Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me. I am very happy to read that at 77 you feel great and have a lot of life left as you do. I see my mother giving up at 79 now 81 and it has been a rough one on me , and my dad who is 87. I am pretty tough, as I can tell you are, and I do not let Drs ideas and decsions about my future determine my outcome. If I did I would have curled up in a ball 9 years ago with a pretty lousy cancer and I would not be here,, I will push through most everything , well actually everything thrown at me,,
I agree , second opinions are important, Prior to my surgery last year I spent 2 years seeking opinions from Orthopedic Surgeons,, who wanted to jump in there and do a 10 hour surgery with a 6 to 8 month recovery, I said no. We have one Neuro surgeon in this city of misfit Drs,,. he is a very good Surgeon.. He is the one I ultimately saw about doing the least invasive , which would be the laminectomy,,, So I did it,,. As I said the surgery pain was bad for 1 whole day and night, but I had relief for months from the actual pain, the rest of the surgery pain was nothing compared to the spinal pain,, I do admit I have done too much,, I went back to yard work and mowing my grass, I drew the line on pulling weeds!!! These were things I loved to do .. Sadly we had the hottest summer this year and I had no desire to go outside other than from car to place and home.. Now it is too cold for my bones, . 18 months of constant chemotherapy went straight to my bones,, I asked my Drs if I should be getting shots to help my bones, over my primaries head.. Most of what I do I advocate for myself as the medical where I live is less than adequate. I know some of my issues are genetic, (the scoliosis) I actually have it worse than my mom... Since the pain came back 10 fold and I had the new MRi I have been very good to my back,. No more heels for the day, i thought wedges would be safe , but they caused too much strain on my spine,,, no more rowing machine, I think that was the worse.. no more lifting 50 lbs of waters or shipping boxes.. I have to delegate , , I wish I had a rent a butler,. It is funny as I have always had a man in my life , useless or good I had one,, but from my cancer to now I propel them , I just dont want one, I am and always have been quite happy with myself and have always been a self supporter.. I must admit this is one time I have thoughts I wish I had someone to help me on a daily basis,, but paying my employee to help me with stuff is actually less of a hassle than having to deal with a man lol... I do have 2 tens units I forget I have so thank you for the reminder. I do have certain trigger points I believe using the machine on them may help... I am not keen on a second surgery, i would have to go up to Albuquerque a 4 hour drive for a second opinion, it may be worth it.. I don;t thin my surgeon here was all gung ho to get me into surgery,, I had misunderstand our chat about the MRI when he is talking about coming in to go over it I was talking about surgery in 3 weeks,.. Until I realized there was no way I could close my biz before xmas and take the time,,, so he was happy I took a step back,..and now I see him in January to go ovr everything,,, since then I have been better, because I looked at all possible triggers,, I have not had an extreme sciatica attack in 3 weeks. little ones but not severe.. If I can keep it that way it would be nice but I would still like to take walks., I want to go back to Europe, when I do i walk everywhere, for hours and hours, I want to be abe to do that again,,,I* am on a mission to get that part of my life back,, I wish you well... you keep going no matter what comes your way!!! I love a determined survivor and you seem to be just that,,, Happy Holidays!!