Biding Time 'Til Surgery

It has been a week since I posted.  It is still a week until I have surgery.  I have been off work, biding my time as comfortably as I can manage.  I can still get around the house with my cane, but I only do short trips and try to plan them well.  Our electric bill will be larger with me home all day with the air conditioning and computer on.  The cat has not taken to my company all day every day and spends much of the day under the bed, though I did almost walk in on her at her food dish in the kitchen this morning.  I quickly turned and left as not to disturb one of her few ventures out.  She is getting quite old now, old enough for my wife to be concerned about her, um, input and output.  I seem to have less pain and more numbness and tingling now which allowed me to stop taking percocet.  I had been on it every day since sometime in March, which couldn't be good, and I felt like hell for several days after stopping.  I had no appetite whatsoever, no energy, and found myself in quite a funk.  I feel better now, I still take 2 oxycontin each day, but I've only had those for about 2 weeks now.  When I was taking both I had more pain but it only helped so much so I stopped taking everything one day.  One thing I was disappointed with was that after 3 days of barely any food and I still weigh the same.  I almost look forward to getting back on the exercise bike.  I have been smoking clove cigars for a few weeks now.  I have felt stressed yet I do not want to become addicted to nicotine again so I found a 'cheat' that I must make sure is temporary.  I use it as an excuse to get outside and stare at our yard.  It breaks up the day.  Well, this is it for now.  No real 'proper' type of post, just ramblings and thoughts.  I'm bored, and facing yet another surgery really sucks.  That about sums it up.

Happy 4th, 2011

Have a happy holiday, everyone!

Doppelganger

I'm still off work for about 2 more weeks before surgery.  I'm going to have to find some more time-fillers to make the days go by quicker.  As much as my job sucks, like most everyone's job, I would much rather be at work feeling healthy and normal.  Soon enough, I suppose.


We could hear the Rhythm and Booms fireworks clearly last night but we can't see them from our house, though.  No matter, we were in bed before they were done even.  I'm not sure how many people were there last night, over 100,000* is the norm, I think.  I'm still trying my best to be able to run errands and go out to eat, you know, normal things.  The reality is that most stores are too much walking and not enough chairs for me.  I can only stand for a short period of time then must sit, I can't even lay down.  If I didn't happen to have this cane from my leg injury I would barely be able to get around.


There I go, complaining again, but I do have kind of a funny story from yesterday for you!


A friend of mine stopped over yesterday just to kill some time.  I updated him on my next surgery and he mowed my lawn!  Kate is capable, but I know it would be much easier on her if she didn't have that to add to her list while I am once again warming the bench.  He's been a casual friend for a long, long time, but I thought that was a hell of a nice thing to do and I appreciated it very much.  He might keep doing it for me until I can do it myself again, and that would be even better.  After he mowed and just before he left, Kate noticed something interesting about us.  First of all, we have the same name, Scott.  And, in general, we were both wearing black and gray camouflage print shorts, red t-shirts, shades (mine-prescription, his-sunglasses), and black caps.  We got a good laugh out of that.  I brought it up then, but I should have insisted on a picture!


*It was 250,000 people.  I don't know what I was thinking - I blame the drugs!

Neck X-Ray and Back MRI Pics

Yes, it is yet another medical update - but this time I have pictures!  (Instead of taking pictures of their computer screen like I usually do they printed out some of the images for me.  Of course, I have never tried to scan anything with our printer before and it wasn't happening easily so I took pictures of my printouts to post here.  If you look close, you can see the crease where I folded the papers.)  Yesterday I had a follow up appointment for my neck surgery of March 30.  It seems to be healing well, which is good and means I don't have to wait longer to have my back surgery.  What is noteworthy of this neck x-ray is that you can see the screw that broke through the bone of the upper vertebrae and is hanging down into the area where they removed the disc.  There is still one screw holding on top and both below, so as long as it continues to fill in with bone and actually fuse I should have no problems.  I have no pain or discomfort in my neck or arm at all anymore.

My back is a different story.  Even my untrained eye can spot the disc herniation in the MRI pics below, it's that obvious.  (The disc below the bulging one is the one I had fixed 11 years ago.)  But, of course, no one had to tell me that - I have been feeling it get steadily worse for almost 3 months now.   So after a brief discussion of my neck, they moved on to my back.  I was very thankful for this, I thought they may make me wait until my scheduled back consultation on July 12.  They pshawed that notion quickly and said that they had all the information they need and didn't see the point in making me wait painfully for a couple more weeks.  I wholeheartedly agreed!  Still, with scheduling, my back surgery - lumbar spine microdiscectomy - will not take place for about 3 more weeks.  I've been taken off work until healed and I'm on oxycontin now, with percoset on top of that for the bad times, so if I post anything goofy in the next couple weeks - I blame it on the drugs!

U.D.O. - Leatherhead

I tried to post this when it was released, but Blogger changed their rules on how to post videos. So, while I experiment in how to post a video correctly and get the results I want, Here is U.D.O.'s first single off their new album, Rev-Raptor.

Garden Gate Project

Yesterday I managed to cross several things off my to-do list.  I feel like if I don't get things done now it may be fall before I get the chance, after my back is fixed and healed (hopefully).  So I popped some extra pills and I did several small things with my wife's help,  but the main project I accomplished was adding a front rail and gate to the gardens.

 It may not look like much, but I took the time to get all the measurements correct and keep everything square and plumbed up.  Slowed by my back, I spent much of the day on this project while my wife went out on the lake with friends.  (I haven't been on the boat yet this year, and probably won't be until I'm fixed.)  While I had all the stuff out I also replaced a rail that was rotted by the side door.  The new wood doesn't match the old over there, but we hardly use that door anymore and it's not very visible from the front of the house so we're not too worried about it.  I think I'm done now, the pain is winning.  Today is a rest day.

More pictures after the break:

Right L5 Disc Compression

Well, I figured out that now Blogger wants us to add Youtube videos directly by url instead of copying the embed html.  The only problem is I can only get this size, not bigger.  Oh well, I'll have to make do for now and look into it further later.

I received news yesterday that the MRI showed I have a right L5 disc compression, exactly what you see in this short video.  Certainly not good news, but it is exactly what I expected.  I have to wait almost 3 weeks for my consultation even though I will be in the same office of the same neurosurgeon on Tuesday for a follow up about my neck surgery.  Sigh.  Well I made it this long, I hope I have a few more weeks left in me.  Also, that other thing I was worried about turned out to be nothing,  I had 2 tests and both came back negative.  Very good news, indeed.

Cottonwood, Strawberries and... Summer!

Happy first day of Summer!  The cottonwood trees are sending their fluffy white nuisance crap everywhere again.  They fly in the air looking like snow, get into the garage and create what look like huge dust bunnies, cover every inch of the lawn and stick in every cobweb.  At least it only lasts a couple weeks.  I hear they are illegal to plant in Madison anymore because of all the mess they make.

Here, Kate is picking more strawberries.  This has become a daily job, as new berries are ripening constantly.  Unfortunately many of them are small, probably due to the weather and rainfall though we do try to water them on days that no rain is expected.  These are June-bearing strawberries, so there may only be a week or so more of picking to do.  Just as well.  If they were ever-bearing then I'm sure we would tire of them by late July or August!

One of my next projects, as long as my back allows, is to add a rail and gate to the front of the gardens.  The ones that are on the sides were an afterthought that I added basically just to help hold up the chicken wire (remember, I was kind of making it up as I went along).  A rail in front will do the same, and a proper gate will make it so much easier to enter the path in between the raised beds.  Last weekend I bought all the lumber and hardware to do this, so maybe this weekend if I have a chance.

Happy Fathers Day 2011

Yes, it's a repost from the last Pic Dump.  I meant to save it for today, so here it is.  Yes, I have father issues.  We are having my wife's family over today and grilling out.  I hope you're doing what you like today.  Have fun!

More Percocet, Please

And again, it has been days since I posted.  There must be something about the month of June.  Anyway, it has been a pretty normal week.  All I have to report is just medical stuff again, so brace yourself!

I had an appointment with my regular doctor yesterday.  The purpose of this visit was to get the ball rolling on my possible next back surgery because I just can't take the pain anymore, even with all the percocet I've been taking.  Physical therapy exercises have not worked and are now too painful to do effectively.  I await the hospital to call me to schedule an MRI soon, and the sooner the better.  Those results will most likely send me to see a surgeon, possibly the same one who operated on my neck at the end of March.  I fully expect to have to have the surgery again in the same spot as I did in 2000.  They did a partial discectomy then and now I may have to have the rest removed and have a fusion.  Back then it was my left leg that was getting the pain, now it is my right leg, the same leg I broke last August.  I still use the cane regularly, more when I'm out than when I'm at home, all because of the pain and tingling in that leg from the affected nerve in my lower back.  This would be the third surgery for me in less than a year.  Yippee Skippee.

I also got some news that could make my back seem trivial.  I'm not ready to mention that problem to anyone yet, but I will find out more next week.  I'm agnostic so I won't ask for your prayers, but I could use some good luck thrown my way for a change!