I haven’t quite finished my chronology of pain series (I’ve gotten to part 2), but I’m going to jump ahead a little…
The results of my MRI were not good. In fact, they were terrible.
I have a disc between L1 & L2 (I think) that desiccating. I have a disc between L3 & L4 that’s herniated & causing most of the radiating pain. In addition, I’m told, it has a tear. The disc between L5 & S1 is protruding and pushing against my spinal… whatever, and causing numbness in my leg.
Oh, yeah, and it looks like I have the beginnings of arthritis.
I’m 33 years old and I have a lifetime of back issues ahead of me.
The worst case scenario is that the disc that’s causing the numbness may actually be interfering with the impulses (or whatever) to the muscles in my leg. If that’s the case, I run the risk of atrophy and I have to go in for back surgery immediately. They will need to run some tests before that particular bit of news is ascertained.
The best case scenario is that I go under a pain management regimen, with the possibility of physical therapy.
In the meanwhile, I’m under some heavy duty medication, under light duty, have filed FMLA, and need to talk to my AFLAC rep to see what my possible coverage is going to be.
All of this while I talk my HMO into letting me change PCP networks into something that won’t take 72 hours for an approval for an orthopedist every time I need to see the specialist (which will require a visit to my primary care physician as well). Talk about lunacy!
Anyway. There you have it. The punchline. I will get back to the story later.
