nitro burning funny spine

 On recommendation from a friend who had been through the ordeal of a herniated disc I went to see an Osteopath. Another doctor located in the far flung wilds of Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is fine but if you have to drive there from Silverlake you understand that you are looking at a one hour drive there and possibly longer on the return trip depending on how close it is to rush hour. I try to schedule all my appointments mid day. And almost all my doctors are on the West side.
The Osteopath, for whom surgery is the least likely route, took one look at my two month old MRI and said, "by not having surgery you are playing with nitro glycerine." I then told him that in the intervening two months I’d started to feel better. That I’d done research suggesting that large herniations like mine do well, even better often, than typically normal ones. He said that he thought I was lucky and that perhaps my hernia had "centralized" a bit. Meaning that the physical therapy I’d done thus far had taken some pressure off the nerve. He poked around on me like he was doing psychic surgery and then adjusted my SI joint and $150 later I was on my way. Not happy.
Maybe he’s right? I don’t know. I know that somedays I feel better than the day before and somedays I feel the same and somedays I feel painful but not as painful as I did two months ago. Little steps forward, sideways and on occasion, backwards. 
He helpfully told me that if my leg did suddenly become paralyzed that surgery would most likely reverse that. How nice. Despite booking a follow appointment I don’t think I’ll be going back. I didn’t realize until I got home how upset and angry I was. At least I realized it at all.