My Back Pain - Spine Specialist

I went to see the spinal specialist on September 20th.  She was everything I liked in a doctor.  She talked to me like I had half a brain and answered my very pointed questions.  She did say exactly what my primary doctor said, that considering the extent of the arthritis in my back, I could have injured it doing anything. She also could hardly believe that I had no pain or symptoms before the injury.  I explained to her that I like to run every day and that my doctor told me I might have to give it up.  The artiritis wasn't going to go away.  I confessed that I was still running every day but only a mile a day and that I really wanted to get back up to three miles a day.  I never asked permission to start running again, I just did it when I thought I could.  I asked her if it was OK, she said that since I had no arthritis pain before the injury, there was no reason not to expect to go back to running and to how I was before the injury.  Yay!

After the exam, the spinal specialist said that there are a few options: live with it, get a cortisone injection in my spine which would ease the swelling in the nerve surrounding the bulging disc, or have spinal surgery to remove the bulging disc.  She also asked me what I thought about the chiropractic visits and I explained my mixed emotions - how they made my pain bearable then disappear and I was grateful for that but did nothing for the numbness in my foot even though they acted like they could fix it. She told me not to go back.  She said she felt that chiropractors do have a place in medicine, but with the severe spondylosis in my back, every adjustment was making room for more growth of the arthritis.  I totally agreed. 

Jeff came with me to the visit. He asked me if I wanted to take some time to think about the options.  I asked the doctor, based on her experience with other cases just like mine, what would she suggest.  She said the cortisone injection was the best route, although it doesn't last forever, it can bring relief for a very long time.  I told her to set it up.  Jeff was surprised that I didn't want to think about it more.  I told them both that I researched it since I got the news from my primary doc and based on what I read, this seemed like the best idea.  I just needed a professional to look at my situation and agree.  And I really wanted to make the numbness go away.  It was painful to have a sheet over my toes when I slept at night.  I hope it works.