Spinal surgery for my sciatica - waiting for OK from my nephrologist Shiang-Cheng Kung, MD

After breakfast, drove to Maryland Road and backed into the space that read "For our patients with walking difficulties." I was only 7 minutes late for my 9:30 am appt.

Made good progress reading Michael Bronski's A Queer History of the United States, which is really a history of the United States. Did you know that when Columbus came to America he was appalled at the behavior of the natives.

They seemed to think it was all right to disregard the gender roles that Europeans, i.e., Catholics, knew to be the correct roles.

Here are quotes from other early explorers (p.4):

Among the women I saw, some men dressed like women, with whom they go about regularly, never joining the men...From this I inferred they must be hermaphrodites

...if a boy shows any symptoms of effeminacy or girlish inclinations, he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them & sometimes married to men.

Finally, while totally engrossed in the book & waiting for Dr Guy Lee, I remembered where I was. Quickly I got my pad from my purse and jotted down some questions:



I have some questions, I said when he came in.

He took my pad.

- Easy surg?

Yes, he said. Mine is a lil more complicated b/c of my antirejection drugs and risk of infection.

I'm not gonna get an infection, I said.

I hope not, he said. That's why we're gonna try & get you outa the hospital asap.

- Yr name.

He couldn't read my writing. What's the derivation of your name: Lee?

Oh, he said. Irish. A nun I operated on told me it's quite a common name in Ireland.

The surgery takes from 15 minutes to 40 minutes.

He does 300-400 per year.

I wrote down the name of the surgery cuz I haven't memorized it yet.

Micro disc ectomy / micro disc ectomy / microdiscectomy (Good use of the slash button, Ruthie! Maybe the new NY Times editor will hire you.)

From WebMD: Discectomy (also called open discectomy) is the surgical removal of herniated disc material that presses on a nerve root or the spinal cord.

They remove the "leakage" from the disc. It's the leakage that presses on the sciatic nerve!

A friend of mine had arthritis in her shoulder, I told him, and had her nerve deadened. She's fine now.

He said I wouldn't be able to walk if my nerve were deadened.

Dr Lee told me I could watch a video about it on the Internet so I just did. Click here.

Success rates are in the 90th percentile.

I know I'll be one of them, I said. Unless, of course, I die during the surgery.

You won't die, he said. I haven't killed anyone yet.

I have a lot of confidence everything will work out, I said. Thanks very much, Dr. Guy. I mean, Dr. Lee.