The secretary in my PCP's office made the appointment with the ortho for me, so he will be aware of my diagnoses. I'll bring the disc with the MRI images with me to the appointment on August 30th (thank God I wrote it down because I kept telling people the wrong date).

I have no doubt that the spinal stenosis and disc protrusions seen on the MRI are the source of my pain. I don't know what kind of treatment the ortho will recommend, but both my father and brother have been to see him for back issues (they were not impressed), and I know he's big on injections. I would be very surprised if he just recommended PT.

I'm pretty sure that my PCP would call in some sort of pain med if I spoke to the triage nurse. I'm not totally unwilling to take it, I just don't want to ask him for it, and I feel like I can tough it out at the moment. That could change tho.