Fear

[cjsmith]

Today I am facing my fear that the surgery won't help.

It might do very little. Of the problems visible with MRI, only one will be corrected by surgery.

The way I face fear is by making plans. If the surgery doesn't help I will, in this order:

1. Ice a lot. Continue this while trying other steps.
2. Try a heavy dose of anti-inflammatories for a brief period to see what happens.
3. Ask Dr. O about causes/recommendations for the tendon and ligament problems (actual question probably asked earlier, at surgery time). Try injected corticosteroid if offered. Try physical therapy tailored to this problem if offered.
4. Try acupuncture.
5. Stop the ice and try prolotherapy.
6. Go to a pain clinic. This step is the end of the line for me, so the next step is...
7. Accept the problem as permanent and learn to love being a physically inactive person.

Comments

Re: p.s. #4 acupunture

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you - yes, I'll take her contact info, please! Few people seem to have acupuncturists they love, at least in the South Bay. Palo Alto's a little far for regular appointments but it's worth a try.

ozone and acupunture

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Replying to both ozone and acupunture:

Here are some preliminary comments on ozone (written by me).
This first one starts from where I assume you are (no idea,
or maybe heard of it slightly):
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/message/145621
This one is a little sideways, but does give some context
a little bit, about ozone:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/message/145687
Then this one, written by Michele, has a very nice
explaination of ozone, actuallyhttp://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Mercury/message/145768
Now, none of these are terribly comprehensive, but they
are recent and thus easy for me to find. (Oh, and those
links will "work" you don't need to "join".)
I do suggest reading the book I mentioned there. I actually
have videos I could loan you too, and there are many other
websites, books, blah blah blah, and some lists about ozone
as well. Ozonated oil (not quite as effective as ozone gas)
is cheap and portable, so you could try it for a while.
Ozone (the gas) is more effective but much more complex to
obtain and much pricier to try (if you want to come to my
house a few times a week and use my machine, we can discuss
that.)

Another way would be to look a lot more at the various
diagnoses you have and try to find info on whether ozone
is likely to help (which I don't know right off the bat).

Also talking (by phone or in person, or even IM) might
be a bit more productive than this is as a way to transfer
information in a way that is useful.

Acupunturist: Dea Burmeister 650-328-7909, please say I
sent you. (For other readers who don't know me, please
say Moria sent you.) BTW, she is not particularly looking
for business (she has plenty) but will take new people.
Suggest calling BEFORE you want the appt if possible--
I generally book at least a month out, as her calendar
gets full and I prefer having a choice of times. She's
at 541 Cowper Street, in the building that says it is a
yoga studio (which it is) (there are offices in there too);
1/2 block south of Hamilton. Again, ask anything you
want to know.

Re: ozone and acupunture

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking the time to put together this explanation!

I looked at the links (haven't, obviously, read the book at this point) and it seems that the chief benefit of ozone therapy would be to take out bacteria, viruses, and various bodily toxins. I'll check with my doctor about just what kind of damage I have to those tendons and ligaments. I'm pretty sure there's no infection going on. The structures are "thickened", and that could mean inflammation, edema, scar tissue, probably other things I haven't thought of myself... who knows what. I have the MRI images but I'm not trained to read them.

Thank you for the acupuncture recommendation! It's the first one I've ever gotten. She'll be the first person I want to check out.

Re: ozone and acupunture

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

I had to think about what you said here about ozone (and what I had said that you read) and take time to wonder how close-to-correct or far-from-correct it is to categorically summarize it as useful for viruses/bacteria/toxins. Clearly it IS useful for all those, and I DO think of it that way exactly, and I do think that is A LOT OF what it does. Yet I think this is incomplete for a couple of different reasons.
a. I think there are some (other) known biological reactions to ozone in the body that I'm less familiar with (or at least less articulate about)
b. "just" getting rid of viruses/bacteria/toxins probably results in some things getting helped that we would not "expect". I'm not claiming I know the exact interactions, but cancer and back disc problems can/often-are helped by ozone, which might not exactly seem obvious from the prior comments.
One of the "problems" for me of knowing (some) about ozone (and this also applies to other way-out stuff I know about) is that I'm often not sure what it is "good for" exactly (and to what degree). Few instance, here are A FEW of the conditions that the European-based medical society for ozone says that they use (or recommend?) ozone for: acne, arthritis, asthma, cancers, constipation, glaucoma, scars after radiation, senile dementia, ulcers..... (The list I'm copying from is fairly old, as I'm copying from a book. I picked a small % of the things listed. No doubt a newer list is online somewhere.)
I don't usually suggest therapies "randomly", I generally do it because something tickles some particular data or reasoning. (Oh, I could go on here....) I think (not sure) in your case it was more the "end of the line" idea. That is, a motivated person (which you obviously are) may want to consider ozone (and actually lots of other things, I meant it also as an example) before giving up forever. Also, for a motivated person there are a lot of options, and some things work PARTIALLY or IF APPLIED CONSISTENTLY. Which is good for motivated people but not much interest otherwise.
(Oops, just looked at the clock, gotta go.)
Best, Moria