Originally Posted by MelodyL

Alan's doctor really thinks (from the Mri reports, etc) that Alan's neuropathy is from his back. For 19 years we have seen various specialists, and back doctors and no on ever said "Aha, we know why you have Neuropathy", but NOW, it seems with all his disc problems, etc, that it's his back.

So today was the first appointment. The specialist read all the reports that we provided. We answered all the questions and we asked our own.

The consensus seems to be that something is pinching down his back and they will do an epidural steroid injection. I had asked the person who was doing the interview "Can't you just inject something into his toes to stop the zipping and zapping, I mean, can't they inject botox or something" She said "It doesn't work like that".

She took us over to a scale mock up of a person 's back and showed us all the nerves going down the spine into the feet. She explained how when nerves are compressed or pinched, the toes can be hit hard.

So they are doing 3 epidural injections 2 weeks apart.

Now 10 years ago, Alan had one epidural. It was a big thing, he had to stay on the bed for 1 hour before they released him. It did not help him and he never got another one.

I don't know what is in THIS injection but when I asked her she said "it takes about 5 minutes, and he'll walk out of here".

But..... they can't do anything until his doctor clears him to be off of Plavix for 7 days. So we are going to get a medical clearance for that and hopefully, on May 18th, he'll get the epidural.

I know there are no guarantees and I hoped they could have done this today so we could go and have an anniversary dinner tomorrow (we are married 31 years). But she was specific. He MUST be off of plavix for 7 days.

So I shall update when he has this done.

Keep fingers crossed!!