Update

[bigdogchief76]

I've updated an entry in my journal if anyone is interested...

Later,
MB

bigdogchief76

[Cindylou]

Thanks for the update Matt. I pray Feb 14th gets here soon enough. I'm sorry to hear the family has all been fighting colds on top of everything else going on. Tis the season, but it doesn't make it any easier, that's for sure. I hope and pray this upcoming appointment will give you the answers you are looking for and that the potential of ADR will be closer than just a dream. I know it hasn't been an easy road for you. Hang in there Matt. God bless, Cindylou

[bigdogchief76]

Thanks Cindylou.

Trying to decide if this wait has been harder on me then the actual pain, LOL.

Patience is a virtue, but virtue hasn't always been patient with me LOL

[Hooch]

Sounds like your pain is under control.. that is the main thing for maintaining employment. There are some decent book on living with chronic pain, you may find them helpful as you're going to be doing this for a while. It will do your head in some fashion or another if you keep having to bust through it in order to keep the job.. if you can keep the pain managed to some degree it will be a lot easier. So get up every 20min if that helps.

What are you doing fitness wise? I too had a grade 5 tear.. the right sort of exercise is one of the best things to manage it. If you have access to decent physio now is a good time to begin work on your deep core in anticipation of your surgery and for managing pain. This sort of exercise beings lying on your back, it isn't doing leg 100pound leg extensions. Look at 'Spinal Stabilisation' by Jemmet. Whatever you do will undoubtedly cause an initial flare up in pain, but almost everyone finds that as long as the exercise isn't breaking them down it becomes beneficial.

If you read Dougs story (chirogeek , you know the site), you'll prob have to use the wayback machine to see his diary, but he had a similar condition, grade 5 tear and real bad chemical radiculitis. He had a failed microdiscectomy and in the end elected for no surgery. He was left with some pretty significant limitations but his story is interesting because of his outcome going non-surgical and the approaches he used to deal with it.

Good luck Matt.

[bigdogchief76]

What are you doing fitness wise?........but almost everyone finds that as long as the exercise isn't breaking them down it becomes beneficial.

Any type of exercise is typically unbearable for me.

Couple of years ago I was able to get the pain under control by doing exercises and physical activity. I actually found doing certain labor extensive activities (yard work, shoveling, etc) would help get the muscles relaxed and seemed to be very helpful.

Not so anymore. Some of the basic stretches can actually cause me to not get out of bed for a couple of days.

Thanks for sharing though. I appreciate the thoughts and the concern.

I'm not naive enough to think that surgery is going to be the magical cure all either. This is something that I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life. However, if this procedure can make it where the pain is "tolerable" then I'll consider it a success.

My biggest concern right now is having this turn into some sort of medical emergency, which, shouldn't happen since my stability is still in tack. But, it's still on my mind...you know?

Thanks again bud...I really do appreciate it...

MB

[bigdogchief76]

I pray Feb 14th gets here soon enough. . I hope and pray this upcoming appointment will give you the answers you are looking for and that the potential of ADR will be closer than just a dream. I know it hasn't been an easy road for you. Hang in there Matt. God bless

Thank you for your thoughts Cindylou! They mean a great deal to me.

I will keep everyone informed when I hear something after the appointment.

[Cindylou]

Sounds good Matt. Hang in there. Hope the upcoming weekend goes fast for you. CL (I can't wait to hear about the results of the appt.)