Hi everyone,

Well I have had my second round of steroid injections and I notice a
definite result in reducing the amount of neck pain I was experiencing.
 This DR is great and is a master at making you feel no pain at the
injection site. He has a good support staff who are friendly and so
helpful.  On Friday when i had my second injection I was feeling so bad
I could not wait to get the injection and go home. I told them I was
having such pain at the time they took me in, got me ready, massaged my
back and took me over an hour early. How much better can it get.

I am still experiencing pains in my back, but much lower now and the
pains in my chest have subsided a little. I have to go back to my spine
Doc for his evaluation of my progress to date and plot future procedures
to see if we can make all the pains disappear.  I also have to explore
with him the consequences of having osteopenia, stenosis and scoliosis
in my back.  At the moment I am a dummy as far as knowing much about
scoliosis so I will have to start up my research.

My Internist had requested a chest x-ray for me and a urine screen prior
to my next appointment. I did these on Monday and he called on Tuesday
morning telling me I had bacteria in my urine a good sign of a UTI and
told me the chest x-ray shows a spot on the Posterior mediastinum. I
looked it up under lungs on Gray's anatomy site and did not discover
much that would tell me without a lot research what this might
represent.  He is concerned and ordered a CT scan on Friday morning at
7:00 AM prior to my injections which were set for 11:00AM.  The
radiology report will be available on Monday and the CT scan itself was
available on their computers by 7:30AM. Taking an antibiotic for the UTI
even though I do not display any of the usual symptoms of one.

I have gone without a haircut because of the pain and had to cancel
again this past Tuesday, pretty soon I will be able to go with my wife
and get a perm LOL

Don Whitely