I'm with the gal with the beautiful hair. Two years ago I had some "calcium" (Arthritis?) taken off a vertebrae to alleviate nerve pinching. This was followed by a staph infection which required another surgery and 6 weeks of I-V antibiotics. I then began to experience pain "down there" which I rationalized as being simply a result of all the surgery. Finally, the bladder tumor was discovered and removed. Now, no Doc will ever put all this together as far as cause and effect, but I do have my opinions on all this and no one will convince me otherwise.
The back surgery did alleviate my sciatic pain and I can remember how good it felt lying in the hospital bed recovering from the TURB while dealing with that catheter.
On April 21 I started the 6 weeks of BCG and was surprised at how little direct side effects I seemed to have with it. Within 2 months I was having stiffness in finger joints, the back/leg pain condition returned and my bunion again began to ache, amongst other things. An MRI showed the nerve impingement had returned in my back. But another back surgery is, of course, out of the question. So I'm now on a neurological medicine which makes me think like an idiot, something no one wants to be on for long term. But the good news is it's supposed to cause weight loss!
So where does one go from here? Who knows? I guess, like most of us here, we all feel we're in a box. We have no real place to go, do we? All roads seem to lead in undesirable directions, it seems.
But now, with the insight of Rosemary, I need to do some more research on this arthritis thing. Hey, maybe there's a miracle here and if I can get finished with the BCG the arthritis will subside and the back pain might even diminish a bit, I can get off this medicine and can feel less like a Zombie again. I can dream, can't I?