It's been a little more than 17 months since Nancy fell in Michigan. I think we both have come to the realization that her progress toward full recovery has slowed considerably over the past few months. While she can walk with a cane, it takes a considerable amount of effort and is very tiring. Simply getting into and out of bed on her own is a challenge. She does pretty well with a shopping cart in a store, but doesn't last as long as she would like. Some of that is because of me. I wear out in most stores long before she does.

Because of the lack of progress, Nancy decided to make an appointment with a neurologist to see what further steps might be possible. She did that in early December. The neurologist scheduled an MRI of Nancy's neck for the 19th and a return visit for the 27th. At that second visit, he told us that the area around her neck injury had healed as well as it was going to.

For some time Nancy has had trouble sitting in a chair and sleeping on her back because of persistent pain in her tail bone. To address that issue, the neurologist scheduled a second MRI for Tuesday, January 8, a nerve conduction test for the Thursday after that, and a return visit to his office on the 28th. On the Monday before the MRI, Nancy began to feel a great deal of pain in her hips and left leg. It got so bad by bedtime that I took her to the ER.

We arrived at the "Emergency" Room at 1 AM Tuesday morning. An announcement made over the speaker system notified us that waiting times up to 9 hours were likely. At 3:30 Nancy was taken back and placed on a bed in a hallway. At 4:30 a nurse showed up. At 6:00 a young doctor examined her and prescribed a muscle relaxant and a pain pill, which were administered at 7:00. The pain subsided by 8 AM, and we left the ER at 8:30. After a nap and a meal, we arrived at the Med Mall for her MRI shortly after 7 PM that day.

On the 10th, the neurologist's wife, also a neurologist, administered the nerve conduction test. After that exam, she insisted that her husband see Nancy immediately, which he did. He believed that there might be a problem with Nancy's tail bone and referred her to a neurosurgeon. We met with the neurosurgeon yesterday.

Aside: the neurosurgeon played on my little league baseball team in 1984. I don't believe he actually remembered me, and he has changed quite a bit from the little guy I remember in a Tiger uniform.

After an extended exam that included a close look at the MRIs, the neurosurgeon told us that her tail bone was in pretty good condition and surgery was NOT his first option to relieve her discomfort. He prescribed medication for the muscle spasms and some treatments to begin next week.