August 3, 2004

• I'm Back to Back Problems

  When I went in for my regular quarterly appointment, I told Dr. G about my back problems of several weeks back. He was concerned that a bulging disk might cause a pinched nerve and later nerve damage, so he sent me to X-ray after doing a quick exam of his own. His exam involved moving my legs to a lot of unusual positions to see what made my back hurt.

  If I just stood there and leaned forward slightly, he said he could see the muscles in all of my lower back go into spasms. It must have been a fascinating sight. He did it a couple of times.

  I can't use NSAIDs (Non-Steroid Anti-Inflamitory Drugs) because of my tendency to bleed internally, so Dr. G provided me with a prescription for some heavier stuff, Darvocet. I hoped I wasn't going to need it.

  Down at X-ray, they put me through a series of contortions in order to shoot my hips and lumbar spine. They used to ask my weight before starting, but this time they didn't ... so I asked why. The technician explained that they weren't supposed to use their machines on anybody over 300 pounds (I am close to 320) because it tends to burn out the primary tube in the machine, which is very old.

  Anyway, when we finished I knew I was going to need the pain killer.

  I walked back down the hill to my car, which I had parked in the Grossmont Center Mall parking structure rather than in the medical center parking structure. About four months ago, the owners of the medical center had installed a gate on their parking structure and were charging $2 per average visit to park there. Some doctors were validating tickets, others weren't, and it was costing over $1,000 per month per doctor to validate tickets for their patients. Nobody was happy. I chose to park free a quarter mile away and get some healthy exercise walking up the hill to visit my doctors.

  By the time I filled the prescription at Costco and got home, my back was killing me. I had to take a pain killer right away, then another before retiring to sleep. I felt like taking a third one at 3:45 but decided to tough it out. Unfortunately, this decision meant I woke up much earlier than I had intended, at 7:45 instead of at 9:00.

  There were several times during the day that I was tempted to take a pill, but I refrained. I'll probably need at least one to sleep.

  Dr. G called me about 90 minutes ago, after getting the results from the X-rays. He says my arthritis has spread. The lumbar region is all fully involved now and it has spread into the thoraxic region. He wants me to get X-rays of the thoraxic region and is asking my insurance to approve an MRI of my entire back and hips.

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