Hi everyone! I went to Lake Tahoe over the weekend for 2 nights with my family. I did take it easy, even foregoing to the beach with the kids, but I did swim a lot and walked more than I have in 2 months.

I did lie flat on my back mostly for 2 months and Ive had it! I can't keep this up, but I'm scared stiff about moving wrong and doing more damage. The general pain is better in my back, but radiculopathy in my abdomen and legs is terrible, flares up bad when I've been up, doing anything. I've been doing light chores around the house- nothing that requires bending or twisting, but i've been dusting, vacuuming- with a canister vacuum that my daughter plugs in for me, and folding clothes while sititng down, etc. No dishes or anything like that since I'm too tall and have to stoop over the sink, just rinsing off a dish hurts me, and get this, our dishwasher broke too. LOL! My hubby is having to hand wash the dishes now for a family of 6.

Last night, after going out to my rheumatologist, across town and eating out with the kids, I was just wiped out. I came home, fell asleep for 2 hours, and when I got up, I could barely walk- wobbly jello legs. Still going on today. I've been having weakness in my legs all along but this is worse. With every step, it feels like my knees are going to buckle and give out. Scary.

My dr. is still working on a referral to another neurosurgeon, out of network. I gave them contact information for the Neuroscience Institute patient coordinator I've been in touch with. My ESI is scheduled for a week from today. I'm scared to death, after the results of the last one- done in the wrong place. I hope that my neursurgeon was right and it aggrevated scar tissue, not that I'm sensitive to something in the shot, like the pain mgmt Dr. said. After the last shot, I had much worse pain and radiculopathy down my leg and lower back than I had before the shot. I went from being able to get nearly pain free, lying down, to not being able to get comfortable and having severe pain no matter what. It took about 2 weeks for that pain to start getting better and I still have worse nerve pain down my leg than before, 6 weeks later.

At this point, I just don't know what to do. Neuro said to lay flat on my back, pain mgmt says to get up and do what I can, so my overall physical condition doesn't deteriorate, letting pain be my guide as to what not to do, and not to overdo it. It''s scary, since the herniation is pushing in toward my spinal chord and I don't want to move wrong to aggrevate it and make things worse. I guess I'm in limbo right now and I don't like getting conflicting informtion from doctors and that nobody seems to want to actually do anything for me. It's so frustrating.