We’re at the hospital for a pain management procedure for the wife. She’s been having issues with her lower back for the past few years but only recently has it become more acute. We’ve tried all the usual remedies, working our way up the ladder towards something more involved and because pretty much nothing else has worked sufficiently (PT, OTC medication, chiropractor) we’ve decided to take the plunge and get something stronger.
As with many things of this nature, it’s not all cut and dried when it comes to pain management. With American medicine, one has to jump through a few hoops in order to get what you need. And woe is the person that doesn’t have quality insurance. Between mine from work and her Medicare we rarely get a bill that exceeds $100 USD. Not everyone is so fortunate.
We’re in the ‘hurry up and wait’ stage of the process, having driven to the hospital this morning and got checked in at the surgical suite on the 2nd floor. The hospital itself is a new facility that was built from scratch when the old hospital was absorbed into the University of Rochester a year or so ago. So of course with the big infusion of money comes all the bells & whistles that a new building is going to get (TV in the waiting area, automated bp monitor etc).
Naturally I chose not to eat anything this morning and only drank sparingly since we were going to be here rather than in a location where the bathroom might not be readily accessible.
For all the waiting, at least the procedure itself apparently went off without a hitch. 20 minutes end to end and she was back in the alcove with me, waiting for the doctor to finish with his exit instructions. We were headed home about 15 minutes later and she’s been not quite pain free, but feeling better than she was before the whole thing started that morning. We have a follow-up in about 10 days, so we’ll see if this works. Fingers crossed it does.
Peace out.