Paul and Tracy's Main Blog

As mentioned in my last post, we've been trying to get to see Tracy's spinal consultant, Mr Ross. Well, we got a call yesterday to say we could see him this morning at 9.15am. So once again we set off for Hope Hospital, Salford, and battled with the early morning rush hour traffic, which wasn't as bad as expected, meaning we were in the waiting room before 9am...

Having pestered Mr Ross' secretary so much this week, Tracy had been given the 1st appointment, so we were ushered into his little consulting room just after 9.20. He listened to Tracy describe her symptoms and then wrote out a card for some x-rays of her spine, and off we trotted to the x-ray department, where we waited for a little while before Tracy got changed into a fetching hospital gown and was whisked into the x-ray room. Not long after, she emerged, got redressed and we went back to Mr Ross' clinic and waited to see him again. He examined the x-rays and proclaimed that all looked normal - in fact, pretty good. He was especially pleased with the natural-looking curvature of Tracy's spine above and below the fusion, which looks entirely "normal". All of this didn't explain the pain she was in, though, so he declared she'd need an MR scan of her neck and spine, and without further ado we were chasing him down the corridors to the MR department to see when they could fit her in. He came back from his consultation with the MR team and said we were to go grab a coffee and come back in half an hour and sign in at reception. This we duly did, although whilst I had a coffee, Tracy had a glass of water and some painkillers...

Back at the MR department we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually Tracy was told to get changed into a different, but equally fetching, hospital gown and shown into the scanning room. And then I waited alone. And waited alone some more... After a further half hour of waiting, Tracy re-appeared, got re-dressed again, and we set off to try and find our way back to Mr Ross' clinic. Where we sat down and waited...

Finally, we were shown back in to see Mr Ross again, and he opened up Tracy's MR scan images and started studying them. First, the area around her spinal fusion, which he proclaimed was "fine". Then up to her neck, where he spotted something. Now, I don't know how Tracy felt when he went "aha!" but it shocked me. What he spotted was a "prolapsed disc" in her neck, which was pressing on the nerve root and likely to be responsible for the pain she was feeling, especially in her arm. He explained that this was not likely to have been caused by the accident, but was probably hereditary and could have happened at any time...

And so on to what can be done about it. He quickly determined that she should have a "root block" put in, which is an operation involving an injection of local anaesthetic and steriod around the nerve root, which numbs the nerve immediately, whilst the steriod helps with long-term pain relief. And then he sorted out an appointment for her on Monday, so she can have it done quickly and hopefully be pain-free again...

In the meantime, we're back home, and Tracy's taking painkillers and trying to get reasonably comfortable. It's going to be a long weekend for her, but knowing the cause of the pain, and having something planned that should help rid her of it, has lifted her spirits...