In 1989, I was diagnosed with Scoliosis and began seeing a spinal specialist. He monitored my growth and watched the curve in my spine gradually get worse. In 1991, I was fitted for a brace. I wore the brace for over a year...during my prime adolescent years...and was told it was time for surgery. In 1993, I had a spinal fusion and rods hooked into my spine to immobilize my back. Everything was going well for several years until I started getting some back pain in between my shoulder blades. The doctor noted that the hardware used can cause pain and he has removed it from many people with lots of success. So, in 2000, I had the hardware removed.
It really did help. I had several years with very little back pain. I mean, really, with having two surgeries, I expect to have some chronic pain.
About a year ago, I started having some pretty significant lower back pain. I dismissed it for a while, because of all of my surgeries. As the year progressed, it got more and more painful. The pain spread to both sides of my back, down both hips, and down my legs. On a side note, I began experiencing some numbness and tingling in my right foot and toes, have a weird prickly feeling in my extremities, and am dealing with a lot of imbalance. Not dizziness...the world isn't spinning, but I am being pulled in one direction.
About a month ago, while at my in-laws home, I was walking down their hallway to the bathroom and I ran into the wall. Several months ago, while washing dishes, I reached to my left to grab a glass and fell taking most of my dishes with me. While eating dinner with my husband, we were seated in a booth just talking, when I looked down at my menu and felt myself being pulled down. I sometimes will stand and try to take a step and either have a shooting pain down my legs, or will not really feel the floor beneath me. It is very strange.
So today, I had an MRI of my spine, and some Xrays of my back. Holy Claustrophobia Batman....that was crazy. They gave me a CD of my MRI and of course, I looked at it when I got home. Here is what I saw.....
Now, I am no doctor, but something doesn't look right here. On the side view, I can clearly see two vertebrae at the top of the image, but nothing after that. It looks like a tornado in there!
So, my appointment with the neurosurgeon is on the 13th. I am no longer doing Body Pump at the gym because I just can't lift weights like that right now. It is too much for my back. I am able to do Zumba and really enjoy it, so I am going to try to just do Zumba Tuesday and Thursday mornings and nights. I have to be able to exercise!
Maybe being at home more will give me more opportunities to craft. That does make me super happy!
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