Keepin' a Little Spice In My Dr's Life

You know how when you get sick or diagnosed or have some new ailment, your first thought is to google it?  Or WebMD it?  Well, I have been practicing some major self control and since I first found out that the past 4 years of back pain were really because of something (and they might be able to do something about it)...I haven't googled a thing!  I do have a few family members and friends in the medical field and so I've been picking their brains a bit, but I've been relying on doctors (more than one and I have been fact checking along the way).  It has given me a much higher sense of confidence in decisions, my own and my drs', and it has made me feel secure in my treatment plan.  That treatment plan includes x-rays, MRIs, injections, nerve studies, medication, stimulation, physical therapy, etc.

If anyone ever says to you, we need to schedule you for a nerve study - RUN AWAY! 

Do you know what that is?  I didn't.  I went in there blind people!  They put all kinds of electrodes on my arms and then shocked me with a prong and measured the reaction.  Not pleasant, but ok.

Then, they stuck needles in my arms near my nerves and made me move around and again measured the reaction.  Not cool.  Let's take a sidebar:

When I was about 7 or 8 Super Mom was hanging out laundry, leaving the super kids in the house.  Super Man thought it was hilarious to snap me with the kitchen towel.  This was not my idea of a good time and so I went to hide behind the fridge door.  In the process, I hit my knee off of the door.  Next thing I know, I am laying on the kitchen floor with Hit Girl trying to wake me up while Super Man went to find Super Mom.  Fast forward through the next 20 years or so and I've passed out from hitting my elbow on a door, turning my ankle, getting too hot in church, for no reason at dinner, etc.  Probably all in all about 30 times.  I always joke that I'm lucky natural selection has kinda been phased out by technology because if I was in a group being chased by a predator and I twisted my ankle jumping over a log or something, I would be TOAST! Hopefully those zombies only have movement vision like the T-rex from Jurassic Park and can't see me all passed out on the ground! 

So, I'm just hanging out joking with the dr about how fun this all was and all of a sudden, I start to feel it.   All hot and fuzzy and stuff is starting to get dark.  I say, "Uh Oh, I'm not feeling well....I'm going to pass out....". Apparently I'm unconscious for the entire last nerve test, almost fall out of the chair I was sitting in (think jacked up salon chair).  I wake up and the rolling cart with the computer is across the room, I'm missing a shoe, and the dr is leaning over me smacking my face.  The dr and the nurse looked FREAKED and I'm all sweating and cold and weird...like I'm coming back to earth through a puddle of jell-o.  

I am joking about it and apologizing left and right - telling them this happens all the time and trying to convince them not to call 911.  

I then wait in the chair for over 30 minutes before they will even let me sit up while they get a fan, an ice-pack, check my oxygen levels, and my blood pressure about a hundred times.

Turns out, I have carpal tunnel in my left hand and also they confirmed that I do have inflammation around the C6 and C7.  So....we proceed as planned.

Over 3 hours after my appointment, I pull into my driveway and give my dr a check-in call to let them know I made it home safely....what a night!