Exciting Day

The tattoo that will not be screwed up by surgery.

Bad news first: MRI shows that I have a herniated cervical disc (C5 if you are curious). It is very odd to watch someone using a mouse to scroll through cross sections of my spinal cord. Actually, odd is the wrong word; freaky is a better word. The verdict is that we wait and see if it improves over the next two weeks. If it improves, we go the physical therapy route. If it does not improve, surgery.

The good news is that if it is surgery, they at least don't have to screw up the tattoo to do it.

My therapist any psychiatrist both are vehemently opposed to my taking Vicodin, which is what the Orthopedist prescribed for pain. They want me on Neurontin instead, which is not a narcotic. My Orthopedist said, no, I won't perscribe Neurontin. It takes a couple of weeks for that to build up in the bloodstream and become effective and in a couple of weeks you'll either be in surgery or physical therapy. He also says that Neurontin is much less effective for the pain.

I'm torn here. As a recovering alcoholic, I don't want to get hooked on synthetic codiene, which is what Vicodin is. On the other hand, I am in agony and I really don't want to return to treating this pain with Advil because that just sucked. I am leaning toward continuing the Vicodin. What do you other drunks think?

Other good news: My participation in Jesus' General Operation Yellow Elephant garnered me a mention and a link on his blog. So, for the first time ever, I have gotten over 1,000 hits in a day... way over a 1,000.

So, welcome guests!! Do stay around a while. In addition to blatant liberalism, you get to see pictures of kilts, Wiccans and babies. Topics include liberal politics, babies, alcoholism and recovery and on occasion sex. So, pull up a chair and feel free to hang out for a while.

Bad news: None, I repeat, none of the Republican/Conservative organizations emailed me back after my very polite suggestion that they include a link to the army recruiting page on their sites. Looks like they are yellow in every way, not just when it comes to war. I am going to press on and push for them to include the links. We'll see what happens.