What's happening

Yesterday I saw the second of two neurosurgeons. I had been advised that in such matters as neurosurgery, it's best to seek out at least two opinions. I suppose the good news is that both surgeons said pretty much the same thing: I need surgery, and the sooner the better. I have a severely herniated disk at L5-S1. According to yesterday's doctor, it's about as bad as a herniation gets. It's filling up about half of my spinal column. We joked a bit yesterday with the doctor that I've always been something of an over-achiever and so I wanted to have the very best herniation he'd ever seen. Good for me. Seriously, though, it is, for some reason, helpful to have my pain validated. Yes, this is as bad as this type of pain gets. It really is. So I truly am doing well to not be a wailing pile of mess, and I've been bearing up remarkably well for having been in this condition for several weeks.

Both surgeons are able to get me into surgery on Tuesday. It's not a herniation to mess around with. If they operate soon, there is still a good chance that I could regain full use of that nerve and therefore full use of my right leg which, of course, is important to me. The surgery involves a fairly small (not much larger than an inch) incision in my back. The doctor will then peel the muscles off of the spinal column and keep them retracted and out of the way. Here is where my athletic physique will cost me a bit. If those muscles were weak and atrophied, it would hurt less. Mine, however, are robust and meaty and will HURT. Even so, better to have them hurt than be cut. The doctor will have to drill a little hole in the lamina of my vertebrae in order to get to the nerves, which will be pushed aside, and the disk, the extruded part of which will be cut into pieces and removed. The doctor will then look around with his tools and microscope and make sure he isn't leaving any fragments, and then put in layer upon layer of dissolving stitches and close me up. Done.

I have decided to go with the second doctor, although it was a hard decision because both seemed very good. The second doctor was more thorough in how he spoke to us, although both seemed knowledgable and confident. He also put more emphasis on the non-surgical aspects, like physical therapy, and he already has a connection with the physical therapist I've been seeing and whose professional knowledge I trust. He also was very adamant about the need for an overnight stay in the hospital after the surgery, whereas the other doctor was going to send me home same day. For spine surgery, that seems ambitious. And it's a lot of responsibility to put on Doug. Lastly, he is closer and uses the hospital that is only two miles from our house.

So that's the plan: surgery on Tuesday, home on Wednesday, beginning a gradual walking plan in the first week (walks measured in minutes at first) and physical therapy after the second week. I have a few more days of this kind of pain, a few days of surgical pain, and then I should start to see the pain go down. I almost cannot imagine life without pain. I'm willing to try it.