What's Happening

Hi All,

I'm still in an exercise hiatus, but the end is in sight.  I saw the neurosurgeon today and he said that the two herniated discs in my back have probably been there for some time.  The disc in my neck, however seems recent and needs to be removed ASAP.  He showed me on the pictures from the MRI where the bulge from the disc is bumping into the spinal cord and compressing it.  He says that all of my symptoms (numbness and tingling in arms and legs) as well as feeling awkward when I walk (sort of like one leg is an inch or two shorter than the other) are being caused by that compression on the spinal cord.  Also he said that things would rapidly get worse and might not be reversible if I don't get that pressure off of the spinal cord very soon.  The upshot is that I'm scheduled for surgery (ACDF) this week--first thing Friday morning.  I'm feeling good about this.  I liked him a lot.  He's the kind of doctor that doesn't rush you through things.  He answered all my questions thoroughly and helped me understand his answers.  He'll do the surgery.  Oh and I'm wearing one of those awful looking neck braces to keep things stable until the surgery.  I hate how it feels, so it must be good for me. :-)

I'm really missing the exercise.  Apparently I get to start walking again as soon as I feel up to it after the surgery.  No lifting or jerky kind of exercise, but there are a lot worse ways to get exercise than walking along the river path in the spring when the wild flowers and the trees are waking from winter..  I'll break out the pedometer and to the 10K step/day challenge and work my way up.  Biking, running, folk dancing and lifting weights will have to wait for a while.  I'll ask about yoga.

I'm still going to town on the de-cluttering.  If you every followed "fly lady," you'll recognize my tactic of going into a room and removing 5 things.  (not necessarily furniture--I have way too many little dishes and ornaments around too).  Do this a few times and things start to look uncluttered.

We had company for dinner the other night and I started the dinner with a caprese salad.  Mmm.  Fresh mozzarella di bufola, tomato slices, and basil leaves sprinkled with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.  YUM.    We also had fresh asparagus, grilled lamb chops with mint jelly, and whole wheat couscous with dried apricots, mint, and toasted almonds.  Sliced California strawberries and a dollop of ice cream for dessert.  It was easy to fix almost everything ahead and a very nice spring dinner.

I'll keep you posted!

The Kibosh

Here it is, Wednesday again, but I didn't go to my WW meeting, instead I went to see the doctor.  My weird feelings in my wrists, arms and legs had not gotten better and finally I decided I needed to be seen.  My appointment was this morning and I'm back home now.  Putting my symptoms into Dr. Google had yielded some fairly alarming possibilities.  My normally nice and low blood pressure was rather elevated when they took it.  The doctor sent me to have an XRay (looking for arthritis along the upper spine).  The head radiologist decided I needed an immediate MRI.  After seeing the results they wanted to do "a couple" more tests--so back into the MRI machine.  I'd never had one before.  NOT fun.  I was gripping that emergency buzzer for all I was worth, but didn't use it.  Then it was back to the doctor's waiting room preparing myself  for some bad news. But it was not too bad after all, compared to what it could have been.  It seems I have not one, but three herniated discs--neatly causing symptoms in my arms and legs.  I'm to make an appointment with the neurosurgeon ASAP (well, in military medicine that means--call on Friday).  Meanwhile, no running, no lifting weights at the gym, no bike rides and, I guess, no pogo sticks. 

Funny how much I'd love to go out on this beautiful day and take a run along the river.

He neatly put the kibosh on my exercise plan, but I'm sure I can continue to try to eat well and stay on plan.  That's my plan for right now.

Later,
Tish