its back, its back, its my back

ITS BACK
every summer it comes around in the hot south
when the weather get dry water gets stagnant
commonly growing in stagnant water in coves or rivers
its seems to usually hit kids who jump in the water
it is thought to get into the system by the force of the
water in the nose as the kids jump in
it takes them away so young

its called naegleria fowleri
the brain eating amoeba
primary amebic meningoencephalitis
its fatal
usually

there have been only two cases of people surviving the
infection in the united states ever
until now

i had one child who got the infection once when he was
with his family swimming in a nearby lake in the hot
summer
he started with fever headache that worsened
by the time the specialists figured out what was wrong
it was too late
the treatment failed and
he died
thats usually what happens
i think of him every summer when i hear these reports

here is a video of kali hardig from arkansas who apparently
got the infection from a water park

yesterday she said hi mom
she could be the #3 survivor ever recorded
she is one lucky girl
we wish her and her family the best

ITS BACK
on a more pleasant note

here is a picture of my cactus orchid blooming this year
several years ago my mother gave me a leaf from her plant
i stuck in a pot it grew and i stuck other leaves in other pots
some ive given away to other people

just in the last few years mine started to bloom
they last 1 day and then they are gone

this year my plants have bloomed several times
i guess the lighting and watering is just right for them
where i have them on my deck

ive learned to enjoy them when they arrive
please come back again soon

ITS MY BACK
this is my 3 month followup on my sciatica
today im glad i did not opt for surgery since i am
close to pain free and all of my neurological symptoms have
resolved except for some loss of the achilles reflex in that
right leg
you know when the doctor hits your heel with that reflex hammer
thats what he is testing
left good reflex right none    would be a good demonstration for
a student

some night time pain knock knock that is almost gone
its like a switch was turned on or should i say nerve turned on

hopefully i am now on the road to total recover
dont ever ever want this again  and would hate to have
the chronic version of this

the organicgreen doctor

viral treatment, the trial

VIRAL TREATMENT
this sciatica has been a real pain in the buttocks down the leg
to my big toe and foot
the meds i take help but if i max them out i feel like im stoned

this weekend i may have found a treatment
it was 100% effective

on sat am i went to the habitat for humanity house on which i will
help do the landscaping
its a repossessed house which actually was well cared for
i discussed the landscape plans with the future owner
then i helped cleans the walls and doors to get ready for
repainting next week

the standing and getting up on a stool seemed to really flair
up my sciatica
so i went home early got in the hot tub
took a hydrocodone for pain
and i didnt really get up sat evening all day sunday and this am
except for rapid trips to the bathroom
fever chills and no appetite
you know its bad when i dont want a cup of coffee

its interesting though that my sicatica  has not hurt me since sat
morning until this morning when ive been up more than the last
two days

maybe bed rest is better for sciatica than previously known
or
maybe its the virus thats causing the gi upset thats making it
better

ive enjoyed the pain free two days but sure dont like the nausea
body aches fever the lack of appetite and the frequent trips
to the john

i hope this viral treatment works as i about to enter phase 2 of
my treatment regiment
an epidural injection which i dont mind doing if it helps
i realize the chances are about 50+% chance it will work

well see

THE TRIAL

ive thought about the zimmerman trial a lot
and not sure how i would have voted if i was on the jury

the jury is isolated from the social media and new media so
they arent influenced by any of that

the question was was zimmerman defending himself

we only wish that zimmerman wouldnt have got out of that car
and that trayvon would have hauled it home then this fight that
resulted in his death would not have happened

so the question is was zimmerman defending himself

the jurors thought he was

that is the end of the criminal legal side of this story
there is a social side of this story though that appears not covered
by the legal system very well
i dont think it will ever go away
maybe it shouldnt

im just glad i wasnt on the jury

the organicgreen doctor

fourth, followup

FOURTH

i want to wish everyone a happy fourth of july
the day we celebrate the declaration of independence
it was passed on the 2nd of july but the official signing was
on the 4th of july

we in america have been celebrating the 4th the same since
fireworks picnics speeches get togethers
even the american troops that day got an extra ration of rum
now that would probably be beer

lets all take a pause
maybe try reading the declaration of independence
think about this document and the constitution and how
its stood the passage of time
those writers of those documents did good

thankful for a democratic and free country
thankful for those who have served to protect us all
thankful for the chance to get together with family and friends
to celebrate the fourth of july and
think of what it really stands for

FOLLOWUP
oh that old ruptured disc is really a pain in the
buttocks
or should i say leg

im still having sciatica leg pain that is being helped with
medication and physical therapy
hoping it will resolve soon on its on

ive learned to appreciate what people have to go through
who have chronic pain
wouldnt want this to be a long term thing

ive also learned to appreciate how active i was
when i look at what i cant do right now
i look forward to getting this all resolved so i can return
back to that level of activity

ive learned though and have been observing more at how
we all seem to abuse our backs on a regular basis
through my therapy im getting instructions on proper techniques
on how to bend lift twist stand sit lay down etc

just ask my wife she
shes learning them also even though she probably doesnt
appreciate it
i told her i dont want to have to take care of you when this
happens to you

dont let it happen to you

have a good fourth of july

the organicgreen doctor

sleep,the leg, the game as i saw it

SLEEP

many of you who read this blog regularly know that
i have trouble sleeping
ive always been an early bird
in fact we have an alarm clock but we never use it
since everyone knows that ill be up

i need 7 hours of sleep to feel rested every day
when i was diagnosed and started on the
aricept (donepezil) it knocked 1-2 hours of my sleep
off at night
ive tried different medications to help but they dont work
well except for benadryl which adds back about an
hour of sleep each night
but benadryl interferes with the way the donepezil works so
im not really suppose to take it
but i do when i get on a several nights run of not sleeping
so i just take it anyway

luckily for me im retired so that if i dont get enough sleep
eg wednesday night i only slept 4 hours so
that afternoon i slept for 3 hours
so i usually can compensate
last night i slept for 6 hours
i think what helped is a medication im taking for the nerve
pain for my sciatica was adjusted so i take it at night
instead of twice a day
so last night i did it that way and i think that helped me
sleep

also since i ruptured that dang disc or is it disk
i like disk better but know its really suppose to be disc
the prednisone i was on and the night time pain has knocked
off another 1-2 hours of sleep at night
so some days i feel slightly zombeed
but again luckily i can take my compensatory nap

so between 1-3pm each day if you call me you wont
reach me
i dont schedule appointments or visitors during nap time
i understand why those preschool kids all take naps now
without them i would not make it

THE LEG

yesterday i went to the physical medicine doctor for a opinion on
my ruptured disc/disk since i worsened some as the steroids
wore off
he did a thorough physical evaluation of my back and leg
he found all the points i hurt multiple times
so much that after the visit the pain was worse than before
i think because he found those painful movements he put
me through

i have some mild nerve damage so i have some weakness to
the nerves that are affected by the compression of the protruding
disc/disk
i have noticed some subtle difficulties at times
but he was able to demonstrate exactly where the weakness was

the plan is to
consider physical therapy which i will probably do since they
will do some back educational stuff plus do some exercise
treatment also

continue the drugs-anti inflammatory and nerve pain pills and use
as needed hydrocodone which i dont use unless i get uncomfortable

let pain be my guide in my activities
thats working well now as i know what my limitations are since
it hurts like hell if i push too hard

consider another round of oral steroids
i like that since it sure helps except when they wear off

consider if the pain persists an epidermal steroid injections where the
nerve is being compressed by the ruptured disc/disk

if the nerve damage worsens surgery will be needed
this is the option i hope to avoid

all of this has made me appreciate the ability to be mobile and to
do all the things i do every day
i realize how active i was when i think about all that i cant do everyday

THE GAME AS I SAW IT

ok so i slept through the spurs and heat basketball game the other
night
but i had it dvred
i tried the next day to ovoid hearing about the game but that was near
impossible to do
so i listened to the talk shows and read about it online
then i watched the game myself yesterday and made my own interpretation
of the game
they didnt match what i heard and read
those blatant mistakes made by the coaches and players they talked about
didnt seem to be to be as blatant to me
i understood when i watched the game why player substitutions were done
we all understand the refs arent going to make certain calls in the last
few minutes-yes they were fouls

so like in life sometimes you need to read and watch things yourself
and make your own decision on how things really are or were
like listening only to fox news or only to msnbc news you will get
a distorted view of what things are really like

people really arent thinking for themselves nowadays
so ill be watching/dvring  the game tonight

the organicgreen doctor

i want to apologize

I WANT TO APOLOGIZE

www.zazzle.com

sometimes until youve walked in someone shoes
you really dont know what something is really like

as a doctor i havent walked in peoples shoes when
they came in to see me but i usually had seen a lot of
patients with that problem and had used the experience
of taking care of similar cases and reading up on the
problem to know how to best take care of them

thats called clinical experience but as i realized
this time until youve walked in their shoes you really
dont know what its like

for example when my mother was diagnosed with alzheimers
disease and possibly my father had it then my brother was
diagnosed with it i understood what it was like dealing with
the disease
before then i really wasnt much help with people who were diagnosed or
family members who had to deal with the day to day of living
with a loved one with the disease

now im starting to walking in their shoes and every day i think
about how much better job i could have done carrying for them
had i known what i know now about alzheimers disease

i now try to talk to as many people as i can about the disease
and what to do and what can be done to somehow compensate
for my lack of knowledge when i was in practice

now im walking in another pair of shoes that i wish i had walked in
when i was in practice

thats people who would come in with severe sciatica
for those who dont know
sciatica is pain of the sciatica nerve from the spine down to the
big toe
in severe cases the pain can extend the whole nerve and can be
quite severe

yes i wish i had walked in their shoes before i was practicing and
i would have done a much better job controlling your pain and
discomfort
and would have been more compassionate

there are many causes
a ruptured disc
an arthritic spur that is pushing on the nerve
a narrowed opening that the nerve goes through
a hematoma
a cyst
a tumor
or rarely inflammation from a spinal tap

(if youve read my blogs lately i wrote one about ouuuuuuccccchh when
i had my spinal tap as i felt a shot of pain down my sciatic nerve that only
lasted a second and had no residual discomfort from it
sciatica from a spinal tap is rare
i just hope im not that rare event
you know these usually happen to doctors or nurses or their family members)

so i started walking in your shoes last wednesday and i didnt enjoy it much
at all
as i got to where i couldnt walk
not sure how i drove my truck wish it wasnt a stick shift or how i managed
to climb up my stairs as i knew thats where my hydrocodone was i had
left over from my wisdom teeth extraction
i also added 1500 mgm of naprosyn and a lot of tylenol arthritis but after
a few hours of no relief i gave up and
told my wife she i need to go to the er

i felt like i was having a kidney stone that was in my sciatica nerve

(i looked like those guys who were in that video i posted recently
that was hooked up to an electrical stimulator on their abdomens to see
what labor was like)

i crawled backwards down my stairs and out the door and onto the
driveway to the car
sure hope my wife she didnt take any pictures
i even did my lamaze training and even did my hehes which seemed to help

in the er at seton williamson county they took me right in
im sure i looked like i was about to birth a baby
heck you never know now a days right

all the staff there were nice and pleasant and compassionate
even the young doctor who could easily have been my grandson

they upped my hydrocodone and valiumed me up
after awhile i was slightly improved
he offered iv morphine for relief but i decided against it

so for the next 5 days i stayed stoned and really seemed to have
missed a lot of what when on around me
heck i even read some emails i wrote that i asked my wife she
did you answer these for me
nope she said

so i went to my regular doctor yesterday who has personally walked
in your sciatica shoes and probably is the best at taking care of this
pain
he switched me to a tapering dose of prednisone and placed me on lyrica
which is used for nerve pain and continued the hydrocodone for pain
i discontinued the tylenol and the naprosyn
i am only rarely using the hydrocodone
i now today am 100% better in 24 hours

thanks to dr b for his knowledge and care

so finally
yes i want to personally apologize to any of you that i treated for
sciatica and did not do an adequate job

im not enjoying the walk at all
and find it all a humbling experience

please forgive me

the organicgreen doctor