Saturday, May 12, 2007

Saved by a case of poison ivy

We've known each other about 40 years--were neighbors when we were both apartment dwellers in 1967. At an art show this morning she told me she'd had a cervical something-ectomy, didn't get the exact term. She's an avid tennis player, but had called her doctor for some poison ivy treatment, and in passing mentioned that she had a tingling in her neck--sort of felt like little bugs crawling around. He told her he would schedule an MRI, which sort of surprised her. Well, she had bone spurs on her spine, but had felt no pain except the tingling. One wrong move on the tennis court or a fall, and she might have been paralyzed. She immediately had the surgery and was recuperating most of last summer. Now she has two small rods supporting her neck, but everything is fine, and she's back to making her art work and playing tennis.

I looked up "bone spurs + tingling + neck" and learned that, "In persons 60 and older, bone spurs are common. Only a little more than 40% of the population will develop symptoms that require medical treatment as a result of bone spurs." She really had no significant pain. Pay attention to those tingles, and Thank God for poison ivy!