Pain

Pain is awful.  It's silent   My sciatic nerve pain, stemming from a severely blown disc in my back (L5-S1) reached a point where I could no longer handle it.  I don't take narcotics.  I don't pop Aleve.  I just deal with it.  But dealing with it means I get it together for work and teaching, then I crumble and can't do much more.  The worst part - sleeping.  Just the act of turning over in bed from one side to the other was enough to nauseate me with pain and cause me to moan aloud in my sleep.  Flying to see my daughter in Seattle was so so so painful...by the time I got there I was cripled.  Literally.  Not able to walk without extreme pain.

I went to the Allen Hospital Pain Clinic on the advice of my PCP (primary care physician).  I didn't want to go...didn't want more medication, more treatments, etc.  But, the doctor was amazing and he really listened to what I endure.  He showed me my MRI in great detail and explained why I feel what I feel.  Not only do I have the disc that's blown, but I have a fluid filled benign cyst blocking the nerve.  The swelling and narrowing causes the nerve root to be inflamed and sends sciatic nerve pain down both legs...the right is worse than the left but both are awful.  I have been trying to exercise to help it but it backfires.  I walk on the treadmill, or outside with the dogs then have to lay down.  That did NOT surprise the doctor!!  He explained that the increased blood flow to the area will cause even more swelling of the nerve.

So, he suggested four shots into the facet joints on either side of the bulged disc...guided by xRay.  I figured I should at least give it a go.  This is diagnostic and if there is relief then the next injection uses just heat to slow the nerve transmission down...next step - no drugs??  I'm in!  I said "when can we schedule this?"  He said let's do it right now.  This was last Tuesday.  Are you kidding me?  I had not brought a driver with me. He said "that's OK."  I said "I have to be on my feet tonight to teach for three hours."  He said "that's good - I want you to do everything you'd normally do."

Well, he put the cortisone in, after pain killer, and it went smoothly for the first three injections.  For the fourth, I said "owie."  He decided that he had hit the cyst, based on my reaction, so instead of injecting he pulled the other way and drained it!!  Yippee!  He was so thrilled.  He showed me the cystic fluid - thankfully I'm not squeemish.  Then he injected the cortisone.  Well, for the first time since 2002 I was able to walk without sciatic nerve pain.  It was at least an 80% improvement - not pain free, but much better.  The lower back muscular pain is still present, but the nerve pain is much reduced.  The pain relief lasted well for two solid days and now it's slowly returning.  You can't see pain in others but my husband could see the lack of pain in me.  :-)

So, I'll keep working with the pain clinic while I count down to Mayo on the 18th and 21st of Feb!