Back

My back has been hurting.  It hasn't been agonizing, most of the time.  Mostly it has been a dull ache that drives me nuts.  It has been hurting ever since I got rear ended TWO YEARS AGO.  Most days I could ignore it.  I'd take Naproxen and forget about it.  I didn't realize how much I was leaning on the Naproxen Sodium until this fall, when I started taking more and more of it, with no results.  Then we ran out at about the same time that I was taking dangerously high doses just to manage my afternoons.  By September of this fall, it got bad enough for me to break down and go back to a doctor about it.

I'm not a doctor kind of person.  I'd just as soon deal with it myself.  But, when I started gasping in surprised pain in the middle of teaching lessons at school I realized I really had to do something about it.  Students wanted to know what's wrong.

So frustrating!

The Doc listened, noted that I can still move about and touch my toes, and sent me to the Physical Therapist.

As you know, I've been very active these past two years.  I run, bike, kayak, and swim.  But the biking has slowly been sidelined.  Biking never really happened this summer.  The one time I went with Bill was just too agonizing to repeat.  Kayaking never happened this summer, either.  Running was a delicate balance of training carefully and pain killers.  Running slowly petered out, too, until I had to give myself a serious pep talk just to do a 5K on a treadmill.  Swimming, however, stayed GOLDEN!  It is the perfect injured person workout!  Every doc I've seen has encouraged me to keep up with the swimming, since there is little chance of pain or injury aggravation with it.

Anyways, I went off to pt for a month, shelling out copay after copay.  It's hard to fit an extra $60/week into the budget, especially when it didn't seem to be helping.  Talk about stress.

So, after a month of pt with no results, the Doc finally ordered an MRI.

Those suckers are expensive!  We'll have to pay a large chunk of it, but then my deductible will be met for the year.  Again, not in the budget.  Christmas will be homemade this year since our holiday budget has been shot by this.

To make a long story short, I got a call back from the doc after the MRI saying it didn't show much and recommending more pt.  That didn't sit well.  I scheduled a consult and talked it out with him.  Up until that meeting I don't think he really heard me.  He finally did hear me, though, and recommended a pain specialist.

So, here we are.  I met with the Anesthesiologist/Pain Specialist.  He heard my full story, looked over the MRI, and inspected my back.  His diagnosis was surprising and very hopeful!  I can't tell you how amazing the difference is between a general practice doctor and a specialist!  I won't bore you with the details.  I will just say that I have a procedure coming up on Monday that sounds risky (to me, anyways), but if successful, will confirm the diagnosis 100% and give me a pain free existence for several months!  In fact, if it works, the pain doc has ordered me to return to my normal workout routines as quickly as possible.

If this works, we'll know exactly why the pain is happening and how to manage it (because the doc said it might be chronic).

I'm excited and nervous.  Cross your fingers, say a prayer, and we'll see!