Small update. Well, not really.

I went in for my follow-up x-rays earlier today.

They were uncomfortable, but better than the first set. I am still in pain 24 hours a day, but everyone seems to take comfort in the fact that it doesn't seem to be slowing me down much. It does make it difficult to find a comfortable position to sit or sleep, but I am still able to function, which is good. I just try to ignore the pain most of the time.

I know that the x-ray technicians can't comment on what they see when taking my x-rays, but I did manage to coax the gal into letting me look at them. So of the 4 x-rays she took, I got a total of about 10 seconds to look over them(from 4 feet away on a 10 inch monitor) as she flipped through them quickly. I also now know what the "Scotty Dog" is. lol

I am not a Doctor, and do not claim to know anything about what I was seeing, however, it was REALLY cool to see MY spine. Getting over how cool it was to see my discomfort on film, I didn't see any floating bones or hugely obvious cracks. Even considering the short time I got to glance at these, that was at least comforting. I may have even been looking at the wrong area. *shrug*

I know the Doctor will spend more than 2-3 seconds looking at each image, so I can only hope he figures out what is wrong with my back. A strain, a crack, a break, honestly I don't care at this point. I should get another letter in the mail next week.... Yes, I did ask if I could get a call or a consult with the Doctor today, and because it wasn't marked as "Stat" in my file, he'll probably take a look at them on Monday....

I just want to be able to wake up and think, "Thank goodness, no pain!"

I really can thank my idiot Doctor from Eugene for ignoring my pleas to investigate further when my gallbladder was going nuts. I really built up my pain tolerance in that year and a half of hell.

Ok, done with my whining and venting.

Niceguy appears to be more worried than I had originally thought. When I'm over visiting, he checks on me constantly. If I squirm or have a pained expression, I'm having to confirm I'm okay. I'm not really used to someone being so attentive. Normally it's the expectation that I'll be the attentive one. Kinda weird. *shrug* I do try to hide the pain from him as much as possible, because I feel really bad when he's concerned. He can get jumpy at times, and try to wait on me hand and foot. As long as I'm able, I would really prefer to do stuff myself. He's slowly figuring this out. lol

Anyways....

I've been trying to work on the kiddos scarves when I do manage to find a comfortable position on the couch. Since I'm adding something to it this year, it's slow going.... I have finished four of those "added somethings", and am only about half-way through one scarf. My goal is to have them all done two weeks from today. We'll see.... *nervous chuckle*

Midas' cat peed all over the yarn I had out for the remaining stuff, so I had to go pick up more yarn today. (Yes, I am restraining myself from stringing him up by his tail outside.) Just my luck, seasonal yarns at Michael's were almost completely sold out. So I had to get a couple of new colors from the craft store. It was a bit more expensive than I usually steer toward, but I do like the yarn.

I should get back to it.

We'll see what the weekend brings.

Love to all!




Oh yea, are you curious what the "Scotty Dog" is? I was too, so here's some info for you, as well as an idea as to what my Doctor is specifically looking for.

The Scotty Dog Sign is a radiological finding.

In an oblique view of a normal lumbar spine, the outline of a Scotty Dog can be seen. The transverse process is the nose. The pedicle is the eye. The pars interarticularis is the neck. The superior articular facet is the ear. The inferior articular facet is the front leg.

A break in the neck of the dog, or a black dog collar, corresponds to a fracture in the region of the pars interarticularis, which is specific for spondylolysis.