Last time I posted, I was complaining about the ravages of sciatica (or radiculopathy, as my doctor calls it). Since February I'd been virtually debilitated, walking hunched over with a cane from room to room or not at all, just sitting on my office chair trying to relieve the unrelenting pain.
I consulted a physician in late February who ordered an MRI and then told me my condition warranted "watching" but that I might qualify for a nerve-block epidural down the road if it didn't get better.
Then, I found another physician (and I use that word in jest) who set a blood glucose level of 200 as her arbitrary level before she would administer the epidural. Her scheduler took two weeks to call me with a date. When I arrived for what I hoped would be a pain-relieving treatment, my blood sugar was over 200 and I was turned away. Two weeks later, we tried again, and even though the bgl was only 216, I was turned away again, this time in tears of disappointment.
I consulted with my endocrinologist, who agreed to have his nurse school me in the use of an insulin pen so I could give myself a shot the night before my next epidural appointment, thus guaranteeing a low blood sugar level and the long-awaited injection.
Turned out I was allergic to the type of insulin or an additive in it and was violently ill for six hours and had to cancel the epidural appointment.
But as I tried to rest, I decided it was foolhardy to rely on the strictures of one doctor when pain management practices were plentiful in the area. So my primary care physician gave me the name of one of his personal friends with a pain management practice in Voorhees. I called on a Monday and was seen on Wednesday.
My first epidural (called a transforaminal epidural because of where the medication is injected) was on July 27th. I'm scheduled for the second next week.
During this past month, I've spent virtually pain-free days... shopping, making the bed, cooking dinner, visiting my kids... all the small, everyday things people do when pain isn't ruling their actions. Because there are some hours each day when I feel the pinch of the sciatica just a bit, it was decided a second injection would be of help and I'm happy to do it.
But now I'm beginning to feel like my old self, something I had almost despaired of feeling for those five and a half months when pain was all I knew. I'm driving again... even visited a dear friend today after not seeing her through the pandemic and then through my own personal travails.
Yes, I will never again ignore or underestimate the suffering of friends who live in pain as I did. But I will also add gratitude to that... the thankfulness I have that, for the most part, my days are pain-free. My thanks to Dr. Adam Sackstein and his nurse practitioner, Bill Biskup, for their compassionate, efficient and, best of all, timely care.
