Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Nerve Blocker


Great name for a band, right?

My band. When I start one.

The photo is of my lower back and a needle shooting Cortisone into my vertebrae this afternoon. Which I scammed from the x-ray thing he used to do me. That slightly visible shadow at the end of the needle is his finger...

Turns out that when I went in to see Dr. SCHOTTENSTEIN (his real name) today for a follow-up to my first nerve block epidural 10 days ago, he decide to give me TWO MORE.

One in the side of the 4th lumbar nerve hole thingy and one more in the 5th...

Surprise!

What I told him was this:

"I think the first nerve block dealt with the spasming pain down my left leg that was keeping me from caring about life in the 95% successful range. I still feel tingling and "heaviness" in my left leg, but most importantly, my gait has changed."

He said, "Your gait has changed?"

And I said:

"Yeah, it's weird. I don't walk like myself anymore. I walk like someone else. My left foot falls oddly. Sorta like if I woke up after being hit in the head, or came out of Jeff Goldblum's "The Fly" molecular descrambler chamber with someone else's leg. It's weird."

And he said:

Well, you know what he said.

This was local. Novacaine in my back. I needed to be able to tell him when he HIT THE NERVE. He rooted around a little ("feel anyhing?") and when he did and I did, he shot it full of Cortisone. Which tingles from your ass all the way down your toes for about 5 seconds...and not a good tingle...

Here's the deal:

He's blocking the nerves with steroids, which (and I have no idea how) prohibits them from sending pain messages to my brain.

I gotta Google that shit...or at least Wiki it...

I've got a 5% Lidocaine prescription patch on my back right now and it's all I can do to sit upright and type this and order some Chinese food, which is on the way (oh, it's here!)

The promise is to be better.

BETTER.

10 comments:

Chip Willis said...

dude, that Xray made me cringe, but all I can think about was our conversation today!

one of my favorite episodes of the orignal star trek was the one with the Empath, and what she did for bones. If I could take some of your pain away, I would. I think you will be in good hands with the Doc.

Take it easy and relax for the next few days.

I am glad they are able to treat this so you can get your ass out and take photos! and be JMG!

I will be consulting here and there man!

You are awesome!

God, I am still so excited!
Exclamation points galore!

hehe!

Anonymous said...

"Dr. Schottenstein" is also a good name for a band. Pretty much anything with "stein" tacked on the end would be, in fact--Nervenstein, Blockensten, Jamesenstein, Grahamenstein, etc.

I'm so sorry you're still out of whack, honey; I hope this shit works.

Anonymous said...

sending you major pain-relieving and healing vibes sweetness...

Calliope said...

:( Ouch!!! Get better soon James!

Lela said...

Ya know... you can just ask for a copy of the x-ray. No need to stash 'em! I've got a ton with 2 wood screws about 3 inches long in my tibia. I understand better then you think what you're going through! I hope you're feeling much better very soon. And, if I can answer any questions for ya, I'd be glad to. I'm pretty good at the medical stuff.
Big, but gentle hugs to you my dear! REST!
:)

dfklldoind said...

James,

Wicked Xray....damn..

bt

Tanya said...

i think this is an awesome entry, I can just see you now, your gears clicking and premeditating to get hat x-ray,n likeif you have to deal with all this fucking pain, the least they can do is give you a cool x-ray as a souvinear,lol. WHen you say Gait, the first thing i thought of was a show dog, and how they are judged on their Gait, btw you usually walk a little airy, like as if you had invisible air cushions in your shoes that gave you a little soft bounce. I invision your Doctor, like the little German guy on THE BURBS movie with Tom Hanks back in the 80's, let me IMDB him now.....HENRY GIBSON! lol
Now when i recall you crunching in spots way too tight just for the perfect shot, i feel guilty, had i knows it was that bad, well you know..

Tanya

Lin said...

When I was sixteen I had a cortisone injection in my spine, much the same as yourself.
I had similar problems regarding movement. In fact it damn near paralysed me, and I was in a huge amount of pain.
The docs' solution? Inject some more, chuck in some steroids and hope for the best!
Eventually they discovered that I was allergic to cortisone.
I was off-school and laid up for six months.
Be careful James. These doc's often know less than we do...

Anonymous said...

ouch!!! U poor thing! I'm so sorry you have to go through this crap! Back pain is horrible!!! I hope you get some relief soon. Poop.

Anonymous said...

that looks like a "bad touch."