What's in a name?

Well, in the case of this blog, it means having to get a spinal tap... but we won't get to that till later. It is also the awesome name of my Rock Band band! Pretty clever, right?

So where to begin...

I would say I was a pretty active person.  I liked going to the gym and attending my kickboxing class. Granted I haven't been as religious about going to my kickboxing classes, so the day I went and noticed I couldn't really stay on my toes I just attributed it to being out of shape. I had recently come back from a cruise and was laid off, then started at a new job - so I was probably a bit out of shape.

So I decided I would work out my calves to get back in shape. If you know me, then you know I'm not a little girl. I'm pretty good sized. LOL! So I stepped onto the calf raises machine thingy. WTF!?! I could only do 30 lbs. You kidding me!?! I used to be able to do 100+ lbs.! What's going on? Hummm...

So I get home and decided I'm going to do some calf raises. I'm doing them, then my ever so honest sister asks, "What are you doing?" "Calf raises, why?" "It just looks weird. Why are you doing them?" "Because I am way out of shape. I can't even stay on my toes." "That's weird..."

So I show her and we find out I can't even do a one legged calf raise on my left leg. But I can do it on my right.

"That's not normal. You should go see a doctor," the sister said.

Older sister knows best, right? So off to our primary care physician I go.

There she tests my left leg. I can still move it and have feeling in it. She asks if I have any back pain. I tell her I have some lower back pain, probably from bending over a computer all day. She says I have muscle weakness in my leg probably from a pinched nerve - so she orders an MRI and sends me to ROC.

So, I put off going to get an MRI until after I go to ROC because I don't want to pay $1,000 for them to just tell me it's nothing - like they did with my knee a year ago. So, I go to ROC where I pay my $40 co-pay and don't even meet with my doctor...lame. They take eight x-rays of my back. Then tell me I have a slightly bulging disk and should still get an MRI to see what's really going on.

Ok. Fine. You win. To the MRI I go. First MRI not too bad. Everyone was really nice and it didn't take too long. (This was July 27th.)

The next day I get this phone call from my primary care physician's office. "We need you to come in. Today. Dr. Jane would like to see you as soon as possible." That can't be good.

Grab the sister and head to the doctor's. I'm told they found something on my spinal cord. A Giloma. According to my good friend Wikipedia - A glioma is a type of tumor that starts in the brain or spine. It is called a glioma because it arises from glial cells. The most common site of gliomas is the brain. Luckily, I only have one on my spine.

How can one word make everything fall apart? It seemed like everything I had planned suddenly got put on the back burner. Going back to school. Not any more. Going on vacation. Not any more. Going to play softball. Not any more. My whole world fell apart all around me and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

So, this blog is about what I'm going through. I figure it's a good way to get people to talk about things while allowing for an outlet for me to get my emotions and thoughts out. Plus, I figure if people want to keep up on how I'm doing and what I'm doing, this is an easy way for that. So, more to come as I start to update this thing.