I’m amazed at how time gets away from me; it’s been almost two months since I updated the blog. I suppose that’s a sign that I’ve been busy, and being busy means I have more energy and have been feeling better lately.
So lets get caught up shall we… Since my last “Rant” my quest has been to determine the cause of the pain in my left leg that has been with me since shortly after the surgery, and to get some relief. This quest has involved appointments with my neurosurgeon, yet another MRI, and seeing a doctor specializing in Physical Medicine. I’ll start with my visit to the neurosurgeon and the MRI…Apparently Albany Med doesn’t know that I love to use them as fodder in my posts, because both the visit to my neurosurgeon and the MRI appointment went much too smoothly. Usually a visit to the neurosurgeon involves waiting forever to get into an exam room then wait some more until he gets to me. This time I was seen immediately, it was nice but it just felt wrong. As I said in a previous post he has no idea what the deal is with my leg so he sent me for an MRI of the pelvic area.
The day comes for me to get the dreaded MRI. I walk in and was greeted by the “Take A Number” sign. It’s on 15 and the waiting area is crowded, my first thought was ‘this is gonna take a while’, ok the language was much more colorful than that but I shouldn’t use those words here. Back to the story…I take a deep breath and as I reach for the number a voice says ‘can I help you?’ I was startled but I manage to tell her what I’m there for, she immediately grabs my chart and says ‘follow me’. I felt totally confused, this never happens at Albany Med. I change into the beautiful hospital gowns and they take me to another waiting room. I figured this is where they’ll get me, they’ll leave me here and I’ll probably be in this room for an hour or so. No sooner do I sit down to begin the long wait when suddenly they call me in for the MRI. Maybe they were making up for the trouble their billing department causes.
I survived the MRI without any claustrophobia attacks, thanks to the fact that I went in feet first, there was no head cage, and the Tech was a chatterbox. The only mishap involved with the MRI appointment was caused by my own stupidity. I had what appeared to be a Vitamin-E capsule taped to the back of my left leg where the pain is the worst as a marker and I forgot it was there. When I got back to my office I remembered it was there because it had broken open and left me with a damp leg and stained pants. The results of the MRI were negative; there are no structural problems or tumors in the pelvic area so the neurosurgeon sent me off to Dr. Tang the Physical Medicine Specialist.
Dr. Tang is pretty much convinced that the problem is the hamstring and the tendon. Oh and his office never keeps me waiting, plus he has some great one-liners. My favorite so far occurred when I was explaining the symptoms and what aggravates the problem, when he turns to me with a bemused look on his face and says ‘you Chiarians are a special group’…maybe that’s only funny to a Chiarian. Anyway, right now we are trying muscle injections, stretches, and strength training. Guess which one I’m going to talk about…take a minute and read the previous sentence again, go ahead I’ll wait…did you guess correctly??? Yep, it’s the muscle injection (not cortisone). I’ve had two so far and they seem to be helping. During the first shot I watched as he loaded the syringe with a regular looking needle. I thought ‘hey it won’t be that bad’…then he removed the regular needle and replaced it with one that looked to be about 6 inches long. I immediately buried my face in the pillow and prepared for a painful experience. Even though it was a long and very scary looking needle, there was very little pain. During the exam for the second injection he knew I was watching him so he paused in between needles and with the long needle in his hand and an evil look on his face he hit me with another one-liner that cracked me up…’special needle just for you’. I guess it doesn’t sound that funny in print, but imagine it being said with a thick Chinese accent…umm maybe you had to be there. The second shot was not as pleasant as the first one. He had me bend my leg so that the muscle and the tendon are moved upward and the needle can go in further…one word OUCH!
That’s it for today. Now that it’s getting wintery around here maybe I’ll be able to post more often. If I don’t post before then…Happy Thanksgiving!
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