Surgery

At the beginning of April, I returned to my neurosurgeon to ask if there were any other, non-invasive, options available to me. I'd deferred surgery in October to try chiropractic treatment. I had some good improvement, but then began to regress (and regress badly) after the new year. After needing to use a cane for balance while walking, falling weekly, being unable to type accurately or at speed (which could cost me my job), and losing control of some key bodily functions, I'd had enough. There were too many deficits, too many losses to ignore any more. Yes, I returned to see a surgeon, someone who was probably going to suggest surgery (after all when you're a hammer, everything/evey solution starts to look like a nail). We did neurological testing, which I am familiar with.

I know my body. And I am well-paid to know and evaluate functional limitations and how they are documented. I read medical records daily. I work with medical doctors. And a goodly portion of my caseload has people claiming disability due to spine problems including herniated disks, canal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal column), foraminal stenosis (narrowing of the areas where the nerves exit the spinal cord). I have pretty much all of these problems. The most serious, however, is my herniated disk at C5-6 (cervical vertebra numbers 5 and 6).  The disc ruptured and oozed back, compressing my spinal cord by about 50%.

How do I know this?  Again, I read medical records for a living. I also request copies of the raw MRI data plus the radiologist interpretations. I can read these images. No, not as well as a radiologist, but well enough. And, I mentioned that I know my body. I have numbness in my legs, feet, arms, hands, and part of my torso. It waxes and wanes according to things like barometric pressure. My partners have seen how well I don't walk, can't function. Even my casual friends notice and see how badly I am doing. Work knows my hands don't work well for typing. I had to ask for help and now, for my longer Findings of Fact, I dictate them. And all just see the very tip of the iceberg of all of my symptoms.

Here's is where I bare my shame. I am incontinent. Bladder and bowel. I can't really feel how full my bladder is until it's time to pee, NOW. I can't hold it either. If I start to urinate, there's no way for me to stop. This happens, probably once a day, and has been going on, with a gradual worsening, for months.