Elise has done well at using the "bells" to tell me that she needs to go outside. Note, however, that "outside" doesn't necessarily equate to "going potty". In a few days, Miss Elise will be 4 months old... and she's still challenging me with having to clean up from those times when she didn't ring the bell... or, perhaps, when I didn't listen. Kids! Sheesh!!!
I've been having difficulties recently with a hip that doesn't like me. This is on top of the back issues that have challenged me over the last nearly 20 years. In 1999, I fell while rock climbing (while on an all-night Boy Scout adventure) and broke my back. With Elise needing to be walked every hour or two, my right hip has really begun to complain. I've had moments of difficulty wherein I thought I was going to have to quit walking and sit down where I was at. And I've begun to have difficulty sleeping at night... being able to only sleep on my left side.
As many of you can testify, being an ALS caregiver can put some unexpected demands upon one's body. For some time, I've said... "I'll get my back fixed after I'm no longer care-giving and have the luxury of being able to take time for surgery." But with a hip that daily seems to get worse... and recognizing that I can't be a good caregiver if I can't walk or sleep... I decided to look into what was going on. I put a call into Billy, a long-time client and friend, who is also a neurosurgeon. Billy sent me for x-rays (2 of the hip and 2 of my lower back) and quickly scheduled me into his office.
This last Thursday, I visited Billy's practice and he showed me what he'd determined from the x-rays. There was good news! My hip looked okay. If anything, there was only some early indicators that might eventually point towards arthritis... but for today, was not an issue. And he noted that the titanium hardware that they'd used to hold my back together while it fused back together, still looked to be without complications. YES! "So what's causing my hip to hurt so much... and is causing it to keep getting worse?" He pulled up another x-ray and showed me the problem.
Apparently I have something called a "Grade 2 Spondylolisthesis of L5-S1". This is a condition wherein the disk between the Sacrum (S1) and the bottom-most Lumbar (L5) degenerates and allows the S1 and L5 to move out of alignment. Basically, they begin to "slip" apart. A "Grade 2" is where the separation (slippage) has reached a 50% misalignment (or thereabouts). That slippage is pulling on things that wouldn't normally [shouldn't] be pulled... and that is where the pain in my hip is originating. He wants to do surgery, now... as waiting will only see it get worse.
Billy was the first one to act to help Darcey towards her first evaluations when she began to have problems with her back and with walking (first symptoms of ALS). When she couldn't see the next doctor (a neurologist) for 3 months, he brought her into his office for initial testing and then arranged for her to see a neurologist the very next week. So he's followed on our ALS journey from the earliest of days. He understands that I'm Darcey's full-time caregiver... and that thinking about surgery is a very difficult prospect.
So, for the moment, we're going to just tackle this a single step at a time. In 9 days, I'm having an MRI done. This will allow him to better examine exactly what would need to addressed during surgery. And if I can't find a way to make surgery something that can be done, now... he's going to send me out for an epidural to help tackle the increasing pain and to buy me some additional time. But he's expressed that he really doesn't want this surgery to be put off for too very long.
If I had time, I could probably find a whole slew of reasons to become depressed. But I can already see that I'm going to have to do what I always do in such situations - identify the problem, figure out what needs to be done and then [somehow] find a way to make it happen. At the moment, all I can do is shake my head. I think it is going to be a far more interesting 2019 than I imagined. Anyway... thanks for letting me share.
My best to you all...
Jim