Day after Tomorrow

I'm getting shots in my SI Joint.

I went to see Dr. Sean, a pain management specialist.  He is a sweet guy and was really good at explaining stuff.  It was most of the stuff that has been explained to me before about my back, but he threw in some extra info that made me say, "ah ha," a few times.  The Doc. also talks really really fast, so it wasn't as though he was boring me.  He agrees that my pain looks like SI Joint less than herniated discs.  He also said my MRI shows pretty significant damage to one of my discs.

The plan for Thursday is to get up at the crack of dawn and go to his office for my injection(s).  He is going to shoot some numbing stuff into the joint, and if there is instant relief, he will know that is where the problem lies.  If there is no relief, this would indicate that my disc is the problem, and he will do an epidural at the offending spinal locale.

Following that party, I will do physical therapy, the importance of which had not been explained to me in detail before (or perhaps, I just understood the new doc's explanation better).  Dr. Sean said that due to the weakness in my core/spinal muscles, my other muscles contract to try to compensate, causing unnatural tension and the ensuing discomfort and pain in my SI joint.  In order to alleviate the over-compensation, I need the physical therapy to isolate and strengthen those core muscles.

I've already started with a few of my previous PT exercises.  After the family crisis, I didn't sleep, eat, or do much of anything besides get through the day for a few weeks.  I'm doing much better now, and am ready to get back on track.

Blur

We've had a family crisis around here. It has been kind of life-changing, and I (for one) am reworking my priority list.

In the meantime, my back has totally turned on me.  I'm not going to work until it's better.  I have an appointment coming up with a new pain management guy, so I'm hoping for some resolution there.  In the meantime, I went to my primary care doc.  She didn't like the copious amounts of ibuprofen that I have been ingesting, and put me on naproxen sodium.  I haven't really noticed it doing much, but then it apparently has to build up in the system.  She also prescribed Lortab for pain.  I'm not totally impressed with it, because I think you have to kind of take it all the time for it to work.  I took it as prescribed (1-2 every 4-6 hours) one day, and it did seem to help.  It also made me crazy tired, and I passed out for a good 11 hours.  Then I woke up in pain anyway.  I haven't done that again!  I've taken 1 at night when I'm going to bed, but I can't tell it does anything.

I've been attempting to keep moving.  I limp when I walk now.  I try to keep my hamstrings and everything good and stretched, but nothing appears to want to cooperate.  I bought some kava tea yesterday, and will see if it helps.  It's supposed to be a natural muscle relaxant.  We shall see.