So, after a week of progressively worsening pain for Andrew, a neurosurgery visit, an orthopedist visit, and a pain clinic visit, it was absolutely necessary to load up on empty calories at McDonald's late this afternoon.
The reader's digest version of it is that Andrew has a sterile psoas muscle abscess. Although he does have two herniated discs from an IED explosion in Iraq in 2005, these are not causing the pain he is experiencing. We're not sure what's causing the abscess, but because it's sterile (not infected), there's not a clear cut solution. The neurosurgeon, orthopedist, and general surgeon do not believe that surgery to drain the abscess will help Andrew. For now, all they can tell us is that he has to continue to treat his pain with medication and try to avoid moving in ways that hurt him. No problem. He'll just lie there all day, never sit or stand, never work, never pick up his kids, never walk. Apparently, this is not a common issue, and most doctors we've talked to don't have any experience treating it. Fantastic. We've done our own research with limited medical sources, but everything we've read says something different about treatment options and efficacy. Ughh...
After driving all around Atlanta today (some of those miles unnecessarily), and missing the blood test part of my glucose test (after drinking that nasty juice), I enjoyed every last french fry.
Pray for Andrew...he's in a lot of pain, isn't able to do very much for himself, and we don't know what the time table is for treatment/recovery/resolution. I can only imagine what that must feel like if you have a growing family to support.
Pray for me...I'm trying to stay strong and positive. I'm trying not to freak out. And there aren't enough french fries in the world to keep that at bay right now.
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