Running around after the boys all day and the 10F weather has the osteoarthiritis working overtime. My lower back is quite stiff but not painful just yet. Hopefully a spell on the heating pad will aid in fighting it off until the morning.
Right now on TLC they have a show called extreme surgery and they are working on patients with scoliosis. It is interesting to watch because while the symptoms are different the method used during surgery is very similar to what I had done. I do fell bad for the patients though as they are kids going through multi-level fusion with instrumentation. I had one level done and was in a lot of pain afterwards. I can only imagine how these poor kids cope with it.
I remember about 3 or 4 months after my surgery we were out eating and I noticed the girl with her back to me had a scar very similar to mine. I did not want to be intrusive but somehow we ended up talking to the mom (I think she said something about how cute out our son is) and that led to the daughter and the scar. She was a scoliosis patient and was only 4 week post op. While I was out and about at 4 weeks I do not think I was as spry as that girl was.
I have noticed the restless leg syndrome more often as well as the "bugs" crawling on me and the itching in general, all seem to be symptoms of the arachnoiditis. As well there is some memory issues like I was telling a friend earlier. I have a difficult time remembering things all of the sudden. Simple things like conversations or where I put something. While this is something most people would say "well yea?" for me it is new. I am one of those people who keeps things organized and in the same place. Like my keys for instance. Before we had the key hooks my keys, wallet and watch all went in my hat. Since I always have a hat on outside (ballcap usually) when I head out I just grab the hat and go. Now I have trouble remembering where I put the hat with everything inside of it.
It seems that the closer we get to achieving a better quality of life through pain management the further we get with some of the associated side effects of the arachnoiditis. Not a big deal really as they are all minor symptoms, it is when they all happen at once that I am screwed. Like today I tried to catch a quick nap but as soon as I reclined the chair and shut my eyes the leg started kicking out and the itching started and when that stopped the bugs started crawling. I did finally conk out and get a quick 45 minutes in, but it was perfect. I felt rested when I got up and was able to finish the day out with the boys.
I also found a picture we took of my x-rays after my surgery 2 years ago. It is funny to look at it and see the hardware and know that it is your back and not some picture out of a textbook or another website. I will post it on the blog here in a few minutes.
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