Well the verdict is in...I have to have back surgery, lumbar microdiscectomy to be exact. I had my doctor appointment with the neurosurgeon (Dr. Alan Lozier, MD) on Tuesday and I have a severe herniated disc in my L5-S1 region which is only fixable by back surgery. Basically, my disc is 'leaking' out from between to vertebrae and part of it is laying on my sciatic nerve, causing my back/butt/leg pain and tingling. The MRI images were very striking actually, I wish I could get a hold of them to show you but I found some other pics to illustrate what I'm talking about.
Basically, the yellow part is the disc that is leaking out of the brownish area which is the disc. The blue part is my nerve, and as you can see the yellow part is laying on and reeking havoc on my sciatic nerve. This is why I can't stand or sit for more than a few minutes at a time.
This is a little hard to see but you can see where i'll be having the surgery as this is a diagram of an L5-S1 injury. The doctor will go in at my lower back and make a 1.5 inch incision. He will go in and clip a tiny piece of the vertebrae off and a tiny piece of the muscle so that he can get to the disc. Then he'll shave away the part of the disc that is causing the trouble. Then he'll close up my incision with steri-strips and that's that. Kinda creepy huh?
I am scheduled for this surgery next Wednesday, a week from today. So I have another week of laying around in my bed and not leaving the house :( He said that when I wake up from surgery that i'll immediately feel relief in my butt and leg, i'll feel no pressure and most of the tingling will be gone. The only pain I should have is from the actual incision and i'll probably be sick from being put under. I'm looking at another two weeks after my surgery before I can go back to work, but i'll be able to get up and walk the same day as the surgery. They actually encourage you to walk everyday.
When I first went into the appointment, I walked up to the counter and tried to check in without passing out from pain. It was pretty funny actually because she was just taking her sweet little time checking me in. Then she said I had to fill out some papers so I grabbed the thing from her and immediately turned around and layed down across a set of chairs on my stomach. Needless to say I got a few looks :) Now you'll have a new appreciation if you ever see someone laying down in a waiting room, don't make fun of them!!
Anyway, I've had mixed feelings about this. I was really optimistic that i'd be able to fix this with cortizone shots and be on my way. I was very very upset at the doctors office and I think I was kinda bitchy! They first tried to tell me his first available surgery time was September 29th!!!!! You can imagine my spaz out in the doctor's office....are you freaking kidding me.....lay around for 4 more weeks BEFORE even having the surgery. Well my spaz worked apparently and i'm getting on the 10th.
I know this needs to be done and I will be much better off for it but its very scary to think that i'm 28 years old and having my first back surgery! I dont admit that i'm scared real often, but i'm kinda scared about this. The thing is, even after the surgery there is no guarantee that this won't happen again or that I wont have continued problems. I'm just hoping for the best and trying to not think about it so much because I have another week to wait it out.
I know that part of this is genetic as my mother had multiple back surgeries, fusions, rods, etc on her back. I know I have an uphill battle with this but i'm planning on getting into physical therapy after this to make sure I don't hurt it again and I find out what exercises I can do and what I should avoid.
So that's the story, wish me luck!! I'm really bummed i'm gonna miss out on the next few weekends events, including my friend Greta's wedding shower and bachelorette party but I know that I just gotta get it done and get better. In the mean time, I have to try and not get myself addicted to percocet pain pills! I've only taken two today in the morning and seriously I have already had the clammy sweats and I have a headache. Although I'm in so much pain that all I can do right now if get up and go the bathroom, I wanted to see if I could cut out my afternoon dose. Eh, maybe tomorrow i'll just take one in the afternoon instead of two. We'll see.
Thanks for listening and again thanks for being understanding in my lack of involvement in things lately and for the next three weeks. I appreciate everyone that has called and done stuff for me, you can imagine how hard this has been for someone like me who likes to do everything myself.
