Another perspective

Today I had an appointment with a spinal specialist at Blusson Spinal Cord Centre. I went in and it was a typical doctor’s appointment, cold room, gown goes on, very little speaking and the doctor gets straight to the point. But I understand... the doctors are in high demand and there is little time to waste.

First we went through some tests to measure the severity of my symptoms and if there is any nerve damage. He found slight weakness in a couple tests which is great improvement. This was a different story 1 month ago when I had no signal going through to my calf...quite alarming. After the assessment the doctor debriefed my situation. As always there is conflicting information in the medical world. Each practitioner has their own doctrine. The surgeons prescribe surgery, the sports med doctors prescribe pain killers, the physiotherapists prescribe core exercises. This is what they have dedicated their time studying and practicing and it is impossible to know it all. As a patient you have to be just that, patient, when getting different people’s opinions. As the patient it is my job to be open to this information and take with me what feels right. Today this specialist earned my trust when he started speaking past the symptoms. Yes he went over the physical situation, disc herniations, pressure on the nerve ect. but what he went over with me that other people have not is why at such a young age am I experiencing such severe disc degeneration?

He talked to me about spinal tightness. The spine in most 20 year old females should move like an elastic band when one bends over. On average there should be about 10cm of movement I am currently getting 3cm...no wonder I feel like a rigid board when I am moving. He went on to speak about how core exercises make disc pain worse and that I should stop all treatment that I am having done now because it could actually cause more damage to my nerve. Hmmm....and that is where my confusion and hesitation set in. I go to one person and they tell me one thing then I go to another and I get a whole other philosophy....so what to do? As I mentioned earlier I just pick out the information that I like and form my own philosophy!

Another interesting point that the doctor talked about was regarding the body’s reaction to the jelly material inside the nucleus of the disc. In my L5-S1 I have a large herniation where the jelly material is extruded and pushing on my nerve. He said that this material is flagged as a foreign body and the immune system attacks it. He said that it is different in every person but sometimes that jelly material can be like battery acid and as soon as it hits the nerve it goes dead. Since I am dealing with a bad cough right now that came on since I have been healing from this injury I immediately saw the connection between disc herniations and sequestrations and immune system function. I knew that there is a lot of stress placed upon the body when one is dealing with a physical injury but I didn’t know that the white blood cells rush to the site of disc herniation.

So what to do....visualize the nerve healing and my body absorbing the extruded jelly material with the help of systemic enzymes all while pursuing comfort.