Very eventful past week

It has been one crazy-busy week! Let's see - last Friday I has the stomach flu which I caught from Dave (who had it on Monday). This as we had planned to head to the Farm to have a garage sale w/ Dad while Mom was in NC on vacation. Well - we did it anyway and last weekend we had a huge 2-day garage sale.

Then on Saturday - Dave knocked down a building on the farm. He was saying, "Well, a funny thing happened."

While milling around in the garage at Mom & Dad's I found the swing Uncle John made and WD enjoyed it for a while on Sunday morning before we went back to town for Day 2 of the sale.

THEN.... we got back and Monday night/Tuesday morning I had horrible pain in my leg from my back. So bad I couldn't really sleep after 3am. I ended up getting into the doctor on Tuesday morning and the ball started rolling. He didn't like some of the symptoms I gave, and he couldn't find a reflex in my right ankle. So he referred me for an immediate MRI at the hospital. He also referred me to the pain clinic in Ankeny the very next day (Wednesday) and told me that pending the results of the MRI I could need surgery, or at least some injections.

Turns out I have another disc herniation at L5-S1. I met with the pain management doctor on Wednesday and he was very nice, and took all the time I wanted to answer my questions, and he felt (and ended up making me feel) very confidant that he would be able to help me.

Thursday at 12:30 Dave drove me to the Mercy Ambulatory Surgery Center for what I totally thought was going to be 2 shots in the back, maybe a little numbness in the leg (hence needing the driver). Well...it was a little different than that...

They actually had me in an operating room, had like 4 nurses and the doctor, and then when I looked to my right - they were x-raying me the entire time to watch where the catheters were in my spine. It was so surreal!!! I looked up and I could see my own IUD - I started laughing - and I'm sure the nurses were thinking "Oh Boy - She should have opted for the sedation." The whole procedure took 20 minutes, and we were on the way home by 2:30. My pain is better, but still there. I still had to take a couple Vicodin last night as I woke up with pretty strong pain at 3 am again.

This is the closest picture to what I saw that I could find. Very similar, but my was of my low back and pelvis, and this is of the neck. But I thought you might get the idea.

This is what they did, term was actually Intraforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection.

This is what Dave and I came home to - Buddy Too will apparently need to be kenneled from now on, and we now have a new home improvement project.

And this - this is just the cutest kid ever - he was in my kitchen this morning. I hear he's got great parents too! :-)