yet again

I ended up back in hospital again last month.

Following three or four days of excruciating back pain I contacted my consultant who advised me to go to our local Accident and Emergency (A&E) hospital.

After a very long wait and a very uncomfortable examination I was eventually x-rayed late at night.  The x-rays however showed no new fractures which on the one hand is good news but on the other meant I was no nearer finding out the cause of my crippling pain.

The orthopaedic doctors suspected a condition called Malignant Spinal Cord Compression, a condition I was warned about following my myeloma diagnosis as, while rare, it can attack myeloma patients.

But a closer examination of the X-rays by a spinal surgeon has revealed that one of the rods in my back is cracked, and one of the screws has eroded some of the bone away from its fixing point.  The upshot is that I have one vertebra doing the job of five - hence the pain.

I was going to insert an image of my spine, but thought you'd rather see this picture of Dexter at a month old instead

So relief that there is no tumour there.

The remedy is extensive surgery, including a wedge being cut into a vertebra, my back being straightened somewhat and then a titanium rod being fitted from the base to the top of my spine to keep it straight.

This is not something I really fancy having doing.  So I'm not; for now anyway.  If the pain becomes more severe or permanent in nature then I'll have to go down that route I guess.