It’s been a long time I’ll admit. No excuse will be offered as to why I have not posted in 2+ years. One excuse is offered, however, for why I am posting now.
My pain psychologist recommends it. No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you - pain PSYCHOLOGIST.
My reasons for visiting said psychologist has nothing to do with any autoimmune disease, immune deficiency, or other exotic conditions on which I pride myself. It has to do instead with the banal and ubiquitous complaints of lower back pain. Pain which has haunted my very existence and sidelined me for the past 2+ years. And just like some victims of verbal abuse may initially make excuses for the abuser’s behavior, I have let this insidious pain creep up and move into my house and inhabit my bed beside me.
This pain has caused me to learn all sorts of new terms regarding spinal anatomy: pars fractures, spondylosis, spondylothesis, laminectomy, microdiscectomy, median nerve blocks, epidural injections, decompression surgery, stenosis of the foramen, instability of the lumbar spine and of course the ever-present herniation of the L5/S1. I have seen a spine surgeon, (soon-to-be) two neurosurgeons, three pain management specialists, and two physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians. I have had countless sets of XRays, three MRI’s, and a nerve conduction and electro muscular study, five separate physical therapy protocols, seven spine injections, three sessions with an acupuncturist (before he released me because he admitted that he could not help) two therapeutic massages, and of course a “failed” decompression surgery. Hey, but who’s counting?
How writing about my current pain will help, I honestly don’t know. But in the “Leave no stone unturned” approach I have adopted, I will write like the dutiful patient I am. I will also comply with all of the other cognitive behavioral therapy recommendations that come my way. Something - oh something - has to help me!
