Pain in the...

(photo credit google images)

This week was a vacation week for me...but the things we thought we might do have been put on hold.

Tom had tweaked his back last Friday evening, just enough to know that something had happened, but not enough to stop him from being active. As he didn't feel any kind of pain we went ahead with our long run on Saturday. Afterwards I had an appointment for a haircut  so Tom made his way over to the Farmer's Market...all is well. In fact, most of the day went pretty well until the evening and he started to complain about lower back pain. I suggested he ice it and see what happens overnight. Things were not good Sunday morning - he was in quite a bit of pain throughout the day, but not so much that he wanted to go to the Emergency Department or Urgent Care.

Monday morning I had a chiropractic appointment and he came along and he was lucky to get a time with Dr. Marsh for an evaluation and adjustment...not too long after my appointment. He felt a little better, but it was short lived so we tried another appointment which led to him calling his Ortho Doc to get an appointment to see him which would be on Wednesday - it was time for a follow-up anyway.

On Wednesday Dr. Kahn took a look at the x-rays that they did upon our arrival and determined that the pain that Tom was feeling wasn't because of the surgery. Also, Tom is pretty much  healed up from his surgery last April. Dr. K's next suggestion was to get a MRI and then see one of the neurosurgeons. This is where things get crazy good. The MRI was scheduled for same evening and yesterday he was fortunate to make an appointment with a neurosurgeon for today. The neurosurgeon just happens to be my neurosurgeon - Dr. Rokosz :) This is the crazy thing, Dr. Rokosz would be in the Salmon Creek clinic today, and he isn't out here but every couple of weeks or so.

This morning, after a brief evaluation with Dr. Rokosz, we got to look at Tom's MRI which was a nice change from looking at Brain MRIs...we are now a little educated in spines as well as brains! He showed us where the problem is and what had happened and what is what is the lower part of the spine.

Bottom line is that Tom has a pinched nerve. The treatment that Dr. R suggested was to start with a steroid series which he will take over the next week. If things improve and the pain becomes less instead of worse then he will be on the road to recovery and back to his regular routine - in time. If not, surgery might be necessary. The good thing about the surgery is the fact that it is an in and out type of thing, no huge incision and no overnight stay in the dreaded hospital!

We are thankful that the appointments happened in a way that we didn't expect. The scheduling went way to easy to think that there could be a positive outcome. Getting in to see his orthopedic surgeon, the MRI scheduling and the appointment with Dr. R...and the non-surgery outcome (for now) yeah this was a total God thing!

Right now, Tom is out on the riding mower tackling the field....so far so good. He does alright sitting down and the mower ride must not be too terrible, plus the rain hasn't happened yet today, so it's a perfect time to get out there and whack the grass down!

Our God is GOOD!