Excerpts from KimmyLand - at Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station
Monday, April 28, 2008
Since the auto shop was closed today, we spent our time running errands. The highest priority was Gerry's back. We arrived early to our 9:15am appointment to learn we needed to have the "films" from the MRI taken last Wednesday. Although this upset us, everything turned out fine when the office was able to obtain the films later that morning and reschedule an appointment for 1:30pm.
The doctor had a spine replica for use in explaining problems. It just so happens that the model's red bulging disc is in the same place as Gerry's worst bulging disc. This disc problem is causing Gerry pain and numbness in his right leg. The disc above that one is the source of his left leg pain, which is more severe. After some discussion, the doctor decided to move forward with surgery as soon as possible on both discs. He is going to perform a micro-decompression of the discs. In this procedure, he removes the bulging part of the disc, allowing the nerve to relax back into it's natural position. There is no guarantee this will solve the problem for both legs, but the doctor is quite confident it will fix the worse of the two legs and it is simple for the doctor with only 1.5 hours of operation and a speedy recovery. The disc with the most deterioration may require a fusion or disc replacement at a later date. We could go forward with the fusion now, but would rather go with the simplist procedure and only move on to the more difficult if needed. We should know when surgery is within the next week. We just need to wait for approval from our insurance before it can be scheduled.
This is the artificial disc mock-up that shows the disc pieces the doctor considered putting in Gerry's spine. If additional work is needed on the deteriorated disc, Gerry would like this relatively new procedure to be performed. The fda approved it 3 years ago, but recommends it for 18-60 years old patients. Gerry is over the upper cusp by a couple of years and the doctor is not sure insurance would improve it. The doctor is confident he could do it successfully and is willing to try to persuade the insurance company. We should know within a few months if it will be needed.
When we were done we headed over to a steel shop to see about having new rear corners made for Gerry's jeep out of the piece of 1/8" stainless steel that he has. Gerry brought his old corners to use as a template.
The guy bent up a piece of "scrap" to make sure he could get the radius that Gerry needs. Gerry took the piece home with him to fit up to his jeep tomorrow and make sure the radius is good. He is also going to mark the extra holes and cuts he needs. The steel shop has a hand-held plasma cutter that can be used to cut the stainless.
We left the dogs at home and they enjoyed playing when we returned. Later we enjoyed a nice dinner and evening with my mom and niece, Jessica. We had steaks. Mom brought her own and we had the last of our ribeye out of the freezer. I made a salad and Jessica made garlic bread. Gerry took care of the grilling and made a fire for us.
