Now the ?? of the hour... how long before surgery??

We had a bit of a scare with Scott's back condition last night. I wish I could say it's over & done with, but looks like we'll be pursuing treatment for surgery with a vengence.

Scott is having episodes about every other day where his pain is so intense and shocking pain radiates down into his legs & feet that he can't stand... or sit... or lay.... there's nothing he can do for relief. This pain is REALLY awful. And we feel so helpless when he's having an episode. If I could figure out what he was doing to make the episode happen, then of course he's stop, but doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason...

His next surgeon appointment isn't until Jan 14th. Up til now he's been trying to manage the pain with drugs. But I don't think it's helping....

Last night, in the midst of a small group meeting, Scott had the worst episode yet. He lost use of his right leg & the men in the group helped him get situated until the pain lessened. We decided he needed to be seen at the hospital.

We called the surgeon & went to the hosptial at 10:00pm (got home at 3:00 this morning). The ER gave him injections of strong pain relievers (& prescriptions for more) to help get him through the night and instructions for follow-up appointments. Hmmmpf.... $100 copay for that?!
AND... the icing-on-the-cake.... the surgeon actually griped at Scott for calling at 10pm. He thought Scott was fishing for a pain prescription & basically told Scott he'd see him at the appointment on the 14th. Trust me... I heard it myself! I was appalled. What kind of Dr. doesn't take his patient's pain seriously?! We were having poor patient follow-up with this guy to begin with... but this was too mcuh. Needless to say, we're waiting to make an appointment with a different surgeon. We got good recommendations from the neuro-radiologist & from the ER for another guy. And we've made an appointment with the Pain Management Specailist Scott's been seeing to get an epidural injection until surgery happens.

Now the ?? of the hour... how long before surgery??
Tomorrow Scott will have a culture ran to see if he still has MRSA (staph infection).

I'll keep you updated.