Dr. 'Tude turned Dr. Awesome!

GOOD NEWS: I had a very satisfactory Dr.'s appointment, and am scheduled for surgery on February 22! Yay! I am so relieved. I am having lots of pain today, and had a hard time getting comfortable to sleep last night, but my head is in such a different place, that I was able to relax and deal! I can definitely see how people think that Dr. Tude is full of just that, attitude, but he was great with me! I think the fact that I came prepared, was ready to listen, work WITH him, really helped. He showed me my MRI...wow! I saw the herniated disc right away, and it was scary how big it is and how it is really bulging out and pressing on the nerve root so drastically. He had me stand (try) on my tippy toes and on my heels, and then he tried lifting my leg high while extending it, and everything was classic and pointed to only one solution, surgery. He said that this herniation will NOT ever resolve on itself, and so if I don't want to live with this pain forever (some people actually choose that over surgery!), then we needed to schedule surgery for as soon as he returned from his vacation next week. So Dr. 'Tude, I shall now rename you Dr. Awesome, because that's what you are! Knowing from my friend anesthesiologist and friend RN how good he is at what he does is such a bonus! He's even giving me a note to excuse me from class for a week. Yay! He said I should wake up from surgery, and notice right away that the pain down my leg is G.O.N.E. I'm not looking forward necessarily, to being put out, the IV, all that, but No Pain? Bring it on! It is a day surgery, and the DiSH is of course, going with me. My sister is all set to come stay with the kids. I can't lift ANYTHING for at least 2 weeks afterwards. Dr. Awesome was adamant in making sure I understood that things would only get better if I took proper care of myself AFTER the surgery. But, I am looking forward to being pretty much back to NORMAL by my birthday, March 20!! (also the first day of spring, YES!!) So there you go, my boring sciatica happenin's!!!