Re: Re: Thursday appointment

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I was supposed to have this appointment today to get the ball rolling on

getting to a specialist for my back pain, but my primary care physician

called in sick today. I was pretty disappointed, but I guess it will

give me a little more time to get my ducks in a row in regards to my

surgery records. It's been a bit of a hassle to get those. I am still

working on it. The records dept. seems a bit rude with me.

As for a Michigan specialist, I contacted SpineUniverse.com which

directed me to inquire for a referral from Dr. Bridwell. I was given 2

Michigan Specialists, one of which trained under Dr. Bridwell. Dr.

Bridwell's staff member was very kind. So, anyway, now I have a couple

of specialists to recommend to my primary care physician as referrals.

I appreciate all the support from this group. I think I'd still be

feeling sorry for myself but doing nothing about it (except indulging in

chocolate to make me feel better!) if it weren't for your encouragement.

I was overwhelmed at the beginning of this, but you are right when you

say that knowledge is power. Having more information about my condition

has helped me deal with the emotions of it all.

By the way, I had an interesting encounter at the grocery store

yesterday. An older gentleman (I'd say late 60s or 70s) had only a few

groceries so I let him go ahead of me. He said he was grateful, and his

invalid wife would be grateful, too, since she doesn't like him gone for

long. I asked him what she was dealing with. She'd had a couple of

strokes, but worse than that, she was dealing with a lot of pain. The

only thing that helped her was sitting on ice packs. I told him he had

my sympathy, that I could feel for her on the pain issue, but I was more

sorry for her since at least I thought something might be able to be done

about mine. He said she'd been told she could have avoided all of this

pain if she'd have had surgery as a teen. I asked if she had scoliosis

then. She did. So, on one level I could tell him that surgery did not

altogether preclude having pain, since I had the surgery as a teen and

have pain anyway. On another level, I was encouraged to think of all the

good years I did have without too much pain, and that if I hadn't had

surgery I might have been an invalid like she was. So it was pretty

crazy to run into someone like this just at this time in my life. It was

in a way encouraging.

I hope is doing well. She is supposed to have the 2nd stage of the

surgery today, right?

Diane VDW

(Michigan)

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