A pain in the butt....

literally.

That's what I have. Darin tells me he always knew I was a "pain in the butt" I tell him that I "have" a pain in the butt.

So I finally had my rescheduled (thanks to the blizzard) appointment with the spine Dr. today. It was little comedy of errors for a bit. It started great-I got a prime parking spot, and anyone who knows the INOVA healthplex parking is AWFUL. So I went to ask for my xray. Didn't have my wallet so had to run back to the car. Next to the primary car doc to get the referral. Took the elevator to wrong floor. Got back on and thought I got out at 3, but it was really 4. Took the steps down to 3 to get the referral. Back up the elevator to 5 where the doc is located. Get all checked in, wait....read...wait....read get into room wait....wait....read....wait...read...doze off wait....wait...read...wait...doze off....wait....read some more and finally doc comes in!

He looks at the xray and the report and this is what I have:

grade 1 spsondylolisthesis at the L5-S1 level
bilateral spondylolysis at the L5
small posteriour soteophytes
mild levoscoliosis

more here my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Back_Pain/hic_Spondylolysis.aspx

OK, I cannot figure out how people do the thing where they type "here" and a website shows up. Ugh.

translation:vertebrae out of place, arthritis, bone spurs...not sure of what else.

Basically the bone-the vertebrae- has little cracks in it and so it gives too much and slide behind the bone above it and is not in line with the rest of the spine where it should be. The Dr. was really nice and explained it to me with a little model of the spine and then showed it to me on the xray.

Also cool-the doctors bring in laptops to input all the information. He had a little trouble entering my prescription..."if I can figure out this computer" he said. Funny.

He gave me a muscle relaxer called "mobic" which he said was his favorite and he kept some in his medicine cabinet in case he needed any. When I filled it I got a warning from the pharmacist to "eat it with a meal...not just a banana, but a big meal or it really hurts your stomach" Nice. made sure I had a nice dinner tonight so I could get going on it.

I will also be starting physical therapy next week. I am crazy and have an apt at 6:30 am!! But I figured if I don't have to factor in child care it will be much better. The doc told me to work on my core because the more I strengthen it, the bone will have a chance to move back into place.

I also have bone spurs from arthritis. Lovely. It's fun to read the report of the xrays. I got online and looked up what all the words meant.

I asked the doc what forms of exercise I could do. He told me nothing jarring, no jumping and said specifically "no jumping jacks" Nice-I have been doing them in the biggest loser Wii game for about 3 weeks leading up to the pain I had that lead to all this. He told me I could do the elliptical or whatever has no impact. Interesting that the whole time I was losing weight way back when I did it all with swimming and doing the elliptical and didn't have any back issues. Hmmmm.......mo more Biggest Loser for a while.

Hoping to talk Darin into a membership to Lee Rec so I can swim.....tax money coming....

so that's the story.... a real "pain in the butt."