12/17/21 - It's Friday!  

Hooray!  Wait.  That doesn't make any difference to me. Sorry.  My bad.

Ok, spine doctor was this morning and I got to play with the skeleton spine that he keeps in his office.  He showed me everything the tests I had on Tuesday revealed.  Some spinal stenosis, tons of arthritis, 4 joints with degenerative disc disease, 4 bulging discs, and a partridge in a pear tree.  One section of my spine is sort of going sideways and leaving the rest of the spine.  It was rather creepy, but he said it's not bad enough for surgery.  Yet.  Oh, yippee.  All these things are at the bottom of my spine.  The only thing wrong with the top section is arthritis.  I broke my back twice up high, and that isn't bothering me as I age.  What the heck?

So, after all that was explained, I climbed up on the exam table and laid on my belly.  That was painful.  It's SO hard to lay on my stomach and I was there a long time.  I was thinking to myself.... how the heck am I going to get off this thing?  I'm going to be a total mess by the time I can get up.  I see the little stool right in front of the table and I'm trying to visualize just how that could help me stand so I don't fall flat on my face.  Ugh, this is gonna hurt.  I'm gonna fall, for sure. 

About that time the doctor comes in with all his stuff.  My back is sterilized, I'm covered with drapes, and he tries to find an exact spot to give me an injection.  He's pushing down hard on my lower back, and then asks me 'does this hurt?'  I was still laying on my stomach so I was unable to slap him.  Lucky for him.  He found it, then gave me a shot of numbing medicine with the guidance of an ultrasound.  That wasn't much fun, let me tell you.  The internet says it's painless.  I'm here to set the record straight - Don't believe everything you read on the internet.  After that took effect (I couldn't tell), he said 'here comes the stick', and then he used a needle about 3 ft. long to insert medicine that is supposed to block the nerves from feeling pain.  He said I could watch on the ultrasound monitor.  I did.  For about 3 seconds.  Uh, no thanks.  This was a caudal epidural injection.  No babies were involved.  And, still laying (without moving, no less) on the exam table, he was once again, spared a solid slap across the face.  

He left and the nurse helped me off the table.  She told me that navigating the table was the hardest part for most people.  She is a smart lady and was totally correct.  However, I did not fall flat on my face, and then had to go up to the second floor for another x-ray.  They needed one to show the tops of the leads on my stimulator and the ones on Tuesday only showed the bottom.  I headed for the stairs, attempted the first step, stepped down, turned around and headed for the elevator.  Holy moly.  Not today.

X-rays went smoothly and they told me to go home and ice my back for a couple of days.  I feel no benefit yet.  It usually takes 2-3 days and could take up to 10 days.  Gads, I hope it doesn't take that long. This is a temporary fix and I'm scheduled for another procedure in the hospital on January 5th.  I can't remember what it's called.  I'll figure it out later.  They wanted to do it the week after Christmas, but I declined.  We're taking our Grandson camping for 3 nights during that time.  I am NOT cancelling that!

No word from MD Anderson today, so I reckon I'll have to go through the weekend to find out the results of my CT scan yesterday.  Poop.

I think I'll just put an "Out of Order" sticker on my forehead and call it a day.

I got to thinking the other day, "It's probably my age that tricks people into thinking I'm an adult."


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