Nothing completes a day like a trip to the ER

Yesterday I spent around 5 hours in the ER at Caritas Norwood Hospital in Norwood, MA. The staff at the ER was very friendly and took good care of me. I couldn't have asked for better care. How did I get there you ask? I slipped on the anti-slip mat in my shower in the hotel that morning, and caught myself with the grab rail. In doing so, I managed to wrench my back something fierce.

I was able to get finish showering, get out and get dressed, but something just wasn't right. I had pain shooting down through my groin and down my left leg. As I was leaving the hotel, I let the front desk know that I slipped on it and I'd like to see it fixed as it was dangerous. They said they'd take care of it for me. During the 20 minute drive to the stadium, it was getting much, much worse by the minute. The pain in the leg was accompanied by a tingling. When we got to the stadium, I stayed in the car, took a Vicodin I had for my upper back issue and hoped it would get better. The vicodin didn't affect it at all. I watched everyone else set up, and when they were almost done, had one of the drivers take me to the emergency room as it just seemed to be getting worse.

Long story short, they did a reflex test and my left leg was found to be weak in reaction and the tingling concerned them still. They did an MRI and found that I had a "severe" herniation of L5-S1. I was relased on a course of steroids to hopefully bring down the inflammation around the nerve root, Percocet to help alleviate the pain and instructions to follow up with a neurosurgeon here at home. I'm also not allowed to lift anything. Of course I had to break that a little bit in order to get home, but I managed to pull my suitcase everywhere, and have the cab drivers handle my luggage in and out of the cabs.

If anyone has any recommendations for good neurosurgeons in the NY Metro area, I'd be glad to take them.