Mrs. BoCoMo here. I don't usually like to talk about my health, but I feel I have to here. I've had Rheumatoid Arthritis for 38 years. I know pain, and I have a very high tolerance for it. A little over two years ago I had a herniated disc, and suspected that was Michael's problem when I heard his symptoms. My back didn't hurt. My leg hurt, and the nerve pain was excrutiating. I could hardly move without getting a searing pain down my leg--not an ache, a very sharp pain that I couldn't tolerate. If Michael had that kind of pain, there is NO WAY he could play basketball. I went to a back surgeon in Jeff City that does minimally invasive spine surgery. He did an MRI and diagnosed the herniated disc. Because this means that the material in the disc has seeped out, it sometimes can't be helped by anything but surgery. So I had the surgery first thing one morning, and the pain was immediately gone. We left the hospital about 2PM, stopped by Central Dairy for ice cream, and came home. The incision was about an inch long. The next day I felt fantastic--could have done anything. My doc cautioned against doing too much too soon, but it was hard. Now I wasn't playing basketball, so I realize that Michael Porter won't be on the court in a week. But my point is that if my kid was in that kind of pain, I would have taken him anywhere they could fix it. So quit coming down hard on Lisa Porter. When you're making no progress with PT, if you leave a herniated disc situation alone too long it is possible to do permanent nerve damage. I'm guessing Michael's future earnings was the last thing on Lisa's mind. She might be concerned about a career he loves, but I'll bet her big concern was how to get relief from the pain. And there really isn't a spine surgeon in Columbia that does it with such a small incision, at least not that I've heard about. I'm just relieved for Michael to be on the mend. Mizzou basketball will survive just fine and in the meantime I'm going to join the chocolate eaters. And count my blessings.
