Tuesday, May 20, 2008

MRI was this morning

I had a cervical MRI this morning. I won't have any results until the doctors appt next Thursday.

I had a Toradol shot last week and started the medrol dosepack this week. The shot helped my low back but not my neck. The medrol hasn't made any difference.

Severe neck pain continues. Its actually a burning now at the back of my neck. And it has moved into the sides and front of my neck which I would describe as a strain. I have a lot of "popping" in my shoulder and hips whenever I move.

Will update after dr. appt next week.

2 comments:

Douglas Bullard said...

Cheyrl, I just found your blog - I went through the cervical experience, cumulating in a 2-level ADR by Dr. B in November 2007.

My blog entries for this are at: http://nurflugel.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

Also, a web page: http://nurflugel.com/Home/Pro-Spine/pro-spine.html

And, if you're really into it, pictures from the whole thing: http://www.nurflugel.com/Home/pictures/2007-11-21_Straubing_Germany/index.html

I've found the same problem you have - doctors I talked to here are unwilling to even talk to me (don't even return phone calls!) after I was operated on elsewhere. Very disillusioning, and in my opinion, unprofessional.

Good luck on your recovery - mine's been pretty good (cervical is much easier than lumbar), but as Dr. Fenk-Meyer put it "We replaced two of your disks - we didn't make the others young again".

Douglas Bullard

Douglas Bullard said...

Hmm, the URL is getting hacked off. Here it is split onto two lines:

http://www.nurflugel.com/Home/pictures/
2007-11-21_Straubing_Germany/index.html

Or, try my Flickr page (also split onto two lines) at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
douglasbullard/sets/72157603837423917/

I just saw an ENT guy today because my voice has been a little rough since surgery (but steadily getting better, common problem with cervical surgery, no harm done), he said Dr. B did nice work on the incision. Always nice to hear that - especially from a guy who does plastic surgery (he did make a gripe about neurosurgeons always making vertical incisions when horizontal ones would work just as well and are cosmetically much nicer).

I'm definitely going to need to find someone to treat me in the future - if you take a look at my frontal X-rays, you'll see my neck curves sideways. It's done so for at least 10 years (from pictures I can see), but it's causing problems, and I need to find out what I can do to minimize them. Joy...