Christmas with Lauren

Lauren flew in from L.A. on Wednesday and we had planned on doing a little Christmas celebration by going out to lunch with the girls on Thursday. Unfortunately, the climate change between California and Wisconsin was a bit much for her and she ended up in urgent care on Thursday for a breathing treatment so we had to reschedule for Friday.  The issue with Friday was that Jeff was having hand surgery Friday morning and I wasn't sure when we could be back home.  So we played it by ear when it came to a lunch date.

I informed the kids when we got home from the surgical center and Lauren got to the house before the rest of the girls.  So we had a nice little visit and I gave her a box full of photographs of B.J. so they both had some memories of him growing up.  Once Bailee and the girls got to the house the quiet dynamics ended and the Christmas excitement began. Lauren brought the girls Christmas gifts and Chloe was excited to open them.  I think Avery couldn't have cared less she is always a happy girl.  She even let me take some nice photos of her without trying to grab the camera.  She is just adorable.

Chloe pretty much opened all the presents whether they were hers or her sister's. And Bailee loved the cool California designer looks that the girls were now sporting.  After we hung out at the house for a while we drove over to Burgey's Pub & Prime for some late lunch and some good Wisconsin craft beer - something Lauren misses in California. The bar very recently opened so it was pretty quiet which was great for letting the girls run around.

It was a wonderful Christmas visit.  During the week that Lauren was in town, it snowed and the weather went from the high 20s to a frigid below zero.  She got a good reminder of how nice it is to live in a warmer climate.

VA Hospital Visit with the Legion Riders

Today is our annual visit to the VA Hospital (the Clement Zablocki Medical Center to be exact). My church's quilt group, Sweet Sundays made a bunch of lap quilts for me to take along. Since we visit the spinal cord unit, most who are there are wheelchair bound so it is a nice useful gift for these veterans.  Every year I make little treat bags in Christmas colors. I fill them with Hershey's Hugs and Kisses. That way, if these patients really aren't supposed to have sweets, this tiny little amount shouldn't really hurt. It's not much but they do look pretty.

This year was a special treat. We had some enlisted men with us who brought books and cans of hard candy. Our coordinator, Pat Moore also brought some t-shirts along that he got as donations from local businesses. We even had Santa Claus join us while we prepped our carts full of goodies to hand out. 

The staff at the hospital are always thrilled when we visit.  Some of their patients are far from home so they don't get many visitors.  So we are glad to help. We broke up into groups and went from room to room wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and thanked them for their service. Many wanted to chat. We stayed as long as we could and listened to their stories.  

These patients have spinal cord injuries, some severe, most unable to ever walk again. Funny thing, they never want to talk about why they are there. No conversations about surgeries, medical procedures or pain and suffering.  They only want to talk about where they are from, what branch of the service they were in and their military experiences.  I find that amazing. And inspiring. 

My Back Pain Continues

I had a second MRI on my spine and following my doctor's instructions, I called his office to make a follow up appointment so we could discuss the results.  When I called the office, I had a little disagreement with the scheduler.  She insisted that I make the appointment with the physician's assistant and assured me that he can give me the results with as much confidence as the doctor.  I argued that I wanted to see Dr. Perlewitz but she was not going to budge so I took the appointment with the PA.

Funny thing, that same evening the doctor's office called me back. They got the radiology report back from the MRI and very gently insisted that I come in to see the doctor directly and offered me an appointment much sooner than the one I originally made.  The person who called was soft spoken and was trying to break it to me gently that the results were pretty serious.  I reassured her that I suspected the same and not to worry, I understood and it's OK.

In the doctor's office, I took one look at the image and I could very easily see that two of my discs, L4 and L5 are grey and the rest are white.  The doctor went on to explain that's because the discs are worn down and there is no cushion between the vertebrae. Plus there is a natural curve in the spine and those vertebrae are pushed in where the discs are worn down. On another view, the MRI showed that the vertebrae are wearing away as well. Diagnosis: Congenital Degenerative Disc Disease. So my first question was does that mean my original diagnosis of Osteoarthritis is incorrect?  The answer was no, it was correct, so I have that too.  It also means that there are drastic changes between my first MRI and this new one. My spine is wearing away and without a fusion and laminectomy, I am putting the surrounding vertebrae at risk because of the increased pressure on them. In fact a third vertebrae is also wearing away now as well. There was to be no 3 options, only 1; surgery. Then the doctor says, by the way, we found a cyst on your ovary during the MRI so you might want to contact your primary care physician about that. Geez.

Once that discussion was completed I mentioned to the surgeon that since October, I've been waking up in the middle of the night and my arms are numb, like they've fallen asleep. I made an assumption that it was stress related. I also mentioned that when I turn quickly I have a sharp pain in the center of my back that takes my breath away. I made another assumption that it had something to do with my disc issues. He suggested we x-ray my neck while I am still in his office because there's no way pain that high in my back would be related to L4 and L5 in my lower spine. So we got a quick x-ray and the doctor could instantly see that the vertebrae at C7 was also pushed in.  He ordered an MRI to see if the degeneration was also happening at that level.

Once the surgery stuff sunk in, without hesitation, my husband and I looked at each other and practically in harmony said set it up! The doctor suggested we take some time to think about it because it is very serious surgery.  We convinced him there was nothing to think about, we have to fix this. So he sent us to the office of his surgical scheduler where we had a long talk about the process. We left the office with the surgery date selected and the plan was that I had to make an appointment with my primary care physician for a pre-op physical, make an appointment with Dr. Perlewitz's general surgeon who participates in the surgery for a pre-op visit and then I would come back to Dr. Perlewitz's office where we would discuss the surgery in great detail and go over the neck MRI results.

American Legion Post 434 Christmas Party

Today the post held the Children's Christmas Party. It was a breakfast event, and the girls really dug into some scrambled eggs.  We enjoyed our bloody marys at the bar while we waited for the event to start. We weren't sure what to expect, not sure how the girls were going to react to Santa Claus. I tried to prepare Chloe by talking about how Santa was going to hand her a present and she could tell him what she wanted for Christmas if she wanted to.  She seemed OK with it, but we were still not sure what would happen when he actually got there.

Luckily, the kids were called up to get a stocking full of candy one table at a time, and we were going to be second last.  Chloe studied each kid sitting on Santa's lap and watched while they walked away with a stocking loaded with goodies. Avery didn't really care but we were still not sure how she would react.  After getting the stockings, and sitting on Santa's lap for a photo op, the kids were instructed to come sit on the floor around Santa and he would had out gifts. Chloe went right up to get on his lap again. Wow! What a surprise, she was really into it.  Avery not so much.  Each child's name was called to come up and get a gift. Chloe was thrilled.  She was even thrilled for her sister to get one. They immediately opened them up with tons of excitement in the air.  The girls were both happy to be here and happy with their gifts.

After everyone got their gifts the kids all ran around a bit, which was great since they needed to wear off all that sugar from the candy in the stockings. We said goodbye to Santa as he left and not long after that we headed home.  It was a wonderful event and we will certainly be back again next year.

St. Nick's Day Present

I was so surprised today. My husband left me a St. Nick's Day gift before he left for work this morning. What a pleasant way to wake up. This Green Bay Packers charm is just about the only jewelry I could ever want and here it is.

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!