I have been blessed with many genetic traits, some good, some not-so-good. On the good side, physical characteristics aside, I have a generally pleasant disposition and demeanor, I possess (some have said) superior musicianship (despite not having arrived at Elton John or Billy Joel status - sorry, Eddie, it ain't gonna happen), I tend to look at conflict through the lens of a relatively equal mix of skepticism and optimism, and I tend to be persistent to the point of being annoying to some although I manage to win over the nay-sayers, eventually (that's what persistence is all about, right?). There are more good qualities, but these are the ones that tend to be at play for me most of the time. On the not-so-good traits, I can be stubborn, somewhat hyperdisciplinarian, and I love to eat. I can manage the eating thing, but managing some of the physical traits that I've inherited have proved darned-near impossible. Take my degenerative arthritic (yes, do take it, please!), something I've inherited from my mother's side. It ain't pretty.
My left foot has already seen the surgeon's scalpel, hammer and chisel. The dorsal cheilectomy that I had done back in 1997 was the result of a buildup of matter on the top of my foot that made wearing shoes a painful experience. After that surgery, I was told that I would probably be back for fusion surgery in 8-9 years. Fingers crossed, it hasn't happened yet and it doesn't feel like I'm getting much (if any) buildup there again. Whew!
About 4 years ago, I was more or less forced to exit my university piano technician career due to an arthritic condition in both of my hands. That problem stems from an unfortunate articulation between a couple of the "pebble" bones at the base of my hand. It turns out making fists all day, which is what a piano technician does a lot of when tuning pianos, was what I should have been avoiding. It only took 18 years to figure that out!
So, here we are with another presentation of this accursed hereditary trait. I've occasionally felt a knot in my upper back, especially while I was a student at UC-CCM. After 6-7 hours of piano practice I would have to massage that knot down to ease things. This was before I understood what ibuprofen was for, but it's probably just as well since I probably couldn't have afforded the pills! The same problem plagued me throughout my university piano tech career.
For the last several years, though - even after changing careers, I've had some tingling/ numbness in my left hand pinky finger and thumb. It felt like a pinched nerve and I always thought it was just that muscle problem. The last time I mentioned it to my doc, she suggested physical therapy. I went for three sessions - the first two went well. I figured I was on the right track. At the third session, I told the PT that I'd gotten some tingling in my thumb and my left arm was sore for no apparent reason. She thought maybe it was a pinched nerve, so she set me up with some traction. That seemed to do the trick until I went to bed that evening. When I lay down on my right side, it felt like my left arm erupted into flames. Incredible pain.
Several days later, an MRI showed that my C5-C6 disc is looking a bit squishy, impinging the nerve exiting at that point
Back up a few paces. Why am I suddenly having back problems? I'm pretty sure it comes down to something I did while trying to unclip my left shoe from the clip on my mountain bike. I'd laid the bike down on the grass and, realizing that my left shoe was still clipped in, decided to try raising the bike off of my left leg so I could twist out of the clip. So, I reached down for the crossbar with my left hand and shoved it upward. (My left arm was going across my torso.) It would appear that this move caused the vertebra at C5-C6 to "bite" the nerve coming out of there. There wasn' instantaneous pain, though. It apparently took a bit of time for the swelling to get going, but when it did, OW!
Now, fast forward to surgeon consult #1. He told me that surgery is an option but suggested a posterior procedure (foraminotomy) as an alternative to the more common anterior procedure. #1 didn't spend too much time on the notion of therapy or time. He did mention the steriod injection but as I'd already had a bad experience with one of those, he didn't seem to think I was open to that option.
I saw surgeon #2 about two weeks later. This one said that I'm an excellent candidate for either procedure, but we spent a lot of time talking about alternatives to surgery. Time - he noted that I wasn't complaining about pain as much as I had been several weeks earlier. (I had been able to reduce the amount of pain meds I was taking and while sleeping was difficult for about three and a half weeks, I wasn't having any problems with it now.) #2 speculated that things must be improving with time. He also talked about the steriod injection route. I was pretty nervous about that one, several weeks earlier, but I'd done some reading about the procedure and was now a bit more open to considering that option. #2 also mentioned that physical therapy should be ruled out. Maybe it shouldn't be as aggressive. I got a referral to the U-M Spine Clinic from #2.
My final stop (so far) was the Spine Clinic (SC). That turned out to be an eye-opener. The doctor, there, seems to think that I don't even need to try the injection yet. Rather, she suggests physical therapy and time. She believes that, because I'd been routinely taking NSAIDs, the swelling around the affected nerve has been kept to a minimum. Doing so has apparently allowed the nerve to rest and heal. The SC doc likened my problem to a bruise which, over time, tends to heal itself without much intervention. It's also similar to a scrape; if you have a scrape on your arm, for example, and you keep rubbing against that scrape, it'll stay fresh (and maybe get infected!) for a good, long time. If, however, you minimize contact with the scrape, it heals itself with minimal intervention. She thinks that, if I can keep the swelling down around the nerve and do what I can to strengthen the muscles in the area of the injury, I may be able to avoid even the steroid injection. Wow. I like that, very much.
So, I'm taking my pills and plan to schedule my PT sessions to take place over the next 4-5 weeks. Hopefully, by Christmas, I'll be back to my running routine. Maybe I'll get to run in one last 5K for 2008.
