S
supermom3
Guest
Hi~
I don't know if any of you with back problems also deal with anxiety about your health, but I do . . . over a year ago I had an MRI because I was dealing with bad stiffness and pain (mainly stiffness) in my low back and hips - the MRI revealed disc degeneration between L4 and L5, and it also showed mild arthritis in the facet joints surrounding these two discs. I had 2 appts. for steroid injections - the first one was done between the two discs - pain free for 4-5 weeks, and then pain and stiffness was back, so the 2nd appt was an injection in the facet joints. (this injection provided relief for less time than the first.)
Fast forward to August of this year (last month) I found a different spine doctor who looked at the MRI and checked out my mobility pain range, etc., and suggested a steroid injection, but he performed the injection in a different area of my low back (can't remeraber what the area was called). Anyway, the left side was worse than the right to begin with, and I was pain-free on both sides for a couple of weeks, and then the left-side pain came back - now he wants me to see a Neurosurgeon - he is now saying I have Spinal Stenosis, and he wants me to see if the Neurosurgeon agrees with him on me getting a discectomy (sp?) - my anxiety comes in with the fact that tomorrow I am getting an MRI (the neuro wants a current one), and because I have been dealing with health/cancer anxiety, my thought lately was, "what if they find something on the MRI? - like cancer) - I was just wondering if other people think like this? Any thoughts would be great, and sorry for the LONG post!
thanks!
supermom3
I don't know if any of you with back problems also deal with anxiety about your health, but I do . . . over a year ago I had an MRI because I was dealing with bad stiffness and pain (mainly stiffness) in my low back and hips - the MRI revealed disc degeneration between L4 and L5, and it also showed mild arthritis in the facet joints surrounding these two discs. I had 2 appts. for steroid injections - the first one was done between the two discs - pain free for 4-5 weeks, and then pain and stiffness was back, so the 2nd appt was an injection in the facet joints. (this injection provided relief for less time than the first.)
Fast forward to August of this year (last month) I found a different spine doctor who looked at the MRI and checked out my mobility pain range, etc., and suggested a steroid injection, but he performed the injection in a different area of my low back (can't remeraber what the area was called). Anyway, the left side was worse than the right to begin with, and I was pain-free on both sides for a couple of weeks, and then the left-side pain came back - now he wants me to see a Neurosurgeon - he is now saying I have Spinal Stenosis, and he wants me to see if the Neurosurgeon agrees with him on me getting a discectomy (sp?) - my anxiety comes in with the fact that tomorrow I am getting an MRI (the neuro wants a current one), and because I have been dealing with health/cancer anxiety, my thought lately was, "what if they find something on the MRI? - like cancer) - I was just wondering if other people think like this? Any thoughts would be great, and sorry for the LONG post!
thanks!
supermom3
