My Back Pain Continues

In May I decided to schedule another epidural injection in my spine. The last one I had worked for about 18 months and it's been quite a while since it wore off. Walking around with a numb foot gets increasingly difficult. Between that and my osteoarthritis in my spine, I can rarely sleep. The pain in my hips and the numbness in my foot are a combination that have become unbearable.

Unfortunately, like the last time, the first injection did not work. So I went for a second one in July. That one only worked for a few months. The doctors say sometimes it takes 3 in order for it to work but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it again.  It's not a painful procedure, but I don't exactly look forward to it. It has some risk which makes it stressful.  It's not cheap either so I'm not sure I am getting the return on the investment that I had hoped for.

After some serious thought and many sleepless pain filled nights I decided to get a second opinion.  I started to research spinal surgeons. Why not get a consult? It couldn't hurt. I have a hard time doing the research.  I look through the lists of in network surgeons in my health plan and Google them.  Looking at reviews from patients seems so arbitrary.  If they give good reviews, I wonder about their standards for what qualifies as good.

My husband mentioned that a coworker's wife had a major back surgery with a doctor that she gave rave reviews.  So I asked him to find out who it was.  His name is Dr. Perlewitz and his reading his bio was pretty incredible.  He was a Medical College of WI grad with an orthopedic fellowship at Harvard. I think that was good enough for me so I made an appointment.

I made the appointment and my husband and I went together. Dr. Perlewitz did a comprehensive exam of my spine and we had a long discussion of my symptoms.  He was thorough and easy to talk to. He suggested that since my last MRI was from 3 years ago, I get another one.  After that I would make another appointment and we would discuss options based on the results of the MRI.  He stated that normally he would have 2 or 3 suggestions (physical therapy, more injections, surgery)  and we would sit down and choose a plan of action based on how I would like to proceed.  Wish me luck!

4 Generations

As the holidays approach, I always get this melancholy feeling and I think about my dad. I think about him a lot. I think about how proud he would be of his grandchildren. I think about how much he would love his great-grandchildren. But he's not with us anymore and hasn't been for a very long time. He died from a brain tumor at the age of 52. It was called an astrocytoma. He died on a Friday, the 13th, not that I am superstitious but that was the day. This photo was taken during his chemo days. In the photo is me, my daughter Jen, my dad and his mother. 4 generations. I think it is an incredible photo although I doubt that we gave it any thought of how important it would become at the time. In fact, it was taken with a Polaroid camera with instant results. It's a photo that brings me great comfort on days like this.

Four Generations

Ed's Confirmation

Today was my nephew, Ed's confirmation. There were only two kids who completed the final test and so the ceremony was quite intimate although it does occur during the regular church service.  Ed's brother, Stan was excited to be the acolyte during the service. It made him feel like a big part of the day too.  After the church service, we took some photos with Pastor Mortenson (P.J.). It was a very nice ceremony.

Greg, Ed, Kelly and P.J.