More baseball soon, I promise. I have two games to blog, but I didn’t have photos of the scorebook. Lame excuse, you say? Hey, it’s my blog. Suck it up.
At any rate, an update on my own health. I’m finally dealing with my neck and back problems, and I had a consultation with a nurse practitioner, who recommended an MRI, since it had been 18 months since the previous one. I got that done last week, and this morning had the followup discussion with Mark, the nurse practitioner. The upshot is that I have problems in two areas. C4-5 is the original herniation, which is still there and flattening my spinal cord. Yay. This is probably the source of my recurring pain on the left side. The new thing is that I have “severe disc degeneration” at C5-6. This is affecting my right side more than the left, and starting to cause shooting pains in my right arm. Yay.
The narrowing is really obvious on the MRI. In a normal spine (and in the parts of mine that are normal) there is a buffer of cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord, about the same thickness as the cord itself. In the C4-5 and C5-6 areas of my own spine, though, this buffer goes down to nothing, and the bones of my spine are actually squishing the spinal cord. This is what’s causing the pain.
In the long term, this pressure will increase, as I get older and my spine continues to deteriorate, and it will (eventually, hopefully not soon) cause pain, numbness, tingling, and increase my risk of spinal cord injury in the case of say a traffic accident. My sister Deborah went through something very like this, and Michael struggled with arthritic changes in his lower back – and, of course, Mom has had back problems since forever. I guess I just need to fit in.
Right now, this is treatable (we hope) with steroid injections. In the long term, I’m probably going to need surgery to relieve the pressure. For now, that’s in the future, but I am planning on getting an MRI every two years to monitor the progress.
Some part of me thinks I should be freaked out by this. But I’m not.
I guess I don’t have enough energy left to worry about this. It’s not cancer; what do I have to bitch about?
Ow! I think disc degeneration is outside the realm of Alexander Technique to help much, but it may be able to help limit the damage and pain. I liked what my instructor said about imagining the spine as a stack of jelly doughnuts that you don’t want to squish. Also, jelly doughnuts. Yum.
A woman I know has had her spine fused in three different places (including C4-6), but the discs above the fused places have begun to degenerate. She’s planning not to do surgery again, because she figures it means that the degeneration will just keep traveling up her spine. She’s opting for pain management instead.
It may not be cancer, but do take care of yourself.
If you want some supplement suggestions to try, let me know. Also, my dad had back surgery and if you want to talk to someone about the process and recovery I am sure he would be willing. Take care of your back, you have too much on your plate to have to deal with chronic pain right now.
Are you sure it’s not OPLL like I have? It is genetic. I’m worried about your neck. I have the dreaded DDD too (Degenerative Disk Disease). There may be a link between the two. Believe it or not, it may be related to my heart issue also. I was reading recently that there is a strong correlation between having BAV (Bicuspid Aortic Valve) and connective tissue disorders. One of the signs/forms of connective tissue disorders is DDD. Not that I’m trying to alarm you (or Momma, who is bound to read this), but I would hate to see something overlooked that could be treated. My OPLL required an experienced, top-notch neurosurgeon to diagnose. If there are signs of bone or something else encroaching on your spinal cord, I really wish you would go see Dr. McCue. The surgery was not fun, but it sure beats quadriplegia. I came out okay. I’m sure you would, too.
Hey Kevin. I know everyone is different and every surgery is different, but I had surgery on my lumbar region just under a year ago. The first months, I was not really sure if it was worth it… A year later and I can DEFINITELY say surgery was a good thing.
I highly recommend taking a look at the book “Living well with back pain” (by Robert B Winter, & Marilyn Bach and the TC Spine Center).