{"id":3339,"date":"2009-02-19T23:12:42","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T04:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3339"},"modified":"2009-02-19T23:12:42","modified_gmt":"2009-02-20T04:12:42","slug":"back-to-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3339","title":{"rendered":"Back to the beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I followed up with my orthopedist yesterday evening, after my most recent MRI<\/a>*, to get a handle on how far I’d progressed (in either direction, good or bad) with this herniated disc of mine.<\/p>\n

And, well, long story short: I apparently haven’t. The new MRI shows the disc pretty much exactly where it was over the summer, before the weeks of physical therapy and my three steroid injections. There’s some relief in knowing it hasn’t gotten worse<\/i> — which was a concern; I do sometimes worry about nerve damage — but there’s the disappointment, on the other hand, that it hasn’t gotten better<\/i>.<\/p>\n

For now, then, it’s back to a game of wait-and-see. I’ll try to avoid the things that aggravate the pain — like, unfortunately, sitting and bending over too much — while continuing the things that seem to help. Surgery is obviously an option, but it’s one that I want to avoid, and certainly avoid in the short-term. There’s no guarantee that it would work, and, worse yet, there’s the very real possibility that it could make things worse. While the herniation hasn’t shrunk by itself, and I do still have to cope with pain in my leg and lower back when it presses in on the nerves, it could be significantly worse. I do believe the pain has gotten a little better overall, and I’ve become better at coping with the problem.<\/p>\n

And it’s worth remembering that this has only been<\/i> a problem since around last May. There’s no reason to think it won’t continue to heal on its own, much less that it will grow progressively worse. It’s no fun being in pain, or worrying about being in pain — it tends to adversely color everything else — but I’m still hopeful.<\/font><\/p>\n

* The MRI was about as uncomfortable as I remember it being. I’m not overly claustrophobic by nature, but it was a tight fit, with my arms somewhat awkwardly pinched at my sides. And that machine can really heat up when it starts going. Then again, I kept holding out for the call that signaled we were halfway done — just ten more minutes, ten more minutes — so I was surprised when, instead of that call, the tech pulled me out and said we were done. Still, should I ever need an MRI again, I think I’m going to opt for the open variety if I can.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I followed up with my orthopedist yesterday evening, after my most recent MRI*, to get a handle on how far I’d progressed (in either direction, good or bad) with this herniated disc of mine. And, well, long story short: I apparently haven’t. The new MRI shows the disc pretty much exactly where it was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-3339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}