This week, Marina met with Dr. Deviren, the physiatrist.
Dr. Deviren believes that with the passage of time, the L-3 and L-4 nerves, and the S-1 for good measure, will take on more and more of the work of the damaged L-5, and that the pain and the weakness will continue to diminish. Because of his possibility, thoughts of possible further surgery are on hold, as is the notion of further injections of Cortisone into the nerves, at least for a while.
Marina reports the leg pain now feels more like muscle than nerve pain, althrough realistically there is probably some of each. She is also having occasional back spasms, which may be related to the back muscles, detached during surgery and then reattached, asserting themselves. She is really benefiting from her hour each week with Amy Sellenger, the physical therapist who specializes in people with spinal fusion surgery.
Amy has provided an elastic brace, sort of a giant Ace bandage, for wearing around the house, to help keep Marina standing straighter. And the cumbersome fiberglass body brace was rejiggered (I believe that is the technical term) at UCSF, in effect creating a pocket so that the brace does not push on the whatever-it-is that causes a painful bump on the mid-left of the back. It is hoped that Dr. Hu will have something to say about the whatever-it-is (Amy thinks it might be scar tissue, but it could be bone growths) on the 6-month visit in two weeks.
While Marina is doing many things now -- spent some time in the garden for the first time today -- she tires very easily, and takes one or two naps a day. Her Topomax dosage is increased to 400 mg, where it will remain. She really hopes to be able to drive before too long, but that is not in the cards yet.
And then there's the low sodium problem: remember the low sodium crisis? Never fully resolved. A new blood test was just done, and there should be results in 3 or 4 days. It was 133 a couple of months ago. 135 is the bottom end of the OK scale, but 140s would be better. Not clear what will be done if it is still low.
Posted by John Bear
at 12:08 AM PDT
