Catchy tunes...

Don't you hate it when you're going about your daily business and a song is playing in the background and then you get it stuck in your head all day? That happened to me the other day. I googled trying to find the name of the song, and it came up- "Aint No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant.

Working at Rock N Rev in Sturgis, I saw Cage the Elephant perform live. They put on what was in my opinion an awful show. I don't recall them playing this song, but they very well may have. The lead singer looked like her was having seizure on stage. While it wasn't my choice of music, and I couldn't see the appeal in it, I figured the kids must like it. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they sang a song that I liked.

Yes, I did buy the song on iTunes.

New doesn't=good

In recovering from my back injury, I'm feeling new things now. The latest is an occasional numbness in my mid back. I can't place anything that causes it to happen or to not happen. If it continues through tomorrow, my Nuerosurgeon told me to go to the ER. Great.

Never Forget

Approaching the 9th anniversary, I share with you this picture taken September 11, 2009. I'm not one big into revenge. I simply say Never Forget, and Thank You to all the brave men and women who worked tirelessly at ground zero.

Manged Healthcare

I just went through an ordeal with insurances over the past 3 hours. Basically because I got hurt in a hotel that I was in for work, it is covered under workman's comp apparently. Even though I wasn't working at the time. "They" decided that we're covered under workman's comp from the moment we leave our homes until we get back home.

Workman's Comp also initially decided that I didn't need to see a Doctor today. Well, they weren't sure that I needed to. Since the claim was just filed, they didn't have time to review it. They decided that they weren't going to approve the visit. Since it's now Workman's comp, I can't pay with my insurance, and they Doctor won't take me if I'm paying cash. In the end, it all got worked out, but it was a lot harder than it needed to be. Mike who I work with texted me after I told him the story "Government managed Healthcare. If you think it's bad now, just wait."

I truly hope that he's wrong, but I fear he's right. I think that while the intention of correct with the Healthcare Bill, I'm afraid the execution of it is going to get screwed up. My being allowed to go to the Doctor today basically came down to a financial decision. Was it cheaper for WC to pay for the appointment or to have to pay whatever fraction of my Salary for the week I would get if I wasn't cleared to work. Healthcare shouldn't be a financial thing. It should be a care based thing, and everyone knows that. Unfortunately those currently in control of healthcare are business people, not medical professionals.

The Doctor (who MIGHT be a year older than me) said that I do indeed have show classic symptoms of someone dealing with an impingement of the S1 nerve on the left side. Typically they try and let these things heal themselves, and that takes 4-6 weeks. They try to manage the pain as best they can while the body heals. The fact that the pain is going away shows that steroids are working and he says that's a good thing. The bad news is the course of steroids will start to wear off, and the pain may come back. If it gets unbearable, I can go to a Pain Management specialist and essentially get epidurals right in the spot where the pain is. This would be a higher dose, right at the disc. There would be 3 shots over 3 weeks. I'm currently scheduled to go back and see him in 3 weeks to see where it is going. I'm to call him if the pain gets worse again. As for the tingling, that's a sign that there is never damage, either chemically from the stuff that was in the disc, or physically from when the disc ruptured.

I get to work still, just not lifting anything over 10lbs. I leave for Philly in the morning.

Update

I'm still in some pain, and the tingling hasn't gone away at all. In fact, it spread to the outside of my left hand. The pain has lessened, which tells me that the steroids are probably working. I was able to get an appointment for Wednesday evening with a Neurosurgeon, so hopefully I'll find out more. I'm currently scheduled to leave for work again on Thursday morning, but that's up in the air.

As far as not being able to lift anything, that's tough in every day life, especially when you live alone. How are you supposed to do laundry, dishes, etc?

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.

Mystery Solved

I fly alot. So much so that I fall into a special category for my airline that represents the top 10% of their fliers. I have over a million frequent flier miles. Imagine my surprise when there were 14 people upgraded ahead of me on a recent flight from EWR to DEN. I don't get upgraded on every flight, but generally if there are 14 people upgraded on a particular flight, I'm going to be one of them. Flying from DEN back to EWR 4 days later, there were 15 people upgraded to First Class, and I was still # 5 on the list. I haven't flown any less this year than in the past. I had to get to the bottom of what was going on.

Come to find out, that many of these people who were upgraded either paid their way into First Class or used miles to upgrade. Continental recently began offering this as an option to customers, and the fees for this varies. Usually it's 15,000 miles/segment though. I never thought that there would be that many people who would pay sometimes $300+ for it. Kudos to Continental for apparently finding another revenue stream.

Bonus- For those of you who read this and guess on the Airport pictures on FB, the Great Lakes Brewing Company picture is from Cleveland.