Yeah, i had a paracetamol drip a few weeks ago because they couldn't authorise the morphine till the morning when they got hold of the GP that prescribed me it, and im taking 440mg of Morphine a day in modified release form, horrible stuff..but thats another story..
Prognosis thus far
Two bilateral prolapsed discs c5 and c6..or c6 and c7(can never remember), with them causing bad nerve damage to the root and cord of each of their areas causing the most unimaginable pain when the nerves get jarred, like a hot knitting needle going through my neck, bizarre pain. Also got paresthesia in my right arm (makes my arm feel like a shook up bottle of cola, the pins and needles haven't gone since the beginning) and now paralysis in the c6 affected area in my right arm (which only happened 14months into this nightmare) and neuropathic pain, burning back etc, and to top it off muscle spasms to die for (which is what im having an op for tomorrow) and i get the most horrendous migraines from the neck as well, sometimes i like them in way that its a differing pain to take my mind away from neck pain..but by god its not a fair swap at all, they're the worst things)
The original idea was to wait a few months and take conservative approach, lots of rest and codeine and basically 28 tablets or so for brekkie, lunch and a nutritious dinner as well....and if there was no improvement they would do a double disectomy and replace the discs with some hipbone (the neck bone connected to the.....back bone, the back bone connected to the...hip bone)
This didnt happen.
They then took the conservative approach for the next seventeen months, the neurosurgeon not doing anything but MRI's every three months. He promised me the disectomy come last march in September, but in march he threw in the towel and said he couldn't fix me as...
In February i got a lot worse, Ive been getting worse and worse for months, and the MRI wasn't showing anything getting worse, but the neurosurgeon kept saying wait another three months, but then my right arm went all floppy joe, and i couldn't feel it, then random things stopped working, like cant wee, then can, my gag reflex stops, so sometimes i swallow and it goes directly into my lungs instead of my stomach blah blah, and my GP was and had seen all this and was screaming with me at Sheffield Neurosurgery Department to admit me double quick but my surgeon wouldn't, said if the MRI wasn't showing any worsening or improving then no point..but he was very wrong.
Got referred to a new neurosurgeon after he threw in the towel, then the new guy says he thinks that although i have the two prolapsed discs, the problem is far more extensive (after going over my case notes, GP reports, pain clinic session and operation reports) ad that my nerves are dying off on their own, and that the discs set this off, but he doesn't know why (and MRI's dont see this), so he ordered up a batch of tests which i had last month (nerve conduction, EEG/EMG etc) and then i asked him "why haven't these been done before now, are they new tests?) to which he replied they weren't, and i got more furious than ive ever been, because the previous surgeon hadn't done any of these basic neurological tests in 17months..........so that twat has basically disabled me by his ineptitude..but the new guy couldn't and wouldn't make his colleague culpable, nut once Ive got a final diagnosis im going to raise a massive storm through P.A.L.S...anyway, got the op tomorrow and the results of the neuro tests in a week where i will find out what is bloody happening in my neck, which nerves are working, which aren't, where they're not working, why they're not working blah blah.
Once we know this, we have a diagnosis, and because of that, they will know whether they can do anything surgically at the Neurology Department, or whether its something that cannot be fixed, upon which its a job for a pain clinic to find out if they can eradicate the daily pain....
So i wait with baited breath. Jan16th of 2009 i got admitted. Im still waiting for an answer. Hopefully next week will be a full diagnosis and not the end of a chapter and the start of another. I've been mostly bedbound/big comfy reclining armchair for all this time resting and waiting. I dont get my hopes up anymore. I cnt even play my guitar properly because of my arm being ruined, and that was my greatest pleasure...
JAMES, SORRY FOR HIJACKING YOUR STATUS THREAD IN SUCH A LARGE MANNER, BUT HAVE A READ THROUGH AND IF YOU RECOGNISE ANYTHING SIMILAR, TELL THE GP ETC, OR LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES AND NOT QUESTIONING THE DAMN DOCTORS.
I really hope you get sorted mate, its no fun at all.
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