Pardon the delay in posts (though I don't see many of YOU slackers updating your blogs either!) It's been an interested few days, mostly because of the procedures involved in figuring out what's going on in my spine. Last Friday, I had an EMG, a test that consisted of sending powerful electrical shocks down my legs and seeing how many I could take before biting a hole through the pillow--at least that's how it felt! In the same test, they injected a needle with a microphone on it directly into my muscles (12 times, I might add) and asked me to flex whatever muscle it was, using the microphone to hear how loudly I screamed in pain. I kid of course, the microphone was to listen to the muscle fibers "firing", which was pretty neat.

On Monday, I had my MRI, which was a bit unnerving. I'm not claustrophobic by nature, but being slid into a tight, tiny tube while strapped at the waist DID cause my heart to beat a little faster. I was able to relax (I was on my back for 40 mins) and they got good shots. Apparently, about 30% of people can't get their MRIs done in the tubes, since the panic--I can totally understand it. I had to really "mind over matter" it to do well.

Today, I got the prognosis (finally, something less than diagnostic)-- a previous nerve injury healed after I "toughed it out" (Translation: was an idiot) and in the process, developed an arthritic lower back, specifically two bones. The nerve is still clenched between either bone and cartilidge or bone and bone, so tomorrow I get the EXTRA BIG NEEDLE OF PAIN directly into my spine! It's a shot of steroids that does SOMETHING, not sure, to alleviate the pain and get the nerve in the right place.

So wish me luck! If I'm walking around at X-mas, things will have worked nicely!

Posted by James Dziezynski @ 2:49 PM