I have had a herniated disk (well, a couple actually, but only one that's currently causing a lot of trouble) for almost a year now. It was bad, got better, then at the beginning of last December got much worse. I have been thru therapy, oral steroids, epidural cortisone shots, etc. Nothing seems to be working, so it's time to get out the knife.
I am currently on more opiates than House. The big difference between me and House, tho, is that he's a fictional charcter and doesn't actually feel pain.
I, on the other hand, still hurt like h3ll. Hopefully that will be all over in a few hours. Well, mostly over anyway, as I've been told there has probably been nerve damage and there will be residual pain/tingling/numbness from that for quite some time. But it should be much better than it is now.
I'm not sure what the recovery time will be like. I can't come back to work for 2 weeks. I'm not supposed to sit for more than 30 min at a time. At the moment, sitting is very painful and I'm lucky to get 10 min in a chair before the pain becomes too severe. That would be why I haven't been on LAVA much -- it's hard to type when you're walking around.
This is a routine procedure (for my surgeon, anyway
) and if all goes well I should be back home tonite. Keep your fingers crossed for me!Cat
