One, Twice, Three Times the Anesthesia
A physical and emotional journey toward wellness
It was just a year ago that I piled into the car in the early morning hours of December 28, 2022, and headed to Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia to undergo a lumbar fusion. After years of physical therapies, acupuncture, doing nothing, chiropractic treatments, injections, and nerve cauterization, I woke up one morning in October barely able to walk a few steps and in so much pain, I was instructed to go to the emergency room.
The back story (pun intended)
For a few years, I had been pursuing a passion I found in lifting heavy weights and trained to power lift. I was close to entering my first benching competition — just shy of the max I wanted. The sciatic pain on my right side kept getting worse and would sideline some of my training for a few weeks at a time until it subsided. After the third round, I went to the doctor.
I had a slipped disc. Go to orthopedic for an assessment.
Go to physical therapy. Get an MRI. Be told there was little that could be done aside from injections.
Never powerlift again.
Fast forward to the emergency room. The MRI confirmed that the disc had moved to a grade 2 slippage and I was…
