Dealing in the unknown...

For those that know me, know the issues my husband is having with his back, etc. He hurt his back at work in November of 2007. They kept telling him, he must have sprained something and it would get better. Fast forward to July of 08 when he finally had an MRI done on his back. The orthopedic surgeon diagnosed a degenerated disk in his back at S1/L5. So he started Tom on physical therapy 3 times a week. After 3 weeks of physical therapy and still no progress, he sent him to a pain management doc for steroid/cortizone epidural injections into his back. After 2 of these, the pain management doc said there was nothing he could do for him. He could do a 3rd shot, but since the first 2 didn't take, there was no reason to do the third. So that ortho doc sent us to a Neurosurgeon for surgery. We had that appointment on the day before Thanksgiving and surgery scheduled for Dec. 9th. Came through his 2 hour surgery 4 hours later because of some issues they encountered with is nerves and joints. Spent 5 days in the hospital and was sent home. He had an elevated heart rate (up to 170 at times) and a fever, so they were not going to release him, but finally after a vast array of tests and finding nothing wrong with him (remember this..cause it's a pattern), so they decided to release him.

Right before Christmas his right leg continues to go numb at certain points and is throbbing and causing him alot of pain. The day before Christmas Eve, he gets an MRI of his back to see what the cause of the pain is. We see the doc the next day and figure out that his SI joint is acting up (sacroiliac joint), which causes sciatic pain down the leg. He sends us to another pain management doc for a lanacain injection in his R SI joint. We get that done on Monday, Jan. 5th. He tells the doc in the office after the shot that his toes were tingling, he said it was normal and would wear off when the shot did. Fast forward 2 days...his right foot is starting to throb and really bother him. 3 days later it's swelled almost double in size. Call the pain mgnt doc back and he is very adamant about this not being anywhere related to the shot he gave him. Call the surgeon and since he was really worried about a possible DVT (blood clot), they told me to take him to the ER.

3 1/2 hours spent in the ER, an US and xray later, they can find NOTHING wrong with his foot. Thank God it's not a blood clot nor a fracture of his foot...but come on people...what could it be? The ER doc is very adamant about it being something with the shot he received on Monday and I even called the pain mgt doc from the ER (got all his docs on speed dial) and again nothing he did with the injection could cause swelling and pain in his foot.

Ugh, believe me, I'm very grateful all the major things that could have been wrong are not wrong at all....but his foot is still in alot of pain and still swollen.

It helps to work for Radiologists, so I had another one look at the xrays they took last night and he couldn't pinpoint anything that would cause pain and swelling. "Could be" a stress fracture, but that wouldn't show up on xray for 1-2 weeks. Only other thing they could do is an MRI which would show a start of a stress fracture if that's what it is or send him to an orthopedist (our original doc) for more tests, opinions, etc.

So...today, Tuesday, January 13th at 10:43am - still waiting on his back surgeon to get out of surgery and call me back to figure out what our next course of action is!

P.S. Happy Birthday MOM - Hope you have a fantastic day and we can still make our lunch date today!