I saw my spine NP today and came out with some new interesting info and one a very annoying revelation.
The annoying part. Either NM Orthopaedics didn't submit the records request from my dr's in IN, which I've asked & saw them fill out & who have told me 3xs they did. They being the front desk lobby folks. Or, my hospital network in IN, never followed thru even though they said they received the request. All this has been going on since Jan and yet it wasn't until today
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that my NP tells me, after I told her that I thought the Branch Block & RFA procedure I had last year, was to treat my sacroiliac joint pain, "I have no idea. I only have what you've told me." Turns out she's never seen all the spinal treatments, tests, and procedures I've had since 2018. 😡 Fucking hell.
Soooo, needless to say, any future treatments are now on hold until she gets those records.
I'm left trying to understand why almost 7 months on, my records haven't been
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but this "I have no idea because I've never seen your past records..oh and yeah I've been seeing you since end of Dec." WTF
*grumble*
On to the interesting part.
I don't have sciatica. Apparently, sciatica is pain that radiates down the back of the leg, from the back. What I'm experiencing is called Radiculopathy. Sounds like something out of Harry Potter. 😏
I've never had pain going down the back of my leg. It's always been from the right side of my spine to the right
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hip and down the side and front of my right leg to the knee. What could be, probably is, causing the numbness in my front and side thigh when I've been sitting for longer than 10 minutes, is a condition called Meralgia paresthetica. One of the top contenders for causing this problem? Obesity. Yay.
The great news is that one of the disc fractures has healed!! I didn't even realize this was possible.
So, if you're still reading all this blabbering, you win a hug from me! 😂
And a hug to you!
@see_the_sus I’ve lived with chronic back pain for about a decade after I had a disc rupture and send me to emergency surgery and I still think that is soooooo fucked up. No one knows what it’s really like and it’s different every day. I feel your pain and you deserve credit for sharing. It’s hard.
♥️ Thank you.
I had a dream last night where I was with a friend and we leave my apartment and are walking somewhere when I realize I'm walking fairly well. A slight imbalance but not much else. And then I realize I'm not using my cane and I exclaimed, "What the hell is wrong with me? What is going on?"
I don't know whether to interpret this as awesome for the lack of cane or sad that I immediately thnk something is wrong with me because I'm walking ok. 
@see_the_sus is funny because I had a similar dream. I was 18 again and my coach told me to go in. As I’m jogging onto the field I stop, turn around and tell the coach I can’t run anymore and even trying might lay me out for a week. I want to take it as me recognizing I’m not that person anymore, but there’s a little voice that says “you can’t even play in your dreams”.
Uuuuugh. That's sooo uncool of the Universe to end your dream that way. 😞
@see_the_sus for what it’s worth, that sounds like a happy dream to me. If my pain suddenly disappeared or if I regained feeling on the soles of my feet I would definitely freak out.
Well, this is the weird thing. Rarely in my dreams am I disabled. I've had a few where I'm in physical pain but most of them I'm walking around doing stuff without the recognition I'm disabled in real life. Granted most of my dreams aren't the rosy rainbow Teletubby kind but I've never stopped in the middle of one and had a recognition that I "should" be disabled and "what's wrong with me?" comment. That's what pisses me off the most because IRL I talk to myself this way. 😞
@see_the_sus I get it now! The brain is a funny thing. Let’s cross our fingers that next time you go right back to your “normal” dreams. But I still think it’s a sign of the good kind of acceptance.
@see_the_sus What is up with IN and not sending your records -rhetorical question. How frustrating. Your interesting news about sciatica vs. Meralgia is very interesting. Thanks for the hug!
Looks like I need to leave my apartment and head over to NM Ortho. I was hoping to stay home today. 😞
Called IN & find out the fax# I’ve had for my spine dr is incorrect yet I got the # from his biz card from day one. And, why when I called the previous times was I not told the # I had was wrong? 🤬
Called NM Ortho but I would have had to leave a msg, so I’d rather get this done today & not wait for a call back.
AAARRGGHHH!! I just finished calling all of my other dr’s in Indy and found out that even though they’re all part of Community Health Network, I needed to have submitted an independent records request to each one and not just have contacted my primary who always had access to their records being as she is part of Comm Health. WTF??
@see_the_sus Why do Networks make it so hard to be a patient?
Too many chef's in the kitchen? 😏
@see_the_sus How crazy the number is wrong on the card and never corrected! Surprised the NP or other office staff didn't think of this when you insisted you had asked for the records to be sent. You can't be the first patient this has happened to.
Tomorrow I'll tackle calling Lovelace to find out if they ever received my records from all my Indy docs. I know for certain they have my primary's records.
@see_the_sus Sounds closer to what I had, and looks like it's often treatable with minimally invasive surgery or no surgery. OTOH, if it goes away on its own in a couple of months and yours has been years, that sure doesn't match. Maybe it's all a question of what causes the narrowing.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/radiculopathy#:~:text=A%20common%20cause%20of%20radiculopathy,can%20also%20help%20some%20patients.
The numbness is fairly recent, by which I mean since about 2021 but has become more prevalent this year when I've been sitting or walking, (shopping usually). I'm fine when laying down.
hmmm.... "When radiculopathy occurs in the lower back, it is known as lumbar radiculopathy, also referred to as sciatica because nerve roots that make up the sciatic nerve are often involved."
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shared and why, she and my other dr (hip ortho), there at the clinic have not once mentioned this?
I go to these appts and I tell them about all the years I've had pain, the treatments I've had, and not one single PA, NP, dr, thought to say, "Oh? I've never seen any of your previous records." J-F-C
I like my spine NP. She's compassionate, helps me understand all the different terminologies, why I have XYZ pain instead of ABC pain, and answers my questions