disk followup, he meant 2013

DISK FOLLOWUP
its been three weeks since the pain became so severe in
my right buttocks down my right leg that i coudnt walk
somehow i got into my old beat up black pickup truck
that looked like it was from the samford and sons tv show
and drove the 25 miles home
all i could think was i sure wish i had an automatic transmission
it was hard to drive with just the left leg
you know shifting clutching and pressing on the accelerator
luckily there werent many stops i had to make

i made it to the house
crawled up stairs like a 3 year old might
and fumbled through my medicine cabinet and found
that 3 year hydrocodone from my wisdom teeth removal
note dont get your wisdom teeth removed when you
are 60 years old cause it hurts like hell afterwards
at least i thought it was the worst pain until i got this disk thing

i took it like it said 1-2 every 4 hours
if i did that when i was not having pain i think i would have slept
for days
interesting sometimes with the pain medications when you hurt
bad with pain it doesnt knock you out

i was sure i was having triplets that day

eventually after not getting better as the night went on
i went to the er and got more pain medication and he
talked me into some valium for muscle spasm

my sister and her family came to visit me that weekend
i didnt tell her i was injured since i was afraid they would
not come to visit

the valium i never usually ordered for people as it is a
drug that people can become addicted to with long time use
when it first came out years ago it was given out like xanax
or ambien is today
a lot of people were hooked on it and its a medicine thats
real hard to wean people off of it
almost impossible

so i didnt want to take it but the doc talked me into it

so this week my wife she had this coffee cup that was new
that someone gave her
i presumed it was from an end of school gift
i have sort of taken it over for my morning coffee
its got a wide bottom to it and its just the right size for
the amount of coffee i drink at a time

so this week i told my wife she i sure like this cup
can i keep using it
where did you get this

she just looked at me funny
she said turn the cup over and look at the bottom
there was the engraving from the state park where my sister lives
she gave it to her along with other things in a bag
all of which i have no recollection of seeing them before
in fact i have little recollection of their visit with us
i was one stoned organicgreen doctor

after a week i got off that stuff

this has all been a humbling experience for me
being a patient
really like a disabled patient
having to rely on my wife she and others for all my care
not something i enjoyed

it did make me think as i tried to shower shave and get dressed
that there are people who do this everyday of their lives
and have for years
i do have a lot of respect for those people who are disabled this way

i had a mri which showed a ruptured disk pressing on the L5S1 nerve
and yes i definitely know the path the nerve takes

i had a 2nd week of false improvement since i was on high dose steroids
and pain meds
when the steroids kicked in good i was able to at least do the
landscape project at the last habitat house
boy did i pay for those two long days working there

then the next week the steroids began to wear off
i almost got back to where i was at the beginning
well maybe just 1 baby instead of triplets
i thought this is not going to be a good thing i have

now on my third week i have been able to completely
taper off my crutches as of yesterday
take only one pain pill a day along with prescription strength
naprosyn full time for pain and lyrica for nerve pain

i think im on to the road to recovery
i have to make myself not overdo since i look around my ten acres
and see all this stuff i need to get done
and the future landscape projects i will need to do at habitat
and i realize i gotta take this slow

again like with having to see the neurologist and doing the
alzheimers research study its humbling to be a patient
and again i think all doctors should have to be patients sometimes
it makes them more patient friendly

then when i look at all the bills that come in like for my mri
my er visit my primary care visit i think a lot about how expensive
our medical care system is

no wonder the insurance companies dont want you to use the er
but luckily for me i guess i was always interested in insurance coding
and billing so digging through everything and figuring out what
i really owe on each bill is probably easier for me to figure out
than most people

pity those people who dont have insurance since they pay full price
and dont get the big discounted rates that the insurance pays
my total cost so far would pay my insurance premiums for 6 months
without insurance the cost would be 12 months premiums
since they get no discount

there does seem something wrong with all that
someone without insurance probably would have returned to the
er for followup instead of using a clinic
which is many fold more expensive

so in summary
it is humbling to be a patient
our healthcare system is expensive
having a ruptured disk hurts like hell
im sorry for not being more sympathetic
i dont ever want to take valium again
i hate crutches
i wish i didnt have an upstairs to my house
i wish all my vehicles were automatic
i can see why people with chronic pain not relieved with
medication like naprosyn or tylenol need pain management
i wouldnt hesitate if i were in that situation
if i was in practice now i would be more freer with giving out
pain medication
and definitely be much better at managing someone with a
ruptured disk or bugling disk with its resulting sciatic pain

i today seem to be crutch free and hydrocodone free
i will have to hold myself back from overdoing

and a special thank you to my wife she for taking care of me

HE MEANT 2013

the george orwell novel 1984 has had a surge in sells on amazon
and barnes and nobles and at most book sites and stores
all since the nsa stuff came out about them looking at all our
emails and cell phone calls and text

so yes big brother is watching us
my plan is to reread this book again since its been years since ive
read it

maybe we all should reread and think more about 2013

the organicgreen doctor

he doesnt deserve this, results

HE DOESNT DESERVE THIS
my younger brother doesnt deserve having alzheimers disease
he is too young and in too good of health otherwise
he is too much of a good guy
for those who know me and dont know him if you like me
and like my approach to life trying to do whats right for people
then you would definitely like him too

we are different in many ways
he was an avid hunter i am not
but i did go hunting with him a few times
and enjoyed the time together

we usually didnt agree on political and religious views
and some social views
but it was interesting that sometimes our views ended up
being the same

but none of this ever became an issue with us
except for some good friendly bantering with each other

he was always respectful of how i felt and
i think i was of how he felt

looking  back i wish i had taken advantage of being with him when
i could more and enjoying the moments together

the last good time we had together he and his wife came to visit us
here in the austin area
he and i drove together just us to a nearby town to pick up a large
rainwater tank i had found at a real cheap rate which we later gave
to my wife shes high school to use in their new garden area

we enjoyed that two hours together talking
mostly he understood what
i was saying and he had not advanced so far so that i knew what
he was talking about
sometimes his words were stuck in there somewhere and would not
come out but mostly they usually did on that trip

that was really the last time we were together alone where we really had
a good meaningful interaction together before
this awful alzheimers disease progressed

his present status is that he is mostly wheelchair bound and has to
be fed and cared for
occasionally that smile of his youll see come out
i dont get to see him as much as i would like
but there is not a day i dont stop and think about him


this year the area where he lives in southern arkansas is having their first
walk to end alzheimers saturday november 2 2013 in el dorado arkansas
interesting is that the walk is very close to where he stays now

he has a team called
#joe nash

if you live in that area and have been donating to my team please change
the donation to his team
his team is honoring his life but also my mothers who had the disease
my father who probably did and possibly me

we have a lot of kinfolk in that area whose parents have had the disease also
and are hoping they will donate and join this team also
there are also friends of my brothers and our family who also have had
the disease hit them and
we are hoping they will join with us to honor joe our families and theirs

its easy to join the team just go to this site and click join the team
(join the team whether you will be able to walk or not)

follow the directions and make your donation then or you can do the
actual donation later
remember a $1.00 donation is just as meaningful as a $100 donation

you can also do a paper donation if you need to

the familys goal is to of course honor him and our family and our friends families
and to show a large support for this fight against this disease

also be sure and sign up your kids for the walk
since they are really the ones who will benefit from all of this since they
not like us will be able to treat the disease some day  and prevent it from occurring
in their generation
this really should be a youth walk since they are the ones that really going to
benefit from all the research

thanks for the support
my local teams here in the austin area  will be starting soon and ill do a post on
friday about them

THE RESULTS
well the mri results are in now
no hematoma or cyst from that ooooouucccchhhhhh  spinal tap from the
research study

just a herniated disk that is pressing on the opening the nerve goes through
and is pressing on the nerve
the goal is to eventually over time have it shrink back up some which will
take the pressure off and relieve the pain
with a tapering course of oral steroids over 2-3 weeks
possible steroid injections if needed later
pain meds as needed right now its hydrocodone but i hope to change
to naprosyn once i get off my oral steroids
since the naprosyn at higher levels worked just as well as the hydrocodone
when i had my wisdom teeth removed
and i tolerate it ok

i then have been thinking a lot about proper back mechanics and ways i
probably have not been watching my lifting etc that i was doing
like lifting heavy boulders by myself etc

i also plan to go through a good back exercise regimen and make it
part of my daily routine for the future

my goal is to be pain free eventually and to avoid surgery
a 10% chance that will have to be done

the organicgreen doctor