the surgery dilemna

I am having a very, very difficult time deciding whether or not to "go under the knife." There are too many variables to process, and the results are too uncertain to be sure.

My pain level has been really up and down lately which makes the decision all the more challenging. When I have days like last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, then I'm ready to get surgery as soon as possible. Then I have days like today and yesterday when the pain is really much milder and under control, and I think maybe I can live with it. This week has really been much better than the last, and as a result, I haven't taken Vicodin in a few days. I am back on Ibuprofen though which I had stopped taking last Tuesday Oct. 14th in anticipation of my facet block injection originally scheduled for Fri. Oct. 17th (postponed due to my chest cold/sinus infection which came on Thursday morning).

I'm trying to think about what might have brought on that episode of intense pain last week. I didn't really do anything different that I can recall. I did some pushups a couple days in a row, and perhaps that was too much strain on the back? I watched the OU/Texas game on Oct. 11, and I was very much into it. I remember jumping off my chair a few times to pump my fist, and towards the end of the game I could barely sit down due to the high tension and excitement. So perhaps that somehow flared my back up. The only other thing I can think of is hosting my buddy Roger who came in from Berkeley for the weekend and crashed on my couch Friday and Sunday nights. Maybe just the stress of having an out-of-town visitor, cleaning my place, barbequeing, etc. somehow caused my back to be aggravated. Perhaps a combination of all these factors contributed to what happened. Monday night Oct. 13 was definitely the peak of my pain crescendo. I woke up several times that night, and twice my nerve pain down my right leg was so bad that I got out of bed, put on some sweats, and walked up and down my street under the clear, starry night sky.

The nerve pain down my leg is gone now, but that was definitely the worst. The localized back pain is a bit more comprehensible and seems fairly responsive to stretching. Last week I found that I could not find any kind of position or stretch which would alleviate the leg pain which seemed to flare up sporadically in my right buttcheek, right calf muscle, and right foot. The only thing which helped was more medication. And so the early part of last week is a blur. I didn't work at all. Lots of cable TV and Playstation. Not really the way I want to live. And the medication makes the decision process even more murky.

So, what to do...?