Something to Look Forward To (NOT)

I’ve been experiencing a great amount of pain lately in my shoulder, to the point where I can barely drive my car anymore (I drive a standard), so made an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Laurence Wickler, who took x-rays and ordered an MRI – two of them, actually; one for my shoulder and one for my neck.

If you have ever had an MRI before you know how awful they are, and having two of them done at the same time just made it exponentially worse. I was in that horrible machine for a very long time: 25 minutes for the shoulder and 45 minutes for the neck. I had taken some Zanex ahead of time so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was still all I could do to hold still and not panic. On top of that, the position I had to be in to get the best picture of my shoulder was extremely painful and left me sore & achy for days afterwards.

The people at the imaging center were very understanding, and made the whole ordeal as bearable as they could – but then somehow managed to send me on my way with only half of the results!

I didn’t know that until I showed up at Dr. Wickler’s office the following week for my follow up appointment. That meant that I had to wait for the imaging center to send a courier over with the rest of my results before I could get a clear picture of what’s going on.

It’s not good, but then I could have told you that before the MRIs. My shoulder has some torn ligaments, but they’re so badly damaged that Dr. Wickler can’t fix them. He can, however, fix the bone spur that is putting pressure on the nerve. We decided that I would come back in sometime in the fall for the procedure, since I don’t want to miss out on all the summer activities (hiking, camping, biking, etc…).

The neck is a whole other deal, and Dr. Wickler was very quick to point out that he does not “do” necks. He recommended me to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Krolik, for a more detailed examination of the problems – but stated that in his opinion that my neck is in far worse shape than my shoulder is.

As you may know from previous postings, I had a bad fall when I was a child which injured my head/neck rather severely. The MRI taken just last week shows considerable damage that is just getting worse by the day. More than likely I will need surgery on that as well.

So now I am just waiting for Dr. Krolik’s office to let me know when my appointment is, and am making a mental list of all the things I’ll need to do to prepare for the recovery period.
     1. get computers set up for left-handed operation
     2. get preapproval from insurance company
     3. get information on renting an automatic car for the duration
     4. make arrangements to have Mother come take care of me for the first few days
     5. ensure an adequate supply of chocolate and tea will be on hand