Quick note: I said previously that it would take me at least two parts to tell everything, but it looks like 4 or 5 parts. Maybe even six. I'll try to leave out the mundane details (do you really need to know the results of my blood tests?) or common sense stuff (i.e. hospital food can get really old, really fast).
So on Jan. 14th, I decided to stop being stubborn and go to the ER. If something was wrong, hopefully they'd figure it out for me and at least maybe get strong pain medication. After getting checked in and escorted to an ER room, we saw a nurse that said the on call doctor wanted to order a couple tests. One of which was an x-ray. Now, let me backtrack a bit. When I said I had back pain, I didn't really have constant back pain. It was sore where the pain would be, but as long as I sat/stood still or didn't move my back wildly, I was pretty ok. Bending, twisting, stretching.... that was when it felt like getting stuck with a hot poker.
So they load me onto a stretcher and wheel me down to get an x-ray, which requires me to lay flat on a cold metal table. Flat. I had no issues laying on my side, but once I tried to flatten out on my back, it sent me overboard with pain. Even with a pain medication injection, it still hurt but I was able to lay on my back (still in a lot of pain) for the 3-4 minutes they needed to get the x-rays. And after about another 2 hours of waiting we get the results... they don't see anything wrong and prescribed me a stronger hydrocodone pain pill called Norco.
After the issue with the x-ray table, I was afraid to try and lay in the bed but I managed to get in on my side gently and get a few hours of sleep. The next day my wife's stepfather "borrowed" a recliner from my wife's grandmother and brought it over so I could sleep in it, at least until my back was feeling better.
Over the next couple days I didn't notice a huge difference in my back pain. I'd be fine, and then I'd tweak my back something awful doing the most innocuous of actions. Luckily we had a walker left over from a 2012 surgery that I was using to support myself getting around the house. I used it to help me get up from sitting positions and keep my back straight. I was glad I had it.
January 17th I was up late on the computer after my wife had already gone to bed. I had gotten up a couple times from my computer chair to stretch my legs and get some water already. It was when I got up a third time that triggered everything. As I lifted myself and went to grab the walker in front of me, it felt like my hip and my entire left leg gave out. Without any leg support, I lunged forward grasping at the walker to hold me up. The walker did it's job and I didn't fall to the ground luckily, but unluckily the walker was too far forward to keep me upright and I folded in half. The pain in my back was excruciating. I yelled out and stood up as much as I could when my wife came running out to see what happened.
Again, I pushed my stubbornness aside and asked to go to the ER. At this point, I knew something was seriously wrong and I needed to know what could be done to fix it (instead of the pain meds and rest I had been spoon fed to this point). Again, after the waiting game we were told that I would need x-rays again. Great. Not only was I not looking forward to trying to lay flat again, what would x-rays 3 days apart tell the doctors. My hopes were not high, but I told me wife I wasn't leaving until we had a definitive answer from someone what my issue was.
A 30 minute hassle of getting me doped up and laying flat for the x-rays, and another wait for a doctor to come in we finally got news. It's news we didn't want to hear and didn't like, but it was news to finally solve my back issue. The x-ray found compression fractures in my spine, namely the t-8 and t-9 vertebra (which is about the middle of the back). Compression fractures are commonly seen in older people, especially men and women with osteoporosis, so this came as a surprise to not only us, but the doctors as well. They are caused by the bone losing it's density over time, becoming weaker and more fragile. The spinal column can crack under pressure very easily and that's what they think it did. So they admitted me to the hospital, got me into a room and wanted to get more tests done. In addition, they informed my primary physician and my oncologist to review my case and weigh in.
One thing they were worried about was the spread of my cancer to the bones. It was entirely possible I had bone metastases from my melanoma tumors that weakened my spine in that area. They wanted to get an MRI and a bone scan done to further determine what the cause was and the action we needed to take. Because I had trouble laying on my back and the fact the MRI would take a lot longer than x-rays would, the decision was made to give me anesthesia to knock me out for the duration. The bone scan they did a couple days later but used strong pain killers to dope me up first.
The results were the inconclusive; they reaffirmed the compression fractures but were unsure of the cause. My wife and I made the decision to transfer me to Emory, where my primary oncologist team was. They were more familiar with my cancer case and clinical trial and we felt more comfortable having them deal with it if it did turn out to be bone mets.
(cont in pt 3)
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