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!
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.

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Greg, Ed, Kelly and P.J. |
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