Back update
I know most of the people I have on my LJ are also on my FB... but I thought I could write the full story here.
Yesterday I went for (another) checkup with my neurosurgeon. First off I got a call the day before and the time they gave me was later than the one I had listed. So I showed up at the earlier time. Sense I had to fill out a whole bunch of paperwork AGAIN I guess it's fine I showed up early. You'd think by now they'd know WHY I was there and my medical history. Maybe next time I can ask them to copy it for me so I can just hand them the copy the following visit.
So anyway I get taken back about 30 minutes after my altered appointment time. Weirdly this time Shannon (Dr. Cohen's nurse and general do it all) didn't ask me as many questions as normal. She still got all the important info but normally she gets more detailed stuff from me. Wanting to know EXACTLY what my every symptom is. She asked me about me taking pain meds and I told her my concerns. I've never had a long term pain problem where I needed to keep taking pills and I had NO clue if I could keep calling for refills or if I needed to find a pain management specialist. Because of this I've been kind of hoarding my pills. Shannon wrote it all down but didn't really say anything. Then before she left she said that she had taken notes for Darcie.
I was left thinking... Darcie? Who in the hell is Darcie? Shannon had mentioned that she didn't want to interrupt Dr. Cohen (to get something out of another room) because he needed to get out of here... but no one had told me I WASN'T seeing my Doctor.
Sure enough someone else came in NOT my Doctor. Now I'd seen her before. One of the times I'd been in she was shadowing Dr. Cohen. (Plus she didn't know who Shatner OR Stewart was!!) No one mentioned who or what she was. After some research I've found that she is the surgeons version of a physicians assistant. Which apparently gives her the ability to write scripts.
After having seen her I'm guessing that Dr. Cohen wanted her as... well the doctor portion of his surgeon. He's a fantastic surgeon and I wouldn't want anyone else to cut open my back, but it's clear the normal doctoring stuff bores the crap out of him. Such as, anytime I've tried to ask about pain meds and stuff it kinda goes over his head, normally Shannon would deal with it.
Weirdly, although I found it really annoying that I wasn't told what was going on, I'm glad I saw Darcie.
She was much more forthcoming on extra info than Dr. Cohen was. She actually said the words "Degenerative Disc Decease", which both Kenton and I suspected I had, but Dr. Cohen had never been willing to say. There is something about having a name for what's wrong with you that's almost relieving. I don't know if that's listed in my file as my actual diagnoses... but Dr. Cohen HAd at one point said I probably had a Genetic predisposition toward my discs going bad. Kenton and I suspect that he is hesitant to to say it's DDD because most people know nothing about it and think it means your whole back is gonna go bad.
Apparently it's also possible that my bones are swollen in my spine and that could be aggravating things. Interesting info sense I have NO idea your bones could swell. She was very open and upfront about the pain meds. She had a script already written for me before walking into the room. She said they didn't script it with refills because people can get addicted, but then she said she doubted that would be a problem with me and said that if I need more to call and they'd get me another script. I'd told her I was hoarding them to avoid running out. I told her I came from addict stock and was to paranoid to take them more than once or twice a week. She explained that they would keep me in meds unless they realized I was gonna need them for a long time then they'd recommend me to a pain specialist. She also wrote me a script for Lyrica to help me with my pain and sleeping at night. Even said that if the side effects were to hard to handle to call and she'd write me something else.
Other than that we are basically just waiting. My insurance was not hip on doing a single disc replacement... now I'd need 3 and I KNOW they aren't going to go for that. Specially sense multiple layer disc replacement is still pretty new in the US. The other option is Fusion, and I just don't want to do that. I'm only 34 and I'd loose the wiggle from my hips basically. Fusing my L5-S1 would have lost me very little movement, fusing the lower 3 would loose me more than I'd like. To put it nicely... sometimes girls use their hips more than guys and I'm not ready to live without that. Plus I'm young, no one really knows how that will effect me in the future. The younger you are it seems to be the more likely you are to have to do more surgery. There is something like a 3% chance each year you'll have an issue. (With fusion it's very possible you can put to much stress on the other discs and they could go)
Darcie mentioned that sometimes Dr. Cohen does a combo of fusion and replacement. Fusing the lowest disc and replacing the one(s) about. I'm cool with that, but who knows how the insurance will fill.
So for now I'm waiting. I told her I was heading out of town for September so she said to make an appointment after that and we could see if I was any better and talk about what else to do. She also told me to call before the trip for pain med refills so I would make the trip.
Yesterday I went for (another) checkup with my neurosurgeon. First off I got a call the day before and the time they gave me was later than the one I had listed. So I showed up at the earlier time. Sense I had to fill out a whole bunch of paperwork AGAIN I guess it's fine I showed up early. You'd think by now they'd know WHY I was there and my medical history. Maybe next time I can ask them to copy it for me so I can just hand them the copy the following visit.
So anyway I get taken back about 30 minutes after my altered appointment time. Weirdly this time Shannon (Dr. Cohen's nurse and general do it all) didn't ask me as many questions as normal. She still got all the important info but normally she gets more detailed stuff from me. Wanting to know EXACTLY what my every symptom is. She asked me about me taking pain meds and I told her my concerns. I've never had a long term pain problem where I needed to keep taking pills and I had NO clue if I could keep calling for refills or if I needed to find a pain management specialist. Because of this I've been kind of hoarding my pills. Shannon wrote it all down but didn't really say anything. Then before she left she said that she had taken notes for Darcie.
I was left thinking... Darcie? Who in the hell is Darcie? Shannon had mentioned that she didn't want to interrupt Dr. Cohen (to get something out of another room) because he needed to get out of here... but no one had told me I WASN'T seeing my Doctor.
Sure enough someone else came in NOT my Doctor. Now I'd seen her before. One of the times I'd been in she was shadowing Dr. Cohen. (Plus she didn't know who Shatner OR Stewart was!!) No one mentioned who or what she was. After some research I've found that she is the surgeons version of a physicians assistant. Which apparently gives her the ability to write scripts.
After having seen her I'm guessing that Dr. Cohen wanted her as... well the doctor portion of his surgeon. He's a fantastic surgeon and I wouldn't want anyone else to cut open my back, but it's clear the normal doctoring stuff bores the crap out of him. Such as, anytime I've tried to ask about pain meds and stuff it kinda goes over his head, normally Shannon would deal with it.
Weirdly, although I found it really annoying that I wasn't told what was going on, I'm glad I saw Darcie.
She was much more forthcoming on extra info than Dr. Cohen was. She actually said the words "Degenerative Disc Decease", which both Kenton and I suspected I had, but Dr. Cohen had never been willing to say. There is something about having a name for what's wrong with you that's almost relieving. I don't know if that's listed in my file as my actual diagnoses... but Dr. Cohen HAd at one point said I probably had a Genetic predisposition toward my discs going bad. Kenton and I suspect that he is hesitant to to say it's DDD because most people know nothing about it and think it means your whole back is gonna go bad.
Apparently it's also possible that my bones are swollen in my spine and that could be aggravating things. Interesting info sense I have NO idea your bones could swell. She was very open and upfront about the pain meds. She had a script already written for me before walking into the room. She said they didn't script it with refills because people can get addicted, but then she said she doubted that would be a problem with me and said that if I need more to call and they'd get me another script. I'd told her I was hoarding them to avoid running out. I told her I came from addict stock and was to paranoid to take them more than once or twice a week. She explained that they would keep me in meds unless they realized I was gonna need them for a long time then they'd recommend me to a pain specialist. She also wrote me a script for Lyrica to help me with my pain and sleeping at night. Even said that if the side effects were to hard to handle to call and she'd write me something else.
Other than that we are basically just waiting. My insurance was not hip on doing a single disc replacement... now I'd need 3 and I KNOW they aren't going to go for that. Specially sense multiple layer disc replacement is still pretty new in the US. The other option is Fusion, and I just don't want to do that. I'm only 34 and I'd loose the wiggle from my hips basically. Fusing my L5-S1 would have lost me very little movement, fusing the lower 3 would loose me more than I'd like. To put it nicely... sometimes girls use their hips more than guys and I'm not ready to live without that. Plus I'm young, no one really knows how that will effect me in the future. The younger you are it seems to be the more likely you are to have to do more surgery. There is something like a 3% chance each year you'll have an issue. (With fusion it's very possible you can put to much stress on the other discs and they could go)
Darcie mentioned that sometimes Dr. Cohen does a combo of fusion and replacement. Fusing the lowest disc and replacing the one(s) about. I'm cool with that, but who knows how the insurance will fill.
So for now I'm waiting. I told her I was heading out of town for September so she said to make an appointment after that and we could see if I was any better and talk about what else to do. She also told me to call before the trip for pain med refills so I would make the trip.