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And now back to the post. Okay, so today I had to go for a "procedure". For those of you who are familiar with Brighton Beach Memoirs you may want to whisper the fact that I have a "condition"
Yes, apparently on top of my "asthma", "reconstructed ankle", and "sleep apnea" I have a "herniated disc" which has necessitated my having a "procedure" called a Lumbar Spine Epidoral Cortizone Steroid Injection (it sounds so much better when you whisper it);
Apparently, my "condition" is not that unusual in men ages 30 - 50 (although I think my doctor said something about 70% of men may experience one age 35+) and only a small percentage of patients (something like 10%) will need corrective surgery. So, I don't need surgery but I'm having this "procedure".
Now, I've known about it for a few weeks but we only scheduled it a week ago which sort of sucks because it means all of those wonderful anti-inflammatory drugs that were keeping my "condition" in check started wearing off. Apparently, anti-inflammatories are cummulative (which is why we have to take them twice a day for like ever) so since I stopped taking them I've been feeling the pain pretty much all the time. As a matter of fact, yesterday I walked into the main office at school and my Assistant Principal said, "what's wrong, you look like shit!" - ahhhhh, you have to love Ray Gessner.
So all the research and studies seem to indicate that after my shot I should feel much better. It should at least relieve the tightness in the muscles of my lower back and right gluteous maximus (latin for big butt) that I feel fairly constantly. So the big question is will it turn me into the Steve Austin of cyclists?
Well, probably not. But I should be better, stronger, faster than I have been in a long, long while.
Of course, we're really not sure what caused it so I can't really say for sure how to keep it from happening again. One theory is that is simply a genetic break down of my spine (apparently I also have something called sacralization and a fairly sizeable cyst that is also pressing against the nerve - they're going to try to aspirate that as well today). Another possibility is that whatever preexisting condition I had was exascerbated by my accident and that earlier this year (February to be exact) I had gone to visit my good friend Dr. Scott Torns and he thought I might have some damage in my L4 - L5 area. Well, it turns out he was right (he's really very brilliant and if you need a chiropractor on Long Island I would say GO TO HIM!) and there is a lot going on in that area.
But I prefer to look at the glass half full;
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Well, I'm off to St. Catherine's now - I'll finish this post when I get back.
So I'm back - okay, pun intended. I'm a bit loopy right now so if I go off on a random tangent, or at least more random than usual, its the medication not me.
Before we left we had a few errands to run and thinking that I would have lots of time on my hands at the hospital I got a new book at the library. It's called My Thoughts Be Bloody and it takes an in-depth look at the fued between John Wilkes Booth and his brother Edwin and how their rivalry helped drive JWB into his assination of Abraham Lincoln. Its part theatre history, part American history, and part history geek out! Since I love all three areas I was in heaven!
We got there early and of course, owing to my unerring sense of direction, promptly went to the wrong place. Thank God my sister Alina bought me the Garmin GPS unit for my bike - with my sense of navigation I could end up in Utah during the cross country and that would be WAAAAAYYYYY out of the way!
Anyway we got to the right place and got all checked in and barely had time to get down to reading before I was called in. Now I was all prepared for a quick in and out since I had watched the video above. And then the admitting nurse asked me if I wanted anesthesia. Now I hadn't planned on it, especially since the only time I've had it in the past it left me realllllllllllyyyyyyyy loopy. I think it caused me to slightly hallucinate the first time as you may remember from this post. So I was a little reticent but since they were going to also try to aspirate a cycst that the doctor thinks might be pushing against a nerve in my spinal column she STRONGLY suggested I have the "twilight" as she called it. Turns out she was right.
Anyway, after he came and marked on my back, I got to read a little bit and found out that JWB's father was a famous actor from London who was married (and Jewish) but who ran away with a young girl to America (influenced as he was by the writings of Percey Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron). They would never be able to be married but could start a new life in America. Then they wheeled me into the room.
To save all the gory details (see video above) they anesthetized me and the loopiness began in earnest! I never went out, I was in this hazy, fuzzy stage but I still felt some twinges of pain when the needle went in and the injection went in, and he tried to aspirate (unsuccessfully) the cyst. It was all over in about 20 minutes and they wheeled me back out where I tried to read some more but fell asleep.
Now I'm just dealing with a potential "epidural headache" perhaps caused by them having to go so deep to (unsuccessfully) aspirate the cyst. But I can say that for now my back feels better!!!! I may never be doing this;
Nor, with my newly reconstituted back which is free from pain will I quite be as mechanically efficient as this;
of course, in my wildest dreams it would be amazing to be able to ride like either one of these guys (for those of you who don't know, they are the infamous Schleck brothers);
But what it does give me is new hope that I won't have my herniated disc explode somewhere in the middle of Kansas and have to abandon the Connor's Army Cross Country Ride for Sunrise!
I have some really great news coming on that front! It looks like we'll be able to get some of the student groups at SHS behind us to help fundraise for Sunrise. They can't sponsor Connor's Army (so if ANYONE reading this knows anyone who can help sponsor us on that front) but they can help us towards our goal of $50,000 to send eight children with cancer to the camp.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, whether its your first time reading my blog or your eighty-fourth time, please help us spread the word. We have donations coming in but its happening slowly. Every little bit counts. If you think about it, one drop of water by itself is not much, but when they combine with other little drops of water they can fill a bucket, a pond, a lake, a sea!
You see (don't you love homonyms) I really do believe in this cause. I'm not doing it to get credit for myself and I'm not doing it so people will write how wonderful I am. I am truly scared of what this journey may do to my body and since I'm a dance teacher/choreographer, my livelihood. But I also realize that helping children have the opportunity to be children without the stigma of being *whispered* "the kid with cancer" is too important not to try.
Unfortunately, between us, Amy and I don't have quite the same family support that other people who start not-for-profit foundations have. Other family groups can band together and call upon their dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. to help them fundraise, to help them promote the event, to plaster the community with advertising, to get people to use their connections to hold music concert fundraisers, or auctions or raffles or other inventive fundraisers. All Amy and I have are each other and we can't do it alone. We need the bigger global family - we need a village.
So, if you've read this far it tells me that you are part of my cyber family - you do care about what I have to say and what I'm trying to do to help these kids. So I ask you, please take a moment and ask yourself how you can help us help these kids. Its not for the glory, its not for the accolades, its for the kids. Think if it were your own children (present or future) who were going through this, wouldn't you want someone to try and help them?
Sometimes I think the reason we don't get everyone jumping on board is because cancer is not effecting my own family now like it did when I was riding for my sisters and my mom. To me, that's the exact reason we should be helping these children - because but for the grace of God would go we. And my family needs the help of you, my cyber family, to make this happen
So if you've read this far, take some time to write a comment below. Take some time to add our facebook page , invite your friends to do the same. Take some time to become a regular, registered follower of the blog. Take some time to go to https://www.wizevents.com/register/register_add.php?sessid=1809&id=1056 and make a donation, no matter how small it is, to Sunrise on behalf of the Connor's Army Ride Across America.
We are only a small part of the 7,000,000,000 people who inhabit this earth and its up to us to take care of the others - especially the smallest drops of water!
Thank you my friends, stay well and I'll see you on the road (yes, I'm riding tomorrow - because I can).
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