Today was my follow up with the spine doctor. I found out about the tumor that was seen on the MRI. Thank God, it’s not a tumor. It’s just a bunch of malformed blood vessels and won’t cause me any trouble at all. On the issue of the stenosis, it’s still not a issue that causes them much concern. While it does, at least from a doctor standpoint, qualify me for disability; I can get better.

Their biggest concern is the symptoms that I continue to have and the pain that just won’t go away. So they’ve decided that there are two other procedures that they are going to try. The first is scheduled for May and it’s an epidural in the areas that they did the ablation in. Yay more needles. The next procedure, which could take a few months to authorize, is called an Intracept procedure. Thankfully, I won’t be going to a neurosurgeon for a while. I still have pretty bad pain some days and some days it is very difficult for me to make it from my bed to my desk, which is like 5 steps away. I’m hoping these two procedures, whenever I have them, do the job and take away the pain. I really want to get back to a normal life.

So, what is an Intracept procedure you may ask? It’s very similar to the ablation that I had done a few short weeks ago. The only difference in this is that they will, first make an incision in my back then burn the nerves in my back at the root. The root of the nerve is in my vertebrae. I will be totally unconscious for this, thankfully. I really don’t want to be awake for them to cut on my back, but whatever is necessary I guess. The next big update will be around May 21 when I have that epidural. Hopefully that will help!

Until next week, my friends!