Dear St. Pat Family,
I love being your pastor! I am grateful for the love, prayers, and care that you have shown me, especially through the difficult time that I had last summer with my neck surgery. The staff and, especially, Fr. Adam did an amazing job of ministry last year during that time. That surgery went well, although there was some minor permanent nerve damage. Apart from that permanent damage, I have fully recovered from that surgery.
I have also had symptoms of lower back pain for a few years, usually episodic and similar to other back pain caused by exertion, pulls, or being overweight. About a year and a half ago, my lower back pain started to have occasional brief minor symptoms of sciatica. In the past 4-5 months, these have intensified to include increased pain, weakness, and numbness on occasion. Standing and walking increase the symptoms and sitting or lying down can help alleviate the symptoms.
The Easter Vigil was a particularly intense episode when, in addition to the pain, my legs fell asleep making it difficult to stand or walk through the liturgy of the word. It was the impetus for me to find out what was going on instead of just living with and dealing with the pain
I saw my doctor and had x-rays and an MRI done on my lower back. I was able to see my neurologist last Monday and get an update following additional X-rays I had last week. It was relatively good news. The joint between L4-L5 is stable, which means the treatment is less severe than it otherwise would have been, but I still need surgery to remove the pressure on my nerves being caused by the severe stenosis in the main channel going down my spine and the side channels where the nerves leave the spinal column.
It has likely taken 20 years for the stenosis to develop to its current severity and, likewise, my stenosis is extremely uncommon for someone my age. It would be more typical for someone two decades older. I also fall into an extremely rare group of people who have two unrelated spinal nerve events requiring surgical intervention. In his career, I'm about the fifth person my neurologist has treated for two separate and unrelated issues. My mom always said I was special!
Behavior modification and anti-inflammatory medication have helped me cope. I take the opportunity to sit whenever possible during the day and spend quite a bit of time lying down. In fact, about half of my life is spent in bed now, including sleep. I choose very few optional activities apart from lying down and regularly answer emails and make phone calls from bed.
Thankfully, because the joint is stable, the surgery is less invasive or significant than it could have been. It can be done as an outpatient and takes about six weeks to recover (compared to 3-6 months). It is also unlikely that permanent nerve damage would occur in the next six months because of how slowly stenosis develops, which gives me some flexibility on when to do the surgery.
I have scheduled the surgery for August 29 and will have six weeks of recovery. I am working with our staff and the Archdiocese on a plan and will be preparing in the coming months for the surgery. I ask for your continued prayers and patience. I trust that God's providence is in the midst of this challenge and am grateful for each of you and his loving care. I'll keep you updated. Please know of my prayers for you.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff