Latest Update

Sorry I have not blogged in over a week, but we have been so busy around here and to be honest, I needed a little bit of a break from the computer.  We just finished our Esther study on Friday and after contributing to it daily, that did not leave a lot of time for here.  Let me say though, that Esther study ROCKED!!!  If you had signed up to participate, know that the site is still there and if you are behind, still reading, wanting to comment, I will know when you do.  I would love to hear from you on your thoughts!  If you enjoyed it, let me know and we can hopefully do this again.

Now for the latest on the good ole', 29 year old back.  Well, it appears that I am done with my marathon training.  That has me down in the dumps a bit.  We had been doing so well with staying committed to our early runs and weekly long runs and I hated to break the news to my most awesome running buddy that I was out.  This is what my back looks like from my MRI last Thursday.

See the discs in my spine.  This is a side view, otherwise known as a sagittal view of the spine.  Those black spacers between the white bone are the discs and if you look at the one next to last you will see that the blackness spills out onto the nerve.  This in turn has been causing sciatic pain from my rear all the way down to the top of my foot.  I would have tingling and pain that also radiated around to the top of my left quadricep.

This is the axial view of my spine.  Pretend you are looking from the top of my head down into my spine.  This is what that herniated disc looks like.  In a normal looking disc, that black spot would actually be a bit concave and symmetrical.  Notice the white spot below that disc and that is where your nerve roots are located.  You can see little black dots on that white and those are the actual openings were the nerves come through.  It is obvious that the black disc extends out on the right side (which is actually the left side of my spine) of the picture and covers several of the black dots.  Meaning, there is nerve compression which has been giving me problems.

And finally this is the easiest thing to identify as it is a picture that makes sense when explaining it's perspective.  It is a direct view, I can't remember for the moment what it is called.  When I first saw this picture I was a bit concerned about scoliosis, but the doctor and PA believe that this is muscular and due to the pain I have been having and my body's way of compensating for it.  Crazy.  There really is quite a curve when I look at it, but obviously I am not a doctor nor do I look at pictures of people's spines everyday, well up until I got my MRI images.

So, where do we go from here?  I had been having back pain for over 2 years.  Gone to see several chiropractors, but not until about 4 weeks ago did I have excruciating pain.  All of which lead me to a pain management specialist when I was in acute pain.  They administered a steroid injection into my hip and put me on muscle relaxers, which did nothing, and a week long dose of oral steroids.  I also fell in love with the TENS unit they gave me which really was the life saver.  I just could not keep it on all night long and as soon as it was off I was uncomfortable again.

All of this lead up to my appointment yesterday.  There they read off the radiologist report and claimed that I had a "biggin'" of a herniation.  I have not come across anything to give me reference, but he gave some measurements of 12mm x 7mm x 8mm.  I don't know if they come up with some ratio in their office, but he said anything over a .2 they consider big and mine was a 1.4.  So, who knows.  Pain from herniations is so different for everyone.  Some patients are actually asymptomatic from herniations and have no idea they have them and others like me are in pain.  Quite unusual.  After we talked a bit they took me back into their surgical suite and had me lay down on a table to have a transforaminal steroid injection into my L4L5 disc.  We did this in order to help with my inflammation so that my disc has a better chance to heal on its own. Basically, I had a non sedated epidural (because I drove myself, I could not be sedated) placed at the site of my pain.  Walked out of there 30 minutes later only to return after reaching my car because the lidocaine they injected to numb the spot somehow got into my blood stream and traveled to my face.  It felt like I had been gargling baby oragel in my mouth.  My tongue, lips and gums started to tingle.  Ugh!  Became pretty woozy and went back inside to lay down.  Here are some pictures of what the procedure I had done looks like.  It was an identical setup, except I was able to actually watch the whole thing on that screen seen in the first picture as they injected the catheter into my spine.  I watched the dye go in the treatment area and then the steroid.  Talk about ouch!  At least with my other 3 epidurals in my life I got a baby after the fact.  These pictures are from the Redding Anesthesia Website 

This picture is of the real time xray machine, known as a fluoroscopy, positioned over the spot, the xray on the screen above.  They do this so they can watch where the needle and catheter placement are.

Oh well, I've been trying to get those pictures side by side and it's not working.  The picture on the left is what is seen on the xray.  You can see the catheter insertion and the black blob at the end of that hair like piece is the dye being injected.  The picture on the right is the actual epidural in place.  I'm so glad I did not have that view while laying on the table.

That's it!  Last night I did not sleep.  Very uncomfortable and from what I have read it should take several days for the steroids to take effect.  I still feel some heaviness in my legs and just a restless leg feeling.  I have not found another site that explained what I have been feeling, but it feels best crouching down on the ground and getting into a ball to put pressure all over my legs.  Strange.  Hopefully this will subside in another 24 hours.  I'm scheduled to do this again at the end of the month if I'm still having leg pain.  If I'm feeling fine we will just keep backing it up until I feel pain again, that is if I do.  I can only have 3 of these injections, so I'm praying it works!  This will keep me off the surgery table which is always a good thing.  So there you have it!  Sorry for the LONG, drawn out story, but maybe if someone else is researching a similar problem they can read another persons experience.

****Note: If you found this page while doing research on your own condition, know that this choice of treatment has been based on my own personal experience.  No one is the same and the experiences I have had are in no way a statistically significant reason to do the things I have done.  Please check out other MEDICAL sites for your information.  I do encourage you to research before jumping into anything in regards to your spine.  AND, do not rely completely on the internet, make sure to seek medical treatment from a doctor and if you're not comfortable with their assessment or their choice of action, get another opinion.  Hopefully that covers the bases!  :)