CELEBRATING A MILESTONE WITH 3 MRIS

I wrote a fun essay for Next Avenue, the TPT site with news and information for people over 50, which I’m now officially old enough to read. I talked about turning 50 and celebrating with 3 different MRIs.

“Like most men, I spent my 20s, 30s and 40s blissfully avoiding the doctor. Of those the Cleveland Clinic got to actually admit it, 55% of men said they don’t get regular health screenings. In my experience, men are more likely to be liars than they are to get an annual physical, so I’d guess that number is much higher.”

Read the article here.

There is an update: my shoulder MRIs showed that I was just dealing with some inflammation. My back MRI revealed that I have inflammation around a degenerated disc. My doc told me the disc was “pretty much shot,” which is nice. So the other day I had an epidural steroid shot, which was sort of cool. They put an x-ray machine over the back and use a contrast dye to direct the epidural into the exact spot in my spine. It’s only been a day yet, we’ll see if I feel relief. My back pain is not debilitating so I’m not really interested in getting surgery, but that is an option I’m told.