Things are always a little better (tomorrow)

I got the back shots.  It was not a totally easy thing, but the results have been a real help.  

Before the shots were given, the pain Doc sent my to get some EMG’s.  EMG stand for Electro-something- mylogram.  The tests are given by putting (or, using a needle, inserting) an electrode on,or into one part of your body, where a nerve is, the placing an electrode on another part of the body which is where the nerve ends, then shooting electricity into the electrodes to measure the effectiveness of  the nerve in transmitting the electricity from one end of it to the other.

Having had a neuropathy (loss of nerve function) since 1992, I have had many many EMGs over the years.  I have told friends that an EMG is about the most interesting things that can happen to you in a hospital without a dental drill inserted into a nerve.  It really isn’t as gruesome as I  make it sound, but I have been having a lot of pain in my left hip that is caused, in part, by the disintegration of the disks between my lower three lumbar vertebrae.  I have been coping with the disintegration  for a number of years, but the new pain comes from spinal arthritis in the area which has created scoliosis in this area (thus disturbing the the nerves in anew way )  The current EMG was ordered to check which nerves are doing what.

The test itself was excruciating, well, not excruciating in itself but to take the test I had to lie on a hard flat examination bench and then had to move from place to place bending one leg, then the other and the movement stirred up nerves that had been relatively benign in the previous few days.    By the time it was over, I not only couldn’t stand up straight I had to have couple of people carry me to the car. 

The days until the shots were given were some of the worst of my life.  I couldn’t stand  comfortably, sit comfortably or even lie down comfortably.  Without the application of pain patches I am not sure how I would have made it. 

The day for the pain shots came, I got them, and the effect was almost magical.  Life isn’t   perfect , but I can stand up most of the time, sit comfortably most of the time, and best of all, I can sleep.

More adventures to come.  We ;flew to Washington and that was an adventure to be sure.