[runner]

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Thanks Rhatzy (Mark),

Going to get my MRI today. I hope it doesn't show anything bad. But if it does, I will deal with it.
Happy to see you are going back to work. I have thought long and hard about work and have asked some of my co-workers what they thought. It is easy to say that you can go back to the same kind of work and then I wonder what further damage I would do to my body. I mean maybe I could do the work, but I would probably not be doing what is best for my spine.

Nurses know you need to protect your back, but even the best lifting techniques don't matter when you have an emergency and you have to hold a patient down or a patient is trying to hurt him/herself. I always thought that I might be doing myself harm but thought it would hit me later in my career. I was kind of naive about the damage I was doing, because I thought it was sore/tight muscles and not a disc tearing.

I am still a nurse but I have to find a less labor-intensive job and I kind of know the path I want to take. Right now, I am concentrating on getting better and worrying less about the resume. I am disappointed because I am used to pushing my body to its limits and i cannot do that. My heart rate is like above 100. I did have a resting heart rate in the 50's. I don't know if it is pain or the extra weight I have gained or what.

I don't like the Gabapentin (Neurotin) because of the swelling it causes and the kind of med it is, but when I had sciatica I absolutely couldn't stand, I asked to go back on it. I was also given permission from my doctor to take a mild pain killer if I needed it. Sometimes Tylenol and Aleve are not enough.

I am busy and feel like I am working with four kids to take care of and a house to kind of clean and laundry and writing and fighting insurance companies and PT and working out outside of PT. Then throw in a couple of doctor appointments. Tomorrow, is Halloween and I am trying to figure out how to fit everything in. Feeling a little rushed because there is trick and treating and then there is the high school homecoming football game. My daughter is performing in the senior skits. My husband is going to try to get home early but typically he works until after 7 pm so I have a lot of children stuff to do before he gets home.

I felt pretty good today, sciatica and numbness way, but I did not do very much physically today. So we will see about tomorrow.

You had your surgery two months before me. I think I would be doing a lot better if I had had my surgery on my first surgery date instead of waiting for insurance to be there. Waiting four months for surgery was a bit much.

My advice for anyone trying to get the insurance company to pay for the surgery is fight tooth and nail because there are ways to win and the insurance companies don't care about you and you have to intellectually try everything to get them to reconsider. I am glad I did not get the fusion my insurance would have enthusiastically paid for. I will continue to fight them and I believe whole-heartedly that they are terribly wrong.

Just today they denied my prescription for Gabapentin that is an increased dosage. They are bean counters and don't understand that if you go cold-turkey off Gabapentin you risk seizures. Just one more battle to fight...

The more we stand up for what is right and demand service from insurance companies and demand that our doctors do what is right and that we are better informed, the better off we will be.

Have a nice flight.


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