It’s been almost a month since I've written anything so I thought it would be a good time to give kind of a general health update.
Several people have been asking me so I figured it made sense to just write a
general thing that covers everything that I could think of. Also, this way some people that don't care will read this anyways and be stuck knowing.
Overall things are improving but
it’s still been on the slow side. It took about 2 weeks after the procedure for
the overall level of pain to come down to a level that was lower than before the
procedure. On December 27th I had a follow up MRI and then
had a meeting with the doctor who performed the procedure. Firstly, I have to
say that an MRI laying on my stomach was awful. There was no comfortable way to
keep my head, thankfully I was able to move it in between images as it was
very uncomfortable to keep it in one place for an extended period of time.
Secondly, laying on my chest on a hard table for 45 minutes meant that I was
basically conscious of my breathing the entire time. Having the weight of my
body fighting against taking a satisfying deep breath was also incredibly uncomfortable. Secondly, while normally MRI’s are a cold experience, for whatever reason this machine was
generating a lot of heat, so much so, that they had to have padding between me
at the sides of the machine. While this doesn't seem like a bad thing, it meant
that I slowly got sweaty and gross while unable to move. It might be looking
for things to complain about but it was just another level of discomfort that I wasn't prepared for when I woke up that morning. After that unpleasantness was done,
I met with the doctor to review the images. I wish I had thought go get a
picture ahead of time but through the magic of MS pain and a previous MRIs, I’m
going to my best to reproduce what I saw.
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| It should be noted that there are a couple inaccuracies going on here. Firstly, this MRI is almost a year old and the visible layer of fat is entirely gone now. Secondly, the “dead area” should be a circle to show the spherical area that was burned but with this image, I wasn't able to use a circle without it covering too much. This image is also missing all the burned area on the bone as well. |
From what the doctor told me, everything looks the way it
should look and all is well. There was the expected area of inflammation in the area that was doing its job (this is also poorly represented by the white outer circle on my picture). The current plan is that if the procedure was able
to improve things by at least 50%, they would do another MRI and look to see if
there is anything else in the area that be destroyed in another RFA treatment.
If things haven’t improved by at least that much, then it would be the end of
the road for this option and I would be handed back over to orthopedic surgery.
Last
week I was actually feeling well enough to walk to the pharmacy to pick up some
pills without using my cane. Unfortunately I underestimated just how rusty I
was at walking on icy NDG sidewalks and only made it about 15 feet from my door
before wiping out. Thankfully I managed to fall on my “good” left side and didn't do any additional damage to my back. The unfortunate part though is that with
bruises on my shoulder, elbow, hip and knee, it made it impossible to sleep on
my left side. This wouldn't be such a problem for a regular person but regrettably I’m unable to sleep on my right side because of my back. This made for a few
sleepless nights but beyond that and a bruised ego, I walked away fine. For now,
I’ll continue to use my cane until both the weather and my leg become more
stable but I'll be damned if I get one of those ice gripping tips.
For a
bit of great news, I've finally been given the ok to enjoy alcohol again. While
I have great friends and a great bar that didn't mind me sipping water, there’s
just something about watching 2 people fight in a cage that calls for a beer.
I’ll be taken it slow and easy for a while but it was a spot of good news
that I will be appreciating for the foreseeable future. Also, it says something
about the quality of a bar staff that I was able to walk up to a bartender that
I had only met once before, give her the good news, and have a shot of
whiskey in my hand in mere moments. They certainly know what they’re doing when
it comes to keeping my business (For anyone that doesn't know, I’m referring to
Mclean’s Pub but if you've ever asked me about anything related to going out,
you probably knew that). This good news was due to my cutting down of
medication since my procedure. As of just a few days ago, I’m down to only one
medication of my previous 6. Anyone that knows how much I've been on, knows how big a deal this
is. While I can’t say enough good things about my pharmacist throughout all of
this, I’m kind of looking forward to making regular people small talk rather
than discussing all the medications.
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| I was not joking about a lot of meds |
With
some upcoming appointments in the next few weeks, I’ll be looking to add more
activities to my life to slowly increase my level of functionality and overall
energy levels. I look forward to the days where I won’t be tired from just
getting groceries.
