I have always been someone who has had a lot of health challenges in their life. From minor to major and everything in between, I seem to have more than my fair share at times. Of course, the main health condition – and the one that spawned this Blog – is Parkinson’s. But there are many facets to anyone’s life and my life is no exception.
This Blog started out to help me to work through what having a diagnosis of Parkinson’s means to me. It was also important to me for it to be an honest account of my life with Parkinson’s which hopefully would help others. But of course, my life – like anyone else’s – is not wholly and solely consumed by the beast that is Parkinson’s or Parkies as I often call it. Therefore, scattered amongst my Blog posts there are accounts of other aspects of my life. Some of this can be my poetry that I share on a reasonably regular basis. Some of it can be posts about my other health issues. Parkies is after all, part of my life and a significant one at that, but it is not everything about my life.
This week I had an appointment with a Neurosurgeon because of pains that I have had shooting down my legs. This has been ongoing for three months and has become progressively worse. The pain apparently originates in my back where nerves are being trapped. One thing that I find challenging is that I keep getting asked about the pain in my back. I find it challenging because basically I don’t usually feel any pain in my back. Although my issues stem from my back but are felt in shooting pains down my left leg and to a lesser extent down my right. There are other symptoms too, but I won’t bore you with the entirety of my issues.
So, we met with the registrar of the Neurosurgeon. As is often the case, the letter states you will have an appointment with the Neurosurgeon, when in fact it is usually with the registrar. He was very thorough though and went away a couple of times to consult with the Neurosurgeon. After some consultation, the registrar came to talk with us about a plan. There had been some talk about trying an injection in my spine, but apparently that will have limited to no benefit, given the severity of my injury. We will therefore proceed straight to an operation.
Now, we are playing a waiting game of unknown duration. It has been suggested by the Registrar that the operation should be done in 2-3 months. With the Christmas shutdown for surgery coming up within that timeframe, I would not count on that happening. If there was any way that I could have the operation tomorrow I would jump at the chance. Every day I wait is another day of extreme pain. However, I am now to be put on Morphine, as every other pain killer has done very little if anything. It is likely to be a reasonably high dose, so this Blog could get interesting! I may not make a lot of sense if the dose is high, but who knows it might give me a whole new way of looking at things.
The operation will remove some bone from the back of my spine and also rods and screws will be put in in the front – as I understand it – to stabilise and strengthen my back. Sounds pretty heavy duty to me.
Oh… and by the way my friend Parkies has been incredibly well behaved and is in no way involved in this latest venture into another health problem and it’s management and ultimate solution.
My health just gets more complicated.
I didn’t think before that that would be possible.
My journey with Parkinsons 