He made me feel good. I had the best laugh last night. It was the funniest thing that's happened to me in a long time.

This is a private psychiatrist, so no supervisor.

I think he was truly very sick so I hope he's okay. He seems a genuinely nice person.....just sleepy

Anyway, he told me that I don't have a mental illness except a mild clinical depression caused by my brain damage and we are going to retry anti depressant drugs until we get one that's okay.

I don't think he expects me to require too many more visits anyway. He's going to visit me next time I'm in hospital....probably towards the end of next week. At least if he walks in he has to be awake!

I've just been to the GP and she felt the lump on my spine and ordered an MRI. She seemed a bit out of her depth. She said she thinks I have a hernia.

No, I don't mean a herniated disc.....I mean a hernia. I've never heard of anyone having a hernia over their spine.....is it even possible? She said that she thinks I DO have a herniated disc that has moved the broken portion of my vertebra backwards and that has herniated out through my muscles...WTH is that?

All I know is that the lump is larger today than it was last week so whatever it is, it's getting worse.

All hernia means is a bulging or protrusion of an organ or connective tissue that shouldn't, so that can cover a lot of ground (so to speak). So yes, I think it's possible.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/medlineplus/hernia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernia

The increase in size could be due to inflammation/swelling. Can you try an NSAID (e.g. aspirin ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) to see if it helps the inflammation/pain?

Doc

Thanks Doc. I looked up lumbar hernias and saw that there were two different types depending on whether they were superior or inferior. However in both cases they were always quite lateral to the spine.

My lump is pretty much over the spine. I don't know if you can see the lump on this photo. (Pardon the fat). It's getting larger by the week and my back feels increasingly like it's going to snap off and that I have to bend forward to stop it from falling off the vertebra below. The scars are from spinal fusions I had done 36 years ago L4-L5-L6 (S1 was sacralised making 6 lumbar vertebra). Due to the angle I had to take the photo, it looks like it's mainly left sided but it does extend over the midline and to the right as well.

Both the physio and the GP say it's definitely solid and not muscle or lipoma.

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I can see it, but have no idea what it could be. If I had something like that, I'd go to my spine doctor, who would probably order an MRI, but do an x-ray first because he can do that right in his office, see whatever it might show in minutes, and take things from there. (X-rays are generally quicker anyway) If there's bone involved, it would definitely show up on an x-ray; MRIs are better for imaging soft tissue.

Doc

Yeah, it doesn't look right does it?

The problem is I don't have a spine doctor. I haven't had a back problem since those bone grafts 36 years ago. Even when the CT showed a spondylolisthesis at L3-L4 a couple of years ago, it didn't hurt so I never saw anyone about it.

It takes months to get an appointment to see a neurosurgeon or orthopaedic surgeon where I live. In the meantime I just have to wait and see what the MRI says. I would much prefer to have a plain erect X-ray. I rang the Radiology Clinic to book an appointment and they won't accept a referral from a GP, only a specialist. Some clinics will accept them but the nearest one is over 50 kilometres away and I can't drive and have no one else to drive me.

I'm going to ask my physician to rewrite the MRI referral when I go into hospital next week and hopefully I can get it done while I'm an inpatient. (He might even just order an X-ray).

I don't want to sound like a drama queen but having had a history of cancer and having had chemo which in itself causes cancer, I just have this little niggle at the back of my mind that I might be in a spot of bother.

For that matter, as long as you're there as an inpatient, mightn't they have a specialist or 2 check it out? (I'd point it out to everyone who does rounds—squeaky wheel and all... )

Doc

I had my MRI on Monday and my Doctor should get the results tomorrow. I looked through the films and really have no idea what I'm looking at BUT this doesn't seem right.

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Are you referring to the light-shaded mushroom shape to the right of center? That's the lump we're talking about? The image is a bit small for my eyes to see much else, and I'm not proficient with MRIs. I don't know what that is/could be, but I agree it doesn't look right (from MRI imaging I've seen here in the past).

Doc

Yes, that's what I'm talking about, along with the increased blood vessels in the fat over that lump.

I've been to the GP to get results. They say they can't find anything. They don't even mention my previous bone grafts or the spondylolisthesis (that they diagnosed two and a half years ago). The only thing they were interested in was the "patchy bone marrow" which is in keeping with a haematological malignancy. Well, considering I've had chemo for a haematological cancer that doesn't take a genius to work that out, especially when it's in the clinical notes.

As I said to the GP, how can you have a visible and palpable lump that is symptomatic but not see it on a scan?

Anyway, I've been offered no further testing but just been told to take Morphine which I have refused. Starting to take narcotics for undiagnosed pain and pathology is on the slippery slope to oblivian and I'm not going there yet. I'm not going to allow my health care professionals to fob me off without a diagnosis! It's not as if they can say it's all in my head (I bet they're disappointed they can't use that old Furphy) because it quite obviously isn't!

I've rung the radiology company and asked them for my scans to be given to another radiologist for a second opinion but they have refused. They suggested I take them to another radiology company for that second opinion. So I've rung 3 other companies (we don't have much choice here) and they've all refused to look at them. It's a closed little community where they protect each other's back, it seems. I would have thought offering to pay a good amount for a second opinion would have worked but no, one radiologist won't undermine the findings of another.

When I first got sick I had an MRI which was reported as normal except for arthritic changes. 3 months later when I was having trouble walking I was sent for another. Same result....normal but for discs and arthritis. 3 months further I couldn't walk at all, for another MRI. This time the report stated that the lesion in my cervical spinal cord had extended into the thoracic cord as far as they could visualise and was worse than on previous scans!!! Worse than previous scans? THEY WERE REPORTED AS NORMAL!!!

I was livid. I went and complained about the incompetent radiologist who misread my first two MRIs. I never even received an apology. It was because of this incompetence and my moronic neurologists inaction that I became permanently disabled. If I had been treated earlier, the damage was reversible.