And surgery

My pain in my leg settled into a dull pressure, and although I can make my leg hurt again if I want to, it takes some effort, and normally, I don't try to do so.

I saw a new neurosurgeon closer to home, Dr. Thorir Ragnarsson. I had to drive to Yankton to see him, but even with the snow, it wasn't a big problem. He asked me what I did. He then told me that he probably wasn't going to tell me anything I didn't know already.

He poked, prodded, and looked me over, and then explained to me his conclusions. I have a textbook case of an L5-S1 ruptured disk. It's pushing on my L5 nerve pretty good, which is why my leg is numb in certain spots. So, I asked him a few questions:

1) WIll I recover? Most likely. Some people lose their sensation.
2) Why does my lower leg work at all? - The nerve is still sending out some impulses, but not all of them are getting through.
3) What about a nuclear implant? - They're available in Europe, but they're hard to come by in the USA, because they're not approved by the FDA yet. Plus, with the low incidence of recurrance, it's normally not worth the risk to inject goop near your spinal cord.

He said that surgery was my best bet, and then surprised me by saying he was available tomorrow. It wasn't an emergency, but the way my nerve was compressed, I wasn't getting any better by waiting - and any time wasted would lessen my chances of a complete recovery.

He showed me my MRI and CT scan, and showed how the disk is completely covering up the nerve, and how the CT scan looks worse than the MRI.

But I needed some time to talk it over with Rhonda, work, and figure things out. Before I left, I signed a sheet of paper saying that all possible side-effects had been discussed, including infection, spinal fluid leakage, anesthetic related problems, Deep Vein Thrombosis, and Death. I certainly don't remember the doctor telling me I could die, but I'll just assume that's likely only if I don't follow the pre-op instructions exactly.

I went back to work, and called the nurse, also named Rhonda, and scheduled surgery for Thursday, October 26th at 1:00.

After surgery, I will be out for 2 weeks. During that time, I can't sit for more than 20 minutes at a time. I can't bend, stretch, or twist. I can lay down, or I can stand up. Sounds like exciting times for me are in store.