Joe's BodyBlog

Surgery Confirmed

jdonyx — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:55:30 +0000

I have been to 2 Neurosurgeons this week and my impending back surgery is now confirmed. So over the past 4 years I have had 4 surgeries and only 1, my Lasik was cosmetic. All of them have been orthopedic in nature. The fact that I am having a Neurosurgeon do this surgery is because of everything I have read about disk surgery and from people I know who have had it done, and they all said that this is to be done by a Neuro. I am not messing around with my back and spinal column and my nerves on this one. It looks like the month of September will be a tough one for me, they recommend 3-4 weeks off for this, then I will be slowly working my way back. At least this is a "smaller" procedure then what back surgery used to be in the past, instead of making a huge open cut in my back, they will make a much smaller incision through the muscle (instead of stripping the muscle away from my spine) to get to the disk that is pushing on my spinal nerve. They will cut away the portion of the disk to lessen the pressure on my nerve. They said that almost immediately when I wake up I will feel less pain in my back and less pain in my leg. It will take the nerve some time to heal from the disk damage, but there is a pretty high success rate for this surgery helping with my pain and my issue.

The recovery is going to suck though. I can’t ride in a car for two weeks post-op, so that means I will be house bound except for my ride home after the surgery. With my separation from my wife, that puts me in a bind to have some help around the house, so that issue needs to be worked out. Then I will still have about 4-6 weeks more of post op recovery to deal with, mostly PT and trying to get back to work. Thank god I ave good family (my side) and friends, other wise I would be screwed, ordering take out just to get some hot meals…

My biggest issue is going to be to eat clean as much as possible initially after the surgery. I have a tendency to a little lazy and decide to eat junk. At this pace I won’t get my abs by 40, but damn it surgery and all, I am going to get close. Once I recover from this, I am going to be single so I have to look good and feel good so I can see what life is like…………. ugh .

Back Surgery here we come!

jdonyx — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:20:44 +0000

So it looks like I am going to have to have back surgery! Yuck!! My disk at L4/L5 has herniated more, it went from 4 mm last November 2007 to 8 mm in the July 2008 and it is pinching the nerve root. That explains all of the leg pain I have been having. I am very unhappy about this development. It is going to take me a few weeks to get everything set up, meeting a neurosurgeon, picking the date of surgery and getting my benefits set up, so I don’t know when it will occur yet, but most likely very late August early September. It will be a nice 40th birthday for me… Maybe I will get abs by 41…

Keep on fighting!

jdonyx — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:36:21 +0000

So this week has been interesting for me. I haven’t worked out at all. My back has been so pain full I am lucky to get up in the morning. My wife and I separated on Saturday (she moved out..) and we signed the paperwork today. In NC, separation agreements have to be notarized to be legal documents, so since we wrote it ourselves and we are hoping to reconcile, we had to get it signed by a notary. The funny thing is, since Saturday and with the document finished we have been getting along great. We are actually acting like nothing has changed between us. We both feel it must be because the stress has lowered after 4+ months of arguments. Only time will tell if we work things out. I honestly hope we do, I admit it I still love my wife.

Anyhow, back to the subject - Keep on fighting. So I had my second MRI on my back this past week, two chiropractors appointments (a third tomorrow), a Dr’s appointment today to go over my High Blood Pressure readings, and Friday I am having a Nerve test done to see if the disk issues have caused any problems with nerve damage. Somewhere in all of this I have to work… But it will be interesting to see what the second MRI shows in regards to my back. My Dr’s (yes plural) think that the L4/L5 disk has migrated and that is why I am having so much pain in my right leg. They want me to try and keep working out in the meantime, but with my personal life and the pain I am having, it has been really hard to get motivated. After the nerve test on Friday, I will most likely schedule a nerve block procedure for next week to help with the pain management. Then I get to go to a neurosurgeons consult!! I am trying to avoid surgery at all costs, but as I was told today, it just might be the best option for me. I just don’t want to go under the knife AGAIN! UGH!

So in the meantime I am trying to keep on fighting and working out. I know mornings suck for me, so I just have to get up and get moving, then workout in the after noon/ early evening. Heck I am single now so I don’t have to adhere to anyone’s schedule except my own.. if mornings didn’t suck so much I would do HIIT Cardio work at the house since I have a treadmill. It’s not like I would be bothering anyone, my wife even took the cat with her. Ok enough of feeling sorry for myself!

Lost 1 inch

jdonyx — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:15:07 +0000

Too bad it is in my height! Yup, you read that correctly. Since 2 of my disks have been so compressed I have lost 1 inch in height. I used to be 5′ 11", yesterday when I went to the Doctor for a "second" opinion on dealing with my back I was measured at 5′ 10". They told me the see this often with people who have more then 1 disk causing issues in the spine. I had heard about this happening to people, but damn this sucks! They said that there are people who stretch themselves back out again, but with the pain I am having these days it will be kind of hard. I am having Sciatica pain in my right leg now. It is constant and about an 8 or 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. They have suggested I try a nerve block next to help with the pain. But before they will do the block they want an updated MRI because they feel that one of the disk (probably L4/L5 based on my symptoms) is pushing against the nerves. They want to isolate that area with the nerve block so I can get to be pain free, calm the nerve and then calm the muscles in my right side (Erector Spine, Glutes, and Hamstrings). The issue is, this doctor couldn’t get an MRI for me until the end of August, I am not waiting a month to get help. The nerve issues only started 2 weeks ago, but I was traveling for work and couldn’t get in to see another doctor until I got back. I really wanted an opinion about Spinal Decompression, and boy did I get it. The Doctor I spoke with told me he hasn’t read any studies that have him convinced the therapy works. Makes me uncomfortable about going forward with the decompression, but in the meantime I have to do something for the pain, besides Vicoden every 5-6 hours .

The one thing they told me is that they were glad to hear I keep working out!! They said they feel I would be worse off if I didn’t work out. So that was good to hear! Tomorrow will be another day!

Lastly, they said I have to get my stress level down. My BP was 151/90 and this is not the first time is has bee that high. My impending separation from my wife is causing me lots of stress and adding to my health problems. Another benefit to working out!

Damn Back again…

jdonyx — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:16:14 +0000

So tomorrow I am going back to my new dr. I am probably going to start doing spinal decompression soon. I haven’t yet spoken to my wife about it, but I have to change my health for the better, not sure how much of a vote she has anyway since we are separating. Tomorrow I will find out what will be involved. I am still working out regardless of how I feel. Being in pain, a lot of pain everyday is draining me. Add to that the fact that my wife is moving out in two weeks… Of course none of this stopped me from breaking 100 yesterday playing Golf!! Not a good golfer so I was happy to break 100.

Cheat Meals!!!!!

jdonyx — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:37:17 +0000

So I follow a very clean diet, but I have to have cheat meals! Out of the 42 (6 meals per day by 7 days) meals I eat each week, I allow myself 3-4 cheat meals. I don’t like doing all of them in one day. For me that doesn’t work, because I binge eat and cause myself more problems after my cheat day is done. So instead I work cheat meals in for 1 of my six in a day, but I try not to have them on back to back days. Every once and a while I do, but for the most part I keep them spaced apart so I don’t crave them more often. For example this week, Wednesday’s nights are golf night, so I know I will most likely drink a few beers and after golf when we go to dinner I usually will have something bad for dinner. So this past week, I had Chicken Wings at Wild Wing Cafe, and they tasted great. I of course know they are horrible for me. But I got them out of my system and I won’t eat them again in a long time. Then on Thursday I had a little desert after my lunch (Hersey’s bar with Almonds). Again, I got it out of my system, I won’t have anything like that for weeks now. It is a moderation thing, since I know my eating habits can go very bad very quick, so this keeps me in check.

The good news from all of this, I am down 2 pounds! From 185 to 183! My cut is going in the right direction.

New Dr. New approach for my back…

jdonyx — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:25:55 +0000

So I decided to try a new dr. for my back. I don’t want surgery and I am getting sick of the muscle relaxers and pain killers. Acupuncture, Chiropractic care and Modern Medicine haven’t really helped. Well not entirely true, Acupuncture has helped a lot but the way my insurances works with it, I have to get reimbursed for it and it takes 6 weeks to get my money back. So if I go once a week to help my back that is a lot of money out of pocket before I get anything back. This new dr. is a Chiropractor, but he takes a different approach. I told him my adjustments weren’t holding and he feels he knows why and said he would include that in the treatment plan for me. He also gave me a suggestion as to how I can relieve the pain that I have going down my leg. He said the curve in my lower spin is gone, so all of the force and weight of my upper body is putting stress on my lower spine. If you look at any pictures of a spine, it has a curve going into the sacrum (hips), mine doesn’t. I am to put a foam roller under my low back and prop my legs up and let gravity do it’s thing for 20 minutes. This will relax the muscles and allow my spine to get back to it’s natural alignment. Nobody ever suggested that to me before, but it makes sense. I did it last night and by the end of 20 minutes I was in lots of pain… my muscles were spasming like crazy, but once I removed the roller I felt so much better. I also did my inversion table yesterday for a while after I did a cardio workout and it felt great. Hopefully this will be fix for me. This dr. also does the spinal decompression therapy, but since he knows it isn’t covered he doesn’t push it on people. The last guy I went to was too much of a salesmen for this. It turned me off because it seemed like he didn’t really listen to my health issues. I have to go back next week to see what the new dr. wants to do to treat me. I like my other Chiropractor but I don’t think he is really helping me, only because he is set in the way he is treating me and I am not improving. We will see what happens next.

Getting Separated / Maybe divorced

jdonyx — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:54:31 +0000

OK, so I have been getting reminders from bodyblog about keeping myself current with my blog. If you couldn’t tell by the title, I have had my reasons for not keeping it up. After 8 years of marriage my wife has decided she needs space because she isn’t happy. I am of course upset by this news, it has been a long time coming if I think about it. I am not about to air all of my dirty laundry on this post, but I had to get it off my chest since it will make it more real and I am in disbelief at the moment. Trust me I understand that our life together is not everything it could be, but separating to me isn’t the answer, it just creates more problems. But I can’t stop her, so I have to let her go.

Honestly, I am doing ok with the news. We couldn’t go on the way that we were. She was miserable and so was I. My issues with my back were only making things worse for me, my overall health was declining as well. It was a good thing that I continued to workout or I would probably have had a heart attack.. Seriously! My blood pressure was through the roof (157/98) at it’s worst. It has come back down now that I am at peace with the decisions we have made to separate. Now we just need to work out the details which I am hoping won’t get ugly. The wife has laid out her "plan" which is a little unrealistic, but I am not arguing with her about it right now, I will let the mediator/lawyer show her that info later. If I bring it up now it will not get received well. I just want to protect my emotional, Financial and physical health now. I have to look out for myself. I can’t worry about her anymore, since she doesn’t worry about me. I am getting a raw deal here, but I understand where it is coming from. The bad part is I am starting to not want to be with her at all anymore even though I acknowledge I still love her.

So I am dedicating my life to my own health and well being now. I am breaking my bad workout habits and committing myself to my "Abs by 40" goal. I have to do this for my emotional health, but more for my health in general. The back issues have improved the more I work out. Plus losing 15 lbs and 4.5 inches off my stomach helped a lot. Now I just need to keep it up. I have messed around with different workouts, but I haven’t created a plan and stuck to it. So that is next. Especially since I don’t have to take her into account anymore with my planning, which I used to do. But no more. I might just go back to my Body For Life workout schedule for a while. It is a good schedule for me, and I did my best while I was dedicated to it.

The odds are against my wife and I getting back together, the statistics say %80 of couples that separate from their marriage get divorced, but my hope is that we are in the %20 percent that work things out. Our lives together have bucked the statistics already so there might be hope.

Latest Back News………….

jdonyx — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Yesterday I had my follow up to my last epidural injection, and the news was not good, mixed is the best adjective I could give it. My strength is returning, but I am "presenting" differently on my symptoms. My pain is different and my muscle tightness is a cause for concern. When I got the epidural injections the Doctor was treating me specifically for the disk at L5/S1 since those symptoms were worse and my MRI showed more "inflammation" in that area (as much as can be seen on a MRI), so he focused on that. Now I am symptomatic with issues in the L5/L4 region. The steroids were supposed to help both disk areas, but since my primary complaints told them to focus on the L5/S1 disks that is what they did. I was told that the injection site makes a difference on which disk they treat, which makes sense. So now since I am in pain everyday, my back is always in spasm and my symptoms are different they want to take a different course of action with me. I am going to do a Nerve study, they are little concerned that I might have some damage in the L5/L4 region of my nerves since my back and hamstrings will not relax!

My Doctor told me he was encouraged by my strength returning and I should be commended on working hard for that. Which was encouraging to say the least. But he also said he wants to get my records to a neurosurgeon for a consult, not for surgery per se, but to make sure we are treating my back properly. That to me said that I have picked the right Doctor since he isn’t afraid to get help to take proper care of me. Of course since I drink with this guy at the NHL Hockey games he knows me on a personal level and understands I have a deep appreciation for "second opinions" and that I am an informed patient, what else would I expect.

He also gave me a Tens machine. It is meant to help reduce the spasms in my back by shocking the muscles. I can also use it on my hip and hamstrings to help them loosen up as well. Damn thing cost $800, so I am not sure if my insurance is going to cover it, so I haven’t opened it yet, in case I have to return it. But $800 for that thing is better then surgery… I will have to wait and see. I also got a script for Muscle relaxers so that I can help my body chemically… which I don’t like to do, but I am desperate to change what is going on.

So now here is all I am doing to treat this issue. Chiropractic Care to loosen the muscles in the lower back, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, Stretching, Yoga, Pilates, Working out, eating right and clean and taking medication, using an Inversion table at least daily, if not 2 times a day.

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to get some other opinions. I am seriously looking into Spinal Decompression, but I just don’t have the cash since insurance doesn’t cover it. Although I found another DC that says some of the decompression treatments (or aspects of it) are covered lowering my over all out of pocket expense. Heck I might just have to start waiting tables again as a second job, just to pay for my back getting healthy. It wouldn’t be so bad to do it, I have worked 2 jobs most of my life, but it would suck to have all of that money being spent before I make it. I am also going to a neurosurgeon on my own to get an opinion. I want a completely fresh perspective on what I should be doing. I trust my Doctor, but this is my health and I am not improving, so it is time to look at everything as a whole to make sure I am taking the best care of myself that I can.

Need for competition!

jdonyx — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:48:03 +0000

As an ex athlete who has had many injuries and is still recovering from them, I figured out something about myself the other day. I have a need for competition. Big or small it doesn’t really matter, I need to compete. If it is against myself, time or other people I just like to compete. I miss it. It motivates me and helps me to bring out my best qualities. How did I realize this tidbit about myself, it was from a conversation I had with my wife. With my back slowly healing I told her I wanted to run in a 5k sometime soon, just to do it, not really for time or anything, but just because my body has been through some much in the form of injuries I thought running in a 5k might help me to feel like I have accomplished a goal. Her response was , You should do it, and I will too, so I can beat you! Well that was it, the challenge was on. By the way, she will most likely beat me, but that isn’t what matters to me. I want to do well for myself. 3.1 miles is not a long race, but a respectable time is what I am looking for. Right now, since I have just started training, I am not sure what that respectable time will be, or should be, but in a few weeks I should be able to figure that out. Of course my back is a concern, but my doctor feels I can do this, so I am just working myself in slowly. Road running is a lot different then running on the tread mill. Your body can take a pounding, so I want to get myself into it the right way. The race is Labor Day weekend so I have plenty of time to train and get myself back into it. Lookout…