California June 2026 - All Things Emi!

 

The Cactus Garden at Stanford

Thursday June 4.

I keep thinking about how things were with my leg the last time we went to CA. It was about 3 days after my leg started hurting. I was in such pain, took a wheelchair through the airport and could barely walk. Today it has been a little over a month since the cortisone shot in my L3 and L4 vertebra. I seem to still be improving which is a very good sign! I was going to get a 2nd shot in my L5 vertebra on the 16th but if things stay like this I will cancel it. This morning I had NO pain in my leg at all!

I’ve got to believe that the key at this point is to continue to faithfully do my PT Exercises and get my core as strong as possible. The more I can use my abs instead of my back the better off I’ll be. Biking, walking, water aerobics and even yoga, they all help, but those exercises are key.

We’re on our way, in the air, about an hour left before we land. Can’t wait to see Emi, and Dan and Kelsey too, of course. Just think, the next time we come there will be another little girl in our family!

Dropping Sophie off at the boarding place made me a little sad. I know they will take good care of her, but it will be more institutional and she won’t get nearly the attention she gets at home. I just wish there was some way to tell dogs “don’t worry, we’ll be back!”

Friday June 5

In the afternoon yesterday we went to pick up Emi at preschool. I haven’t seen the school before (because last time I couldn’t walk!). The playground is very cool, like the playground at the CDL, where my kids went when they were little. Lots of opportunities for creative play, a tricycle path, water play, etc.

Emi was delighted to see us, but especially me. She is kind of fixated on me right now. It’s a little unnerving; I’m not at all used to being the favored grandparent! Lee has always been the boy’s favorite. It’s fun, but it also feels like a big responsibility to not screw it up!!!!

From there we went to the farmer’s market in downtown Los Altos. Fabulous strawberries, and other fruit too. I bought some very fresh cheese curds and besides strawberries we bought corn. Emi wanted to try most of the samples, but especially those strawberries! And they weren’t even the most popular ones, because that line was a block long!

Then we found a table and everyone chose what they wanted for dinner. I got a burrito bowl that was pretty good, but huge; I could only eat about half. We split a strawberry-banana-Nutella crepe at the end. Emi picked off the strawberries and dipped them in the cream. “I like cream!” She said brightly. Me too Emi!

We stopped at a grocery store on the way home. Emi and I stayed in the car. She demanded that I sing. This is becoming a thing. “Sing ducks!” “Again!” Until grandma goes, “I don’t want to!!” I told her I’m easily bored but she looked at me skeptically.

When we got home it was time for Emi’s bath and bed. She was melting down and wailing, “I want grandma!!” So weird!!!

Saturday June 6

Yesterday evening we babysat for Emi while Dan and Kelsey went out. We were given many warnings about how she might misbehave but she was great. We had pizza for dinner and she ate 2 pieces plus extra pieces of Italian sausage. She ate raw mushrooms out of the salad. She had ice cream for dessert and then she went on a bike ride and we walked along with her. She has gotten really really good on her strider. If she was big enough for the next size up I’d say she’s almost ready for pedals. By next year for sure!

In the afternoon I made a plum crumble using some of the plums from the tree in their backyard. They needed more sugar, a lot more. They were very tart. I actually put some honey on the piece I had this morning and it was better!

This morning Dan took Emi to go potty and she put her own underpants back on. Later while sitting next to me in a chair she pulled up her dress and said, “I’m not wearing underpants!” She was not. We looked everywhere for them, assuming that she had taken them off somewhere, but finally gave up and got another pair.

Emi had swimming this morning so we went early and looked at the ducks and turtles in the nearby pond. Then Kelsey started to change her into her swimsuit and discovered something. The missing underpants were hiding around Emi’s waist! Apparently when she put them on she put both legs in one hole, pulled them up, and forgot about them. Mystery solved!

She’s doing great in the water, floating on her back almost without assistance, pushing off from the side, going under, flipping from back to front and front to back. But she had a meltdown at the end because she didn’t want to share the purple octopus pool toy. 

She sobbed uncontrollably until we got back to the car and she could have some snacks. Poor thing was hungry! I definitely could sympathize.

Sunday June 7

We went to Borrone for lunch yesterday. Afterwards Emi fell asleep in the car and took a good long nap, an hour and a half easy. We had a relaxing afternoon and made dinner at home, a joint effort. Lee made a plum and goat cheese salad, Kelsey made a pasta, corn and cheese dish and Daniel grilled chicken. I cleaned up, at least partially. I think I’ve eaten too many of those plums! I had an upset stomach last night. I need to swear off them!

This morning I slept later than Lee for a change. I only had Cheerios for breakfast because we planned to go to Din Tai Fung for brunch. We got out the door by 8:30 and we were in line by 9. They opened at 9:30 but if you don’t get there early the wait can be hours. As it was we got right in.

It was delicious as always but as a waiter was bringing us our dumplings he accidentally knocked an entire carafe of water onto the floor, where it shattered with a resounding crash, sending water and shards of glass cascading under our table and the one next to us as well. Fortunately no one was injured, or even got wet, and our food was untouched, but we spent several uncomfortable minutes while they cleaned up the mess. Emi was very unnerved by it all. We think the loud noise scared her and she spent a good 15 minutes asking questions and refusing to eat until things calmed down. 

At the end they comped part of our meal, as well they might. It reminded Lee and I of the hot tea sushi incident in New York many years ago. This one was less painful, and not nearly as profitable, and that’s just fine with me!

We spent the next hour or so walking around the San Jose fake downtown, including a stop for some excellent gelato.

By the time we got back to the car Emi was very tired and so were we. She napped in the car on the way home. 

Later we went to look at the cactus garden on the Stanford campus and let Emi ride her bike through the surrounding eucalyptus trees. It had warmed up quite a lot and Emi was pretty tired too. I ended up with over 10k in steps which is by far the most steps I’ve had since the pinched nerve in my back.

Tuesday June 9.

We fly home this afternoon but let’s talk about yesterday first. We watched Emi. We took her to her art class in the morning. It was actually a makeup class for one she had missed. There were no other toddlers there; instead an art camp for older kids (I’d guess 4-6 yo) was in progress. There was plenty for Emi to enjoy age appropriately however. There were 3 activity tables set up.  One had various buttons, beads and small pieces of pasta in various shapes and colors that could be scooped and sorted. There was a kinetic sand table that was very cool. The sand was soft and cool without being damp, and stuck together easily. We spent a lot of time scooping and shaping the sand. It was fun. The third table had some slime. At first Emi wanted nothing to do with it; it was grey and creepy looking, even though it had sequins sprinkled in it.

So after that the teacher set up an easel and Emi made a painting. Then the campers were having snack time so Emi had to go sit with them and have snack time too!

Emi Art

The campers were making rocket ships using boxes and tape. The teacher set Emi up to do another painting at an table. There were watercolors, crayons and acrylic paint. But Emi wanted to cut tape with a scissors just like the big kids so she added some tape to her picture.

Emi Mixed Media Art!

Finally we went back to the slime. I started poking it and Emi liked that. Then I stretched it and Emi liked that too. Lee made it into a ball and it bounced a little. Then it was time to go.

The plan was to stop for lunch on our way to our next adventure, but Emi promptly fell asleep in the car. When we got to the noodle place she was still asleep, so we let her sleep for 45 minutes b4 waking her up. We got noodle mapa tofu, gyozo, and fried rice. The mapa sauce was too spicy for Emi but some of the noodles hadn’t been mixed in yet so she ate those. She ate a little of the fried rice and rejected the gyozo which she usually likes. She would have eaten more noodles, but alas. Really she ate mostly snacks yesterday until dinner.

Next we drove to Happy Hollow, an old fashioned amusement park and small zoo in San Jose. It especially catered to little kids, which was why we chose it. Emi had been there before but it had been a while. The first thing we did was ride the carousel. She chose the ostrich and she was fine until it started going up and down. Then she had a death grip on my arm (I was standing right next to her). Her lower lip was quivering but she didn’t cry. Brave girl!

We walked through the play area and tried a few different slides. She does love slides! We had to drag her away. Then we found the little cars. Oh boy. They were a total hit. She rode them 3 times and would have ridden them more if we hadn’t enticed her away with seeing animals.

She really liked the small zoo, especially the furry pig like animals that were walking around being active. She informed us that pigs say “oink oink”. Yep. We didn’t make it to the petting zoo, it was getting late. As we were leaving she asked if we could go on the cars again! Maybe next time Emi!

She promptly fell asleep in the car again and slept for a good hour. Grandparents are exhausting!

We went to Yayoi for dinner, Lee’s favorite and Emi’s too. You could tell Emi hadn’t eaten much that day; she just ate and ate and ate. Agadashi tofu, rice, and the leftovers from everyone’s miso soup, including the seaweed!

We stopped for gelato on the way home but it was suddenly rainy and chilly which made it hard to enjoy.

We had such a good time visiting this time. Emi is so much fun right now, and although she is challenging her parent’s authority like a typical two year old, she was very good for us. I knew it would be different being grandparents from afar, as opposed to everyday grandparents, but I didn’t take into account how scarcity made us special and exciting. It’s very fun!

Post Shot Consult

 

Yes That's Me on a Bike Ride!

I had my post shot consult at Summit Orthopedics yesterday. Although the doctor I met with was a surgeon we are both totally on board with avoiding surgery as long as possible! Secondly, did you know that I actually got 2 shots 2 weeks ago? I didn’t! But the doctor showed me the picture of the injection site and there are definitely two injections, one in L3 and one in L4. No wonder it hurt so much!

We talked about my remaining pain, and just as I suspected, it now makes sense to have another shot, this time in L5, which should address the nerves that were missed. We went over the why and wherefore of doing L3/L4 first and it makes sense to me; that’s the big nerve bundle, and that’s the one where the major impingement is so reducing the inflammation there first gives us the most bang for the buck.

You can only get 2 shots at the same time, and you can’t have another shot for at least 6 weeks. So they are putting in the request for authorization to insurance now and will call me to schedule the next shot as soon as they have it authorized. Its a credit to how much better I feel that even though those first shots were extremely painful I’m gung ho to get that second shot asap (which should be about 4 weeks from now).

Now the part that’s not so great. The shots tend to last anywhere from 2-4 months on average. Of course that means that for some people they last longer, and for some, not as long. And you can’t get shots proactively; it doesn’t work that way. We have to wait until the benefits start to fade and then schedule another shot. And you’re not supposed to get more than 3 shots a year.

This makes planning for our cruise to New Zealand in January a little difficult but the doc said we can work with it.

We also talked about other things I can do to enhance and prolong the shot’s positive effects. He likes everything I’m doing (PT, water aerobics, biking) and thinks I should consider acupuncture and therapeutic massage as well. So I will!

He encouraged me to take ibuprofen and Tylenol as needed. I don’t know why I’m so resistant to taking pain meds. I do take Tylenol occasionally but not very often.

We also talked about how it’s normal to lose so much fitness by sitting around for over 2 months. It’s one of the hardest things for me mentally, in post-shot land. Things that were easy before this happened are so hard now! I have so little endurance, and abs? What are they? Well I’m working on it, that’s all I can do.

Overall I’m very happy. I have good days and bad ones but things are still improving and I’m enjoying every pain-free (or almost pain-free) moment I can get.

Lynn and Her Leg - After The Shot

 

Our Spectacular Ancient Crabapple Tree

So a little over a week ago I finally had my cortisone shot. It was an interesting, and painful experience. But I'll cut through the suspense right now, it worked! Not 100%, I still have some pain, but I'm 80% better. I can walk, I don't need my walker except first thing in the morning, and most of the time I'm ok with just the cane or nothing at all. So it was definitely worth it, and I will do it again if I need to.

My appointment was last Friday at 1 pm. Lee came with me because I needed a driver (and emotional support too!). The whole experience involved mostly waiting, and then a very intense 15 minutes.

We waited in the waiting room for a little while and then pretty soon they had a cubicle available for us, so then we waited there. They took my blood pressure, checked my oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter, and checked my blood sugar levels as well. My blood pressure was relatively high but they weren't concerned, I think as long as it was under 200 (!) they didn't care. And when I'm nervous it is often high.

My blood glucose was 145, which is high for me (I'm pre-diabetic but I take meds and I'm usually close to 100). I have no idea why it was high, I had eaten but it had been several hours. The shot was going to make it spike again for a few days anyway; again they weren't concerned.

Then we waited again, probably for around 45 minutes. I get it; by that time of the afternoon he's probably running behind. And frankly I'd rather he take his time and do it right!

Finally it was my turn. They escorted me into a room across the hall. They had me lay on a table on my stomach with a pillow situated so that the place where the shot would go was a little elevated. It was a little awkward but not really uncomfortable. The shot was going into my lower spine (the nerve pathway between L3 and L4 to be precise). They cleaned that area on my back, put surgical cloth around the place where the shot would go. Then the doctor says the classic "now you're going to feel a little pressure". Pressure my ass! It felt weird, and it HURT! I was like "ow, ow, ow" and the nurse was like "deep breaths!" I was biting the pillow under my head trying not to yell!

So here's the cool thing about it. I knew the doctor was watching where to put the needle on a fluoroscope. I would have loved to have been able to see it, but it was out of my view. But I could feel the drugs going into my nerve pathways. I don't know how to describe it, except they went into my pelvis (very painful), around the inside of my upper thigh, then down the outside of my thigh until it got to my knee. Then it went around my knee and kind of skipped down to the inside of my foot and that was that.

I knew right as it was happening that it missed some places where I have pain, parts of my hip and the outside of my ankle. 

The shot contained an epidural and a steroid. Once it was over I kind of staggered back to the cubicle where Lee was still waiting. They explained to me that the epidural was diagnostic and would only last for 2-8 hours, but would give me immediate relief. The steroid would work more slowly, reaching its peak benefit in anywhere from 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks.

We drove home with my leg feeling very tingly and strange. For the next 3 hours I was supposed to walk around and keep track of my pain levels and after the 3 hours were over I was to call them and report my pain level, which I did. 80% pain relief!

So over the next week I've slowly observed my leg improving. On Saturday I was able to go for a 13 minute walk. I started using my walker less and less. Each day I added 5 minutes to my walk, and yesterday I went on a 35 minute walk with very little pain.

I took a Chair Yoga class last Monday. It was a good experience, not too much, and a chance to move my body in ways I haven't moved it in over 2 months (I'm taking it again today). This week I'm going to try a Water Aerobics class. And I've made an appointment with my physical therapist. I want more exercises to help me get stronger safely.

The next big hurdle will be if I can ride a bike. I took the Sirrus in for a tuneup. I'm going to pick it up today and then sometime this week I will slowly and carefully try riding it. If it feels ok I might do a group ride the following week, with one of the Minnetonka Bike Club groups that do slower and shorter rides.

I'm so happy that the shot worked, even if it didn't work 100%. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make the shot last as long as possible. I've got a followup doctor's appointment in a week. I'll report back then!

Sophie Chilling By the Front Door

An Update on Lynn and Her Leg

Our Fabulous Northern Redbud is in Full Bloom

I keep putting off this blog post, waiting until I have some sort of resolution, a proper ending, if you will. But here we are, 2 months after this all started, and there’s no end in sight, or no definite end anyway.

So I’ll start this, and maybe post it, and probably write another one once I get a shot and know what kind of outcome, if any, I have from that.

The last time I wrote about my leg in this blog was February 28th while we were in California. This was all very new then. It still feels new, and a little endless to be honest.

When we got back from California I went to see my PT person, Casey. Casey was concerned. She said 30% of people with my condition improve with PT, 30% it makes no difference, and 30% get worse. So she was very cautious. She tried some things, and gave me some simple exercises, but she said that I needed an MRI, and I needed to see a pain and spine specialist.

So I had my doctor order an MRI. We put in a request for authorization with my insurance company. I have a Medicare Advantage Plan through Medica, a nonprofit here in Minnesota. Up until this year we had our insurance through Ucare, another nonprofit, but they dropped their Advantage Plan coverage and sent 150,000 people in Minnesota scrambling for coverage. We actually used a broker because it was so confusing. Medica picked up a lot of Ucare’s customers and we hoped they would be as good as Ucare had been.

After we returned from California I wasted no time acquiring things to make it easier to function, including a cane and a bath chair. I struggled to manage both my meds and my pain. Nothing I took really made a dent in the pain. It was very bad in the morning, and gradually eased during the day, although if I tried to walk too much it came back with a vengeance. This hasn’t changed that much; I think I have just learned to manage it better.

It wasn’t too long before I found out that insurance had denied the MRI, saying I needed 6 weeks of PT with no improvement first. Of course this was at complete cross-purposes with what Casey recommended, but we started going through the motions at least. I made an appointment with a spine specialist and hoped that maybe they could help get an MRI approved.

I requested that my doctor appeal the MRI decision. I went to Summit Orthopedics and they agreed with the original diagnosis but needed an MRI to go further. I requested that they also put in an order for an MRI. 

This is where things got interesting, in a terrible sort of way. On Friday, March 13th, I had a conversation with one of my doctor’s nurses. She suggested that I get an MRI and didn’t seem to know that the MRI had been denied or that I had requested an appeal. On Tuesday, March 17th, I talked to someone at Medica that said they could see the appeal. This turned out to be false; I don’t know what she saw, probably the original denial. I tried to call my doctor and see what was going on with the appeal. 

Around this time I also acquired my awesome walker. It’s a cheap Rollater off of Amazon, which means it has 4 big wheels that can turn 360 degrees so that gives it a lot of maneuverability. It really helps me get around, and I can manage it by myself, unlike the wheelchair.

On Friday, March 20th ,after many many phone calls I finally found out what happened with the order from Summit that was sent to Ridgeview on Wednesday, March 18th. Ridgeview did not submit it to Medica because of the denial of the previous order. You can’t submit a new request for authorization when there is already a denial for the same procedure in the system. You have to get the denial resolved first. Somehow most of the people I talked to either didn’t know or didn’t understand this rule. 

On Tuesday, March 24th, I spent an hour on the phone with Medica. I talked to a very nice, persistent person named Aaliah. I was asking about the status of the appeal. There was NO appeal in their system!!! Don’t know what happened. Aaliah helped me file a verbal appeal over the phone at 9:30 AM that day, but in order to make it a rapid appeal we’d need Dr. Kennedy to do that. Aaliah also filed a grievance on my behalf, because the original appeal appearsedto have been lost. I called Dr Kennedy’s office and left a message and asked for it to be tagged as urgent.

On Wednesday, March 25th, I called Ridgeview, since no one ever called me back. Apparently the message from the day before was not marked urgent after all. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. The person on the phone changed the message to urgent but Dr. Kennedy wasn’t in on Wednesdays. I did go ahead at Lee’s urging and sent a message in MyChart as well. At this point the whole situation sucked.

On Thursday, March 26th, I called Ridgeview again around 9:45 AM. I talked to someone named Merid at the nurses station. She said she would hand-walk a high priority message to Dr. Kennedy’s nurse to give me a call about filing a rapid appeal for an MRI. I said to her, “and when should I expect a call?” and she said “good question”. At least she was honest. 

At around 1:45 PM I called Ridgeview AGAIN. I was pretty pissed. They wanted me to leave a message with the Managed Care Team but I said no, I’m not leaving a message with someone, no one calls me back. YOU take a message to them!

Then at around 3:30 PM Dr Kennedy’s nurse called me. He was very apologetic, said the ball had been dropped (duh), told me that the info had been sent to the Managed Care Team, gave me a contact there. THEN the supervisor for the Managed Care Team called me. They filed a rapid appeal with Medica. Finally. They said it would take around 72 hours, so at that time I figured I would hear something early next week. I was relieved and still apprehensive. So many things had gone wrong by this point. This should NOT have been this hard!!

Little Grape Hyacinths

On Monday, March 31st I called Medica. I figured I would know the results of the rapid appeal by the end of the day but I wanted to make SURE it was really in their system. I did not trust my doctor’s office at all any more. Although it took close to 30 minutes just to get transferred to the right department I finally did. He looked it up, he found the appeal and said, “it’s been approved.” It was all I could do not to burst into tears right then. But I (sort of) calmly asked, what is the next step, can I go ahead and schedule the MRI? And he said yes.

So I called Ridgeview Imaging and told them I wanted their earliest possible appointment. I was able to get one for the very next day!

Then I went to my scheduled appointment with Casey. Really we mostly talked. She tried a little bit of stuff but that morning the pain was really bad so even trying something that helped a few weeks ago made no difference that day. She told me what to expect after the MRI depending on what they see. That’s good to know.

So I had the MRI, and then I had the consult at Summit on Tuesday, April 7th. We went over the MRI together. I’ve got nerve compression and spinal stenosis at L2, L3 and L4. I was scheduled for a cortisone shot on April 20th and then a surgery consult 2 weeks after that. But most of you know what happened then…

Sarah had strep, and so did Emi, and I had had a sore throat for a couple of days. I kept trying to ignore it but finally went to Urgent Care and got a test. It was positive, I went on antibiotics. End of story? No. When they called for my pre-shot health check I found out that now I couldn’t have the shot until at least 2 days after I finished the course of antibiotics. 

So now the shot is scheduled for May 1st.

Of course this isn’t the end, but what will the end look like? Will the shot work? Will it work for a day, a week, a month, 3 months, forever? I don’t know. Will I eventually have to think about surgery? Will the surgery work? So many questions.

In the meantime it’s beautiful early spring in Minnesota. Our yard looks great, and thank goodness for Sara our gardener, otherwise we would have a big problem. I try to get out and about as much as possible without overdoing it.

As I look back on the notes I’ve kept I know I’m better. It’s so incremental that it’s hard to tell but over a couple of months I’ve definitely improved. I get sad sometimes, I wish I could at least go for a walk and ride my bike but oh well. 

Soon enough time will do its work and I’ll have more to add to this saga. I’ve certainly learned more about the working of insurance than I ever really wanted to know! Before I get the cortisone shot I need to educate myself a little about the workings of my spine. Professionals start spewing out all these terms, L3, L4, compression, spinal stenosis, and I only have a vague idea what they’re talking about. Before they stick a needle in me I need to become more knowledgeable about this area of my body!

Sophie is Unfazed by it all