The Promised More Later

You know one thing that sucks about walking so slowly? Getting rained on.

Anyway, sorry to keep you in suspense. So, the news is that I've spoken to the neurosurgeon, Dr. Witham, since my last substantive posting (which recounted my conversation with the neurologist, Dr. Maragakis). You may not agree with my assessment that it's at least partly good news, but then, what you think is not the most important thing, is it?

Dr. Witham said that after reviewing the MRI and the report, he felt almost as if he and the radiologist were looking at different MRIs. Most importantly, he thinks that the area where my surgery was, C 5-6 and 6-7, is "actually nicely decompressed" and that there is no need for additional surgery there. He agrees that the spinal cord injury remains, but he thinks there is plenty of space there for healing to take place. That's the good news.

He noted that the radiologist hadn't compared this MRI to the last one, so he did that while I was on the phone (they have great technology at Hopkins -- all of your tests are in the computer, so your doc can pull anything up at any terminal). Dr Witham said that levels C3-4 and 4-5 do look worse than they did on the last MRI (which would have been slightly over a year ago, before the surgery), but that right now they are not bad enough to require surgery. That seems like bad news tempered with good news.

He said that I have the worst neck he's ever seen in someone my age.

Still, no surgery now. To make a long conversation short: I might still get somewhat better. I will need surgery again at some point. I can sleep on my stomach (yay!), swim, and do cardio-type exercise, but I should lay off any heavy-duty weight training (like curling a 20-pound baby, probably). I'm supposed to see him and Dr. Maragakis again in August, unless in the meantime I suffer any new numbness, new weakness, or falls, in which case I should let them know and probably see them sooner.

There is some element of good news here, of course. I just feel kinda bad about it today.

I'm quitting the acupuncturist, too. I haven't even had a chance to write about acupuncture and Chinese herbs, but that's part of the problem. The acupuncturist is a 45-minute drive away, the appointments are anywhere from an hour to two hours, twice a week, and she also wants me to take Chinese herbal capsules and smear Chinese herbal pesto smeg all over me which stains my clothes and smells atrocious. It also doesn't seem to help me-- or, at least, it hasn't yet. I think this could be because I have a skeptical attitude. I try not to, and it's really very unlike me, but I can't help it. So I'm going to spend my money on a gym membership so I can do the pool exercises my PT recommends. Ironically, I'm not saving that much money -- my insurance company pays more for acupuncture than they do for mental health care.

I'm tired.