First Injection, it's a start

Last Thursday I had my first injection in the low back. Today was the first visit with the doctor for follow-up and make the future plans.

The first one was helpful. I usually needed to lean over a grocery basket to walk thru the store. Friday I walked in to Walmart and out without hanging over the basket. Woo-hoo!!!

I didn't get any relief for my painful feet yet so the doctor decided to skip the second shot in the same place and opted for a different approach. She's going to insert a catheter and inject the medication on several levels down the low back. We're both thinking that should effect the feet.

It will take two weeks to meet the insurance guidelines for each successive injection BUT, I also need my neck fixed so we're going to try to alternate between low back and neck and then I can have an injection every Thursday. Time will tell if that works, it's great in theory.

There is still no light at the end of the tunnel yet so we don't know when we'll be home. When I finally do see the light, I may be fearful that it's the train and not the end of the tunnel.

Busy Week

Busy Busy!!!

Paul and I have been in San Francisco visiting Denny, Gilroy having dinner with Tim and Irene Day, Elk Grove celebrating Candy's birthday, Lake Mindon (just north of Sacramento) visiting with long time friends Sandi and Duane Talbot, and finally Paradise visiting my dad, Kimmie, Julie, and Kelsey and their families. All this between Tuesday and Saturday, see what I mean?

Oh, did I forget to mention that I spent 4 hours today with Kelsey and Kimmie's families watching the Super Bowl. AND, we rooted for Green Bay, HOORAY!!!

I'll do a little more visiting for a few days and then we'll meander back to Las Vegas for the next round of doctor's appointments. Tuesday is Paul's follow-up and Thursday is my first back injection. Pray for me.

Unexpected Change of Plans

Some of you know that I was planning to use my two weeks without doctors appointments to go to Houston Texas to visit Lyn and her family. Paul drove the little RAV4 down from Homer to leave it with the motor home so we could tow a car when we travel. All looked settled. We would leave Monday morning and start the 3000 mile round trip.

Sunday afternoon I got a call from my dad and Kimmie that my brother was in bad shape. He has been having chemotherapy for Acute Aggressive Leukemia since June/July. We all thought he was 'out of the woods' and having his last treatment when we got the news that the leukemia was back in full force. It looks like he's as bad off as he was in June when the told him he had 2 weeks to live.

Needless to say, I'm in California to visit my brother! Paul arrived from Alaska Sunday evening and we hit the road Monday at noon.

Paul and I parked the motor home in Morgan Hill (85 miles south of UCSF hospital) at the Thousand Trails campground. From there we drove the little car and visited Denny for 1 1/2 hours Tuesday afternoon.

His spirits are up and he's confident and patient. His energy was pretty good too. He was able to talk fairly clearly (for being on pain meds) and hold a thought beyond interruptions. I feel better now that I've seen him and talked to him. He's not out of the woods yet and he has some pretty serious junk to endure but it looks encouraging.

Since I still have a small break between doctors visits, we're going to visit friends and family for a couple days. I will go back and see Denny again before we leave Morgan Hill and tonight we're having dinner with Tim and Irene Day. We've been friends since 1969 or 1970.

Patience, hard to come by...

Well, I know you've been expecting to hear about my back injections BUT, it's been postponed for a month.

On January 8th. I woke up with my right foot/ankle stiff and hurting. I figured I had slept on it wrong and it would eventually get better. I drove off to the yarn shop to knit with the girls (and guys). By 4 pm I was in such pain I couldn't hardly bear any weight on the foot. I had one errand to run to the pharmacy for Paul's prescription so I made the great Herculean effort. When the pharmacist said it would be an additional 25 minutes, I bolted for home. I told Paul he MUST take me to an urgent care or emergency room.

I was admitted to Desert Springs Hospital over night with cellulitis in my right ankle. There was no break in the skin and no one seems to know how it got there. I took morphine and duladid (It turns out that I'm allergic to this pain med also) for pain and by noon Sunday I could walk on it again. They released me by 3pm with 10 days of oral antibiotics.

Interesting side note here: The hospital doctor said I had pneumonia, noted in my chest x-ray. I didn't have a chest x-ray, she was looking at the wrong patients paper work. Then she said she was releasing me with amoxicillan (which I'm allergic to) and I asked her "Have you read my chart?". To that she said "No" and left my room. I don't have much confidence in her.

My ankle seems to be fine and the pain and redness are completely gone. Unfortunately, when I saw the doctor for my back injections, she said NOT for a MONTH because of the antibiotics.

Boo-hoo, see what I mean about learning patience?

Another interesting development: I "yelled" at Paul about being bored and depressed. I told him to find something to do to keep busy and interested. The next day, when I got home from the market, he announced that he was flying back to Alaska. That wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I told him to find something to do, lol.

He got a call from the Camper repair people and they wanted the camper ASAP, the rest is history. He and Ben are driving down Wednesday through Sunday this week.

I did get a consultation with the hand doctor about the numbness and pain in my hands. He said the carpal tunnel wasn't bad enough for surgery but he could inject the arthritis in my right thumb and left wrist. It helped and maybe one more injection will complete the relief ( Feb. 28th).

Life is good even if 'she' is a tough teacher, lol.

Karen's Continuing Saga

I went to the pain specialist today. I had such great expectations and now I have great depression.

Yes, they think they can help with the pain in my back and feet with injections in the spine but they expect it to take 3 to 4 months of treatments. Apparently there are 5 or 6 vertebra that are deteriorated and are causing the pain. The insurance will only allow them to inject 2 spots and they want to do 10 to 13 (that is on both left and right side of each vertebra). They wait a couple weeks to a month before re-injecting the same area and they can do up to 3 injections per area...I think? In 2 weeks I'm scheduled for the first injection and a week later for the follow-up visit to determine the success.

I'm still waiting on the diagnosis of the neck and possible treatment for that. I guess it could end up the same as the low back, oh mercy me. I wish I had a crystal ball and could tell you when I'll be home.

2550 miles in 12 days

I only have a minute. Paul and I left Las Vegas after church on Sunday (Dec 12th) and headed to Paradise to spend a few days with 4 of my daughters and surprise my dad for his 82nd birthday (and boy, was he ever surprised).
We left there Saturday to spend the afternoon and evening with Candy. Sunday morning we went to church and left for Las Vegas (on our way to Hurricane Utah). 2 short stops in LV to pick up Paul's prescriptions and see my chiropractor before heading to Hurricane.

Paul's brother has an appointment in Thousand Oaks for minor back surgery and I need to take care of his wife, Deb. She's the one with the major back surgery a few weeks ago and is still in bed. So, Paul and Jerry will leave today and come back Thursday (if all goes well).

Friday we'll drive back to Las Vegas just in time for Christmas with Paul's daughters, Jennifer, Rachel, Sara, and Leslie.

Whew, busy-busy 2 weeks but rewarding to see family and help where needed. We have been well blessed.

Merry Christmas to all and remember the reason for this holiday.

Love to all,
Karen and Paul

MRI: News You've all Been Waiting To Hear!!!

Is that a little presumptuous?

I finally saw the doctor on Monday and got good news. He is a surgeon and I was afraid he'd opt for surgery. He said he wouldn't do anything to me he wouldn't do to himself and I don't need surgery, yet. He said my low back is stable but he wants more diagnosis on my neck.

Doctor said he wants a nerve conduction on my hands/arms and he wants me to see another doctor for pain relief (injections in low back). He said it looks like the arthritis in the low back is causing the pain in my feet.

Now, back to the waiting game. If I don't hear in 2 weeks, I should call these two doctors. He set my return appointment with him for report on the nerve conduction study in 6 weeks. Sometimes it seems like it will never end.

I'll let you know how I do with those shots. I've been told they can be pretty painful. I've also been instructed to ask for whatever it takes to make the procedure pain free. I hear that the 3 shots can be given 10 days to 30 days apart. I guess it's up to the doctor to decide. It probably depends on the particular patient and problems.