I'd met MY neurosurgeon last year before I had my spine surgery. He was the one who cut into my neck and did some hardware repair. Replete with screws and a titanium plate. You'll likely remember this photo:
You may be asking yourself "Why is Bob bringing THIS up again?"
Sad but true, folks, I'm having "issues" again.
This time, however, it's not so much the pain as the lack thereof. Oh, sure, there's pain. On a scale of one to ten, previously, the pain in my right arm was about a twenty. Since I don't do pain at all well (I'm a guy, after all), if what I felt before topped out at a ten, what I feel in my left arm now is about a five. So far, anyway.
It's the "lack thereof" is what's bugging me now. Since all those nerves are so intertwined, what can be felt as pain by one nerve bundle can also cause numbness. It's not constant, and usually wakes me up at night. Thus, I haven't been sleeping well. For depending on whether I lay on my left or my right, the numbness occurs in the opposite hand. And when I turn over in my sleep, the return of feeling is what wakes me up.
Laying on the right, the numbness occurs in my left pinky and half my ring finger. To the left, and it's my right index, middle, and half of the ring. And sometimes the same in my right hand as my left.
OK, I just heard a chorus of "HALF"?
[Cue the dermatome diagram]
Remember this? It's a dermatome. Dermatomes are diagrams of the human body and show which nerve bundles go where. Consider it a wiring diagram:
"Wait, Bob, isn't that where your disc degeneration was last year?"
No, that was between C6 and C7. Directly above the one I'm having problems with, now.
So what to do? Well, this post is titled Doc Peterson. MY neurosurgeon, remember?
I've an appointment with him on July 15th. Hopefully the pain and or numbness doesn't get any worse.
Cause it ain't gonna get better in the next two weeks.
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