STAY OF EXECUTION

Mind you I am not complaining, but I now have a little understanding for those on death row who have been given a stay of execution.  You have worked thru the problem, gotten yourself as ready as you can and bingo! They put it off, so you will have to get ready, all over again.

Am now full of mixed emotions.  After having a, face to face, with my doctor, discussing the x-rays and MRIs and just talking about the 'evil' pain spots, she decided to attack by peeling the onion layers.   BORING WARNING  You can only have 3 shots in your knee a year, 3 shots in your shoulder, 3 shots in each section ie: cervical, lumbar, etc, of your spine.  I didn't ask why, was busy being scared.
With every level of the lumbar spine having 'severe' attached to it, she had me show where the very worst pain started and radiated.

Rather than guessing which level to start the injection, she opted to, first, do my right hip, hoping it gives some pain relief and I am keeping a diary about just where I am feeling some relief.  With that blueprint, she will have a better idea what level of the lumbar to inject for the remaining pain, which means much less chance of injecting the wrong level and wasting one of the magic 3.  I was so impressed that she was taking the time to investigate me, and not just sticking a needle in, where she felt it should be.

It was not a bad thing that I tried to prepare, it was still an injection, by x-ray guide, into the hip joint and at one point she hit something that sent, like an electric zap, down the side of my leg, which prompted a little more numbing agent.  The pressure points while inserting the needle are, for me, a little like what I imagine a cow feels when a cattle prod is used.  Like a little bitty zap that makes you go ouch, but you can't move, you have a needle in your hip.  I just groaned and figured, if a cow can handle it, I can!  Very soon the needle was in place and the cortisone type meds were injected and it was over.

Dear diary, I will share tomorrow, just how I am doing and give you a little bit of my pain diary, no jealously please, the new diary is strictly for the doctor.

Health and happiness