Back Update
Jan. 14th, 2004 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillThis isn't a con report because I don't have anything like enough time this morning :-)
Readers may remember that I've been having trouble with my back. Those who attended GaFilk may realize that it got more serious last week. I went to the doctor yesterday and he thinks I've got a bulging disc (the cartilage between the vertebrae that make up the spine) that is pressing on the nerves that run to my leg. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be very serious (yet). He put me on sterioids and anti-inflamatories and such to bring down the swelling around the disc so that it can slip back into place. I am now armed with a battery of medicines that have to be taken at different times.
He says that I should work as much as I can stand (not if the pain gets too bad in other words) but I am strictly enjoined against bending or lifting. Furthermore if I notice muscle weakness in either leg I am to call him at once. He wants a back x-ray so that he can definitively rule out fracture (I haven't fallen or been struck or anything, but he seems to be a suspenders-and-belt man).
So far so good. I am okay to go to work (though I may hurt so much I have to cut things short--the naproxin (Aleive) may be better for swelling but I really think the ibuprofen did a better job on the pain, and I can't have both). I am not an immediate prospect for surgery. I'm not incapacitated. I can deal with this.
Readers may remember that I've been having trouble with my back. Those who attended GaFilk may realize that it got more serious last week. I went to the doctor yesterday and he thinks I've got a bulging disc (the cartilage between the vertebrae that make up the spine) that is pressing on the nerves that run to my leg. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be very serious (yet). He put me on sterioids and anti-inflamatories and such to bring down the swelling around the disc so that it can slip back into place. I am now armed with a battery of medicines that have to be taken at different times.
He says that I should work as much as I can stand (not if the pain gets too bad in other words) but I am strictly enjoined against bending or lifting. Furthermore if I notice muscle weakness in either leg I am to call him at once. He wants a back x-ray so that he can definitively rule out fracture (I haven't fallen or been struck or anything, but he seems to be a suspenders-and-belt man).
So far so good. I am okay to go to work (though I may hurt so much I have to cut things short--the naproxin (Aleive) may be better for swelling but I really think the ibuprofen did a better job on the pain, and I can't have both). I am not an immediate prospect for surgery. I'm not incapacitated. I can deal with this.
