UPDATE FROM ER:
First of all, kudos to the Poinciana Medical Center ER and staff. That was by far the best ER experience I've ever had. Saturday morning at 9 a.m. is an excellent time to arrive as I was the only patient at that point and was taken right back.
All the nurses and the doctor who took care of me were excellent. We were in and out in under two hours.
They did a CT scan of my lower back and gave me a shot of a strong muscle relaxer and a narcotic pain med by mouth and sent me home with three prescriptions: 5 days of Prednisone 20 mg, 15 days of the narcotic pain pill, and 15 days of the muscle relaxer in pill form. None of these have refills. Currently, Mark is heading to CVS to get these meds.
The diagnosis was spinal stenosis and degenerative arthritis of the spine in L3/L4 and L5/S1. There is no actual cure, and it will continue to flare up and subside the rest of my life.
This WAS NOTHING that I suspected it might be. The doctor advised against going on the trip. At this point, Mark is taking the Travel Guard insurance papers back over to the doctor to have him fill them out, since he said don't go on the cruise. The nurse said she did not think we would get our money back on this diagnosis, but it's worth a try. Otherwise, the $4,000 already spent is just gone. We are okay with that. The ship might refund the shore excursion money at least. The airfare is probably lost, too, but we will call Westjet and try to find out. I've already called the travel agent about cancelling the cruise, and I'm waiting for her to call back.
This is a terrible diagnosis in that it means flare ups and debilitating pain for the rest of my life.
THIS ALL SUCKS!
We went to shul yesterday for second day Succoth services, and when I got out of the car, I had intense pain in the lower back and was unable to stand up straight and barely able to walk. Occasionally, in the past month I've had some lower back pain, but it was never this intense and usually went away with just a little time sitting down.
NOT THIS TIME!
I couldn't even stand up during the services. I made it to the end of services by just sitting them out. Then we left and went home. I took three of my muscle relaxers (that is 6 mg of Tizanidine, not a huge dose), more Advil, and lay on the couch with the heating pad. I fell asleep for a few hours, and then I fully expected to get up and be fine.
NOT THIS TIME!
Now it is morning and I'm still the same. I got up four times during the night to go to the bathroom, and it was sheer torture each time to stand up. I started using the cane from back with the knees just to help stabilize me as I walk.
We may have to cancel this entire trip to Quebec. At least we have travel insurance! It will pay us back if a doctor says I'm not fit to travel, so as soon as Mark is dressed, we are going to the local ER across the street. I want to know if this is just the lower back muscles spasming or something worse in the spinal cord. I am hoping they can do some x-rays or scans to see what is the problem and give me an opinion on whether or not I can actually do this. Right now, I don't think I could even walk from one end of the ship to the other, let alone do all the shore excursions we have planned. I know that the airport can provide wheelchair transportation to get me out to the plane, but getting in and out of a cab? Carrying my luggage? Getting anywhere hurts, so I really don't think I will enjoy this cruise if something doesn't change.
Unless the ER docs think that some stronger muscle relaxers and/or pain meds and some time will cure this, we will probably have to cancel.
I will update this blog when we get back from the ER with the results. Stay tuned.
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