Stenosis of the Spine

It wasn't so bad, after all--especially having Joy as company and laugh-maker in the process.  We all need someone to laugh with us when we're scared.

"Will it hurt?" I asked the doctor.

"Oh yes, it will be terrible," he said with a twinkle in his eye, but I didn't get the joke at the time or see the twinkle.  "He's teasing, " Joy had to tell me when she saw the tears in my eyes.

When my baby boy was eight days old, he had to have a spinal tap.  "It doesn't hurt," the doctors and nurses tried assuring me--just as they did when they did the other baby boy surgery.  I didn't believe them either time.  I heard the cry in the neonatal intensive care ward.

Through the years, I've heard that injections in the spine were terribly painful, so it was with a lot of procrastination and trepidation that I agreed to have a needle in the back of my neck.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared.  The worst part were the little shots to deaden the pain of the big shot, all done with an x-ray to guide Dr. Growney's hand to the right spot.

At the moment, there is no pain at all--and I'm planning on that being permanent!

I'm so relieved--and so grateful for the ease of a day I've dreaded for a long time.  Worry is sometimes worse than what we worry about.

Stenosis of the spine is very common, he told me.  "What causes it?" I asked.

"Birthdays," he said.