The coolest thing was looking at the MRI. We brought two printouts home. I love things like this. Call me quirky, but I think it's awesome that we can see inside our bodies without pain/cutting ourselves open. :)
This one is looking straight at his side. Starting from the right side of the picture is his skin, then the spiny back bones. The next white stuff is spinal fluid and nerves. Then the vertebrae with the disks in between. The first four disks (going from the top) are normal, so they have a lot of fluid in them. The next three are dark because they are essentially drying up. So they are degenerative. All three of them. Yikes!
This one is a little bit angled, looking towards the left side of his body. Which is also the side that bothers him; actually, it's just his leg that he feels any pain in. You can really see how the disk is pushing out towards the nerves/spinal fluid. The arrow is pointing to the disk that has caused all the pain over the last two weeks. It is not supposed to look like that. All the disks towards the top are right where they should be.
This MRI was taken 11 days ago. I'm curious to know if it would be pushing out that far still, after a round of steroid pills and the cortisone shot. I doubt it.
Tyler is feeling better, just some achy-ness (I don't think that's a word) in his leg. The doctor said it should continue to improve, slowly, and if that's the case, he will just have to be careful. However, if it doesn't get better, but gets worse, he suggested surgery. And surgery would just be shaving off the pencil size bump of disk that is pushing out against the nerve. There is always a risk of re-occurence as well. He could also get another cortisone shot before we go the surgery route.
Only time will tell!
**sorry I've been slacking with the gardening posts. I don't think I will be able to be very consistent about them over the winter. Unless I get some more gardening questions . . . (wink wink)
9 comments:
Yes, I have a gardening question. What plant will grow new discs for my brother-in-law Tyler. I would like to grow him some new ones for Christmas but I'm not sure where to go or what to buy...Even though Tyler is in pain, it's cool to see inside his body. Thanks for sharing. Shaunie pushed her scientific mode button and started looking at the pictures. If I ever get any cool pictures of me I'll share'em with you guys too. I hope it all works out sooner than later.
Yes, thanks for the pictures. I am more enlightened than I was before seeing them. :) I'm sure it's nice to actually see what is going on than only having the painful description to go off of. Achiness is a word. Go off of Merriam-Webster online, not blogger's spell check. I already have four words underlined that I know are spelled correctly. Hope Tyler continues to improve. Surgery just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.
Those pictures are amazing. Modern technology is a wonderful thing. So glad that things seem to be improving a bit for Tyler?
I do have a gardening question for you...would you happent to have ideas on what things grow well in Illinois temperatures? And will November be too late to plant bulbs there? I am guessing so. I only know Washington plants so appreciate any suggestions. :)
Yikes! I'm sorry he is in so much pain! That's rough. I'm glad you figured out what was wrong though. We'll keep our fingers crossed that he doesn't have to go in and get surgery. Bummer. I hope that you are doing well through all this too!
OUCH! THAT DOES LOOK SO PAINFUL. I AM GLAD THINGS ARE SLOWLY FEELING BETTER. SURGERY WOULD BE NO FUN BUT IT IS NICE TO KNOW THAT THEY COULD FIX IT IF THEY NEEDED TO GO THAT ROUTE, RIGHT? WELL, KEEP HEALING AND WE HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO FEEL BETTER.
Ahh! I totally understand about having a hubby home that is sick, so can't do anything, but it's just wierd and it throws everything off...you feel bad for them, but mommy's never get to stop! :) wish you all the luck, I knew someone with a couple of these and had surgery to replace fluid, pain shots every other month, etc. Our prayers are with you to find something that works with all of this technology now!
wow, those are awesome pictures! I'm glad that you are getting answers and that things are getting better!
Wow that looks painful! Hopefully he doesn't have to have the surgery! Glad he's doing better now!
yes nicole, but your kids are Toddlers. That would be understandable. These kids at the library were 10 at the youngest.
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