I just happened to be thinking about getting back to the blog, and also making myself write, and actually wrote a paragraph this morning that started:
Another new beginning! I am finally awake!
But this time it is a pretty happy story. I persisted and persisted, and, long story short, I not only had an entrapped nerve from the hernia surgery when I was three, but had also re-herniated my side. After discovering that NHL players (elite!) suffered from a similar hernia to the kind I had as a kid (surfing the internet at 4 in the morning having quit narcotic pain-killers but not the pain – “ilio-inguinal nerve”) and always had the nerve ‘resectioned’ (which is doctor-speak for cutting the damn thing out) so that they would not have residual pain, I approached my excellent GP with an abstract from the study. 99 NHLers were treated at the McGill University Health Centre – had the hernia repaired with magic mesh, and the nerve excised as much as possible. 98 of them returned to professional play, if I remember correctly. And by a miracle I was able to see a wonderful surgeon in Montreal who listened to my long story, and basically said, “let’s cut it out”, words I have been hoping to hear for decades. When he cut me open to remove the nerve, he discovered the hernia – so I am also repaired with magic mesh, just like the hockey players, and by one of their assistant surgeons, no less.
It is now about 9 weeks since the operation, and I am astonished at how my pain has almost vanished. It really is like finally being awake.
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