery would be necessary, then we would go with a cortisone shot. I asked him "Isn't that just a temporary solution?" He agreed with me. I told him that over the weekend, I cut the grass on Friday and trimmed some bushes in the yard on Saturday. Each activity took between 1 and 2 hours. Both days when I finished I was lying on the floor for 15 minutes fighting off the pain which eventually subsided. He said I might need to reflect on how much pain I can live with. And maybe reevaluate my activities. He thinks I should scale back things a little and only do things that don't cause me pain. If I take his advice that would rule out sitting, standing and walking. Thanks doc.
I will be honest, I don't have an incredible amount of faith in this guy. That is why I am happy to know that Dr. Havlik is going to give me a once over when she is in town.
The drugs I was prescribed are helping, but just a little bit. Instead of my pain being an 8 or 9, they are down to 5 or 6. But I have heavily restricted my activities. I wonder how much pain I would be in if I tried to run a couple miles.
Add this all up and I would say that the outlook doesn't appear to be too bright.
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4 comments:
Yep - get a second opinion. Five or six level pain is still intolerable/
Congratulations, you just topped my Dead Pool list. Twenty bucks that TT lives longer than you.
General
Hi Rick,
This is so strange. I'm in South Africa and can't get on ATT webmail or Facebook but I can get on your blog. Hope you get some good answers from the doctors. You're too young for all this pain.
I'm having a great time here in Potchefstroom and all is going very well. I'll be home next week.
Annie
The General, This one is for you, but anyone is able to answer. Unfortunately with the internet finding this answer is pretty simple to find. But in the movie "The Dead Pool", who played Rock Star Johnny Squares, (I beilieve) the first person to die in the dead pool? Bonus, What song was he shooting the video for when he died in his trailer?
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