To not MRI

I saw my doctor today because I don't play around with back pain any more. I was expecting to be sent out for an MRI, probably have some disc-reltaed issue again and have to discuss my options from there. This is what happened last time.

This time, the doctor wanted us to "drag our feet" a bit on things. He's not happy at the idea that it may be a disc issue again and thinks it very well might be some scar tissue inflaming the nerve root. I allowed that. He did say that it seems the pain isn't as severe as last time, and I allowed that - today. I told him what the past couple of days have been like - pretty freaking painful - and he said that a disc issue would most likely have constant pain through the days. I allowed that even though that wasn't the case in the past. I had good days and bad days. I am completely willing, however, to wait it out a little bit because I'm certainly no fan of surgery.

So, he asked me to take some NSAIDs for a while and see if that helps. He gave me some Vicodin for when the pain gets rough. Hopefully it's just inflamation. I'm not optimistic, but I have hope. I'm not looking forward to the alternative.