January 11 - “Approaching the Big One”

I win again! Two days in a row. Not that it’s such a wonderful accomplishment. I just mean I had the earliest doctor’s appointment.

 

In a nutshell, this new neurosurgeon verified the diagnosis I had from the guy who just retired: “your back is really messed up.”  Sam loved that one. It’s comparable to her knee diagnosis.

 

Oh. You want me to be a little more specific? Three main places on my spinal column have bulging discs. He seemed most worried about the thoracic one, because it was pinching into the spinal cord itself. If that one gets worse it would cause me to spontaneously fall on my face, which would be quite entertaining and probably hilarious. Just painful as well, but in a different way.

 

But that’s not really where my pain is right now. Right now it hurts down in the lumbar region. He did say that I am approaching the final stages before the “big surgery.”  That’s the one where they stick a rod in there, top to bottom, to hold the whole thing in place and remove pressure from the discs altogether. But not just yet. One option is surgery like I have had before to remove the three offending discs. The preferred starting point, though, is to go to a pain doctor for a shot or two. And continue the physical therapy. So that’s the next step. But to make early preparations, he did send me for some x-rays to determine what degree of scoliosis I have so that they can figure out what size rod to implant when the time comes.

 

Romans 3:25 says, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”

 

Father, thank you for a neuro doc that I like and feel like I can trust. Amen.