Pain, Pain. Go Away

I woke up this morning to find that moving my arms alone would sent spasms of pain down my back. It is never a good morning where the simple act of eating breakfast is accompanied by grimaces and groans. So I wisely climbed back into bed and called for a sick day. I slept for a good part of the day, talk with friends through facebook and read a book that had been sitting on my shelf for a long time. It was a good day. 

The pain however did not make it a great day. Sitting in an upright position for any length of time is difficult. I can bend my head easily to the left but trying to do that on the right and my body tightens and I'm in serious pain. And all this makes me wonder whether I should have had surgery a year ago. 

In February of 2007 I was in Turks and Caicos with my family and I got certified for scuba diving. I came back with a pretty card that said I could do it any time I wanted to and a very stiff neck. In May I went again, this time to Bull Shoals, Arkansas. It was a wonderful weekend but again this time I came back with a seriously enflamed neck and the fact that my arm went numb every time I leaned forward. I put off going to the doctor but finally went at the end of summer. I had an MRI and found out that a disc in my neck was herniated. The radiologist later told my dad that it was one of the largest herniations he had ever seen. I was somehow not comforted.

Now I have a family history of disc problems. My mother had one and ended up using traction to get hers back in line. My brother came within days of surgery for his. So I knew enough to be dangerous. My doctor suggested a surgeon. I ignored him. Now I wonder how smart that was. I read up a lot on herniation surgery to find out that most of the time it only treated the symptoms. And that I had just as great a chance of being in pain after the surgery than I did before. The numbness had gone away and after a year of recovery so did the pain. 

A majority of the time I am perfectly good. I don't even have to baby my neck all that much. But every couple of months, particularly in periods of stress, the pain returns sometimes more vicious than the last. Today is bad. I could hardly move. Tomorrow I'm sure I'll be back at work, doped up on muscle relaxers and pain pills. But it does make me wonder. And grimace.