Phew!

So – I just realized that I haven’t updated all of you as to the latest on the journey. As I may have mentioned previously, for the past few months I’ve been experiencing a lot of lower back pain. I hadn’t been able to get it checked because, quite frankly, I didn’t have the time. It was the end of legislative session and my office was in the throes of getting bills passed. Meanwhile, at home we were building a new bedroom and bathroom for our exchange student (who we also had to get situated for her year). Oh, and then there were my existing two girls going back to school, plus repeated trips back and forth to Stanford for cancer treatment. So, my poor back took a “back seat” to everything else. 

But – the pain started screaming louder and louder. Dr. Fisher and his team kept trying solutions – mostly narcotics and other pharmaceutical fixes. He had mentioned getting an MRI in case the pain was due to spine metastasis. However, I kept putting that off. Why? Because frankly, if I had cancer in my spine, I didn’t want to know. Progression of disease means I’d be kicked off of my study. And – as I’ve written before, there aren’t a lot of options if I’m kicked off of my study. So – I lived with the pain and tried to ignore it.

After many sleepless nights, I carved out time to see a chiropractor. I figured this is just old age, so perhaps he can adjust me and off I go!

Interestingly, the day before I went to see the chiropractor, Dr. Fisher’s physician assistant, Dana, texted me just to check in and see how I was doing. I texted her back that my back continued to be in pain but that I’d be going to the chiropractor the following day.

Within seconds, I got a text back saying “no you won’t.” Apparently, when Dr. Fisher and Dana saw that I was thinking about going to a chiropractor they panicked. Without knowing if this was spine mets, getting treatment from a chiropractor could be extremely dangerous. He could end up breaking my spine.  But – Dr. Fisher did not believe that they would find mets. His guess was that my back problems could be chalked up to old age – either a bad disc or sciatica. But – he would not allow anyone to work on me until we had ruled out mets.

The appointment was canceled and I tried to figure out how much longer I could go on with the pain. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was down at Stanford for my infusion, and I convinced them to give me an MRI the next morning.

On Tuesday morning I spent two hours in the MRI machine – laying perfectly still. I don’t know if you’ve ever had an MRI, but it is like going into your coffin. I am not a person who has claustrophobia, but I sure as heck felt claustrophobic inside of that machine. 

So – let me cut to the chase – after many days of waiting for the results, I finally received a text from Dana making sure that someone had told me that my MRI was normal. I did not know. Interestingly, I received the text at our pre-Sunday School religious service. And – it came right before we said the shechechiyanu.  The shechechiyanu is the prayer of thanks. How amazing is it that I got that news right then. Furthermore, it came during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. To me, that meant that I was being inscribed in the Book of Life for the upcoming year.