I went to see my primary physician. We didn't even get to talk about my shoulder or my knee. She's quite concerned with my lack of mobility and lack of improvement in my back. She wanted me to get straight over to the hospital's radiology department to get a full set of x-rays, and she scheduled me for an MRI at 8:30 am (so I came into work early, and have to leave soon). I've got an appointment with a spine specialist on Tuesday afternoon.
She said that I absolutely MUST lose weight. If I don't she sees my limited mobility getting worse because of my degenerative discs. She said she wants me to do 30-60 minutes of stretching morning and night, and do some kind of cardio, preferably water aerobics, 5 days per week. She'd like me to do water aerobics or swimming every day if possible, but the recumbent bike at the gym is probably also ok. And she told me that walking is not a good exercise for me right now due to my back problems.
Oddly enough, according to the chiropractor's xrays my cervical spine is more messed up than my lumbar, but I don't really have any intense pain there, just low back, hips and legs. As for how much of the chiropractor costs the insurance covers...zero. I have Kaiser insurance and they don't have any chiropractors in their medical group. But they do have acupuncturists and my doc has referred me to one for an initial evaluation.
As suspected, the spine specialist confirmed that I have a bulging lumbar disc at L4-L5 which is pinching a nerve, and he said that I have "nerve clumping" in my spinal column. Which is where, in most people, the nerves have plenty of room to flow freely...some of mine are clumped together. I haven't done a lot of research on this yet, but he said that and the pinched nerve were the causes of my pain. He strongly suggested an epideral injection (which is a combination of lidocaine to numb and steroid to relieve the swelling and pain). Over the past year, I have spoken to many people in my physical therapy back class and in water aerobics and they had great relief from the epidural.
It's just a stop-gap measure. It will wear off in a few months to a year. He said the best think I can do to alleviate my pain is lose a significant amount of weight (same thing my primary physician said). He happens to be one of the two Medical Directors of the Opti-Fast program for my medical group, and he highly recommends it. He said they he has seen tremendous success in both losing weight and keeping it off...including countless people who have lost 100+ lbs. I told him that I was considering it and also considering bariatric surgery. He said that my medical group requires that people lose at least 10% of their body weight prior to bariatric surgery, and many people choose Opti-Fast as a way to do that. In fact he's seen numerous people cancel their bariatric surgery because of the tremendous success they had with Opti-Fast. Opti-Fast also includes weekly group support and frequent blood tests to monitor everything.
So the good news is that now I have possible ways to help alleviate the pain short-term and long-term. I was talking with B who is disabled due to a cancerous nerve sheath tumor he had removed from his leg nearly a year ago. They had to cut through all the muscle and because he's diabetic the wound still hasn't healed. He told me that I might have to accept that I might have to live with this limited mobility for the rest of my life, and I told him that I'm not willing to go there. His situation is different from mine. None of my muscle tissue has been compromised. The doctors say I'll do better if I lose the weight, so that's what I have to do.
I'm going to an informational meeting about Opti-Fast on Saturday morning, and I'm trying to get registered for an informational meeting about bariatric surgery.
I understand these are both extreme measures and I know that they both require drastic lifestyle changes. I've been talking extensively to people who have done both with great success, and I'm aware that unless I stick with proper eating it's very easy to gain it all back. I'm just not willing to live in pain or to have my mobility limited any longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment