Unfortunately, our story continues...
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MY STORY - NANCY
On Monday July 21st I will see you Dr. Windsor and I wanted you to know my story before hand…
In the summer of 1993 I got in a fight with a 75lbs suitcase and it won, when I tried to "she-woman" it up on top of the roof of my car. I herniated L3/L4 and L5/S1-somehow missed L4/L5.
By the time I got back from Canada (our destination) to Massachusetts (my home at the time) I could barely walk.
My PCP ordered X-rays and could actually see the herniations on the film, she sent me to my first Ortho (Omar Al-Masri, MD). He immediately said I required surgery, my son was not even 5 at the time, and I said no way. He told me I would be in a wheelchair by 40.
I told him get me off the pills because I need to go back to work. After 3 months of constant bed rest and with the help of a chiropractor I was able to discontinue all meds and return to work.
I had my first surgery in July 2000 (8 years after the initial injury). Caging was implanted at L3/L4 and micro discectomy at L5/S1. I also required a blood transfusion that day because I was so week. Bear in mind I never stopped working throughout this whole thing.
12 Days post op I sprung a leak after becoming nauseated and they had to go back in to repair the leak. This was Surgery #2. I was almost in a coma by the time I got to the ER at St. Joe’s
Three weeks later I was rear ended by a taxi cab driver (no damage found thank God)...
8 months of PT later and I was 85% better-that was until that day...
That day, is a day I was at work and tripped over a box backwards (April 2002). I never fell down-I caught myself from falling. The job sent me to a Workers Comp doc in the box who had no idea how to even X-ray me!
My job never filed a workers comp case and when my ortho (Plas James, MD) decided he needed to remove the hardware because something happened at the op site that was causing my pain my job said it was pre-existing.
I never got a lawyer, I had the surgery (#3 surgery), Dr. James discovered my fusion had actually cracked, I was not being paid, I went back to work 3 weeks post op still wearing my "turtle" and never had PT postoperatively.
My company was finally bought by Home Depot. They granted me LTD bennys no questions asked.
My pain worsened after the removal of the hardware...ortho said go back in and put caging back in to secure it up...okay (4th surgery) had PT thank God because at this point I am so full of scar tissue I now have CHRONIC MYOFASCIAL PAIN SYNDROME'.
I went back to work part time in June of 2005 and by November 2005 I went out on full time disability.
Got Social Security Disability on my first try (May 2006)
Exactly one year after I first got disability from Home Depot (November 2007) Home Depot sent me a letter saying I was cured and to go back to work---a miracle has occurred call the Vatican!!!!
They stopped my LTD payments, my health insurance was cancelled, I lost my savings, and I lost my home to foreclosure and went 18 months without ANY MEDICAL TREATMENTS at all. Needless to say I have a lawyer working on this for me and need a PM Doctor on my side as well.
Because I worked 20 years I did not qualify for Medicaid during that 18 month period. I went that long with no treatment for the multiple diagnosis of....
• Failed Back Syndrome,
• Disc Herniation (cuz L4/L5 finally blew out-see MRI from March 2007)
• Chronic Myofascial Pain
• SI Joint Dysfunction
• Arthritis
• Sciatica
• Migraines
• Panic attacks
• Severe depression
...NO MEDS NO TREATMENTS...18 months
Brings us to today -finally got Medicare (May 2006) so excited made my appointment with a PM who my former manager recommended- Dr. Allen Hord. I was so excited, he is an Emory doctor and my son is a senior at Emory. I admitted immediately to him that I had smoked some pot for the pain while I had no health coverage and he went off on me!
I saw him one more time for bi-lateral SI injections that were not effective. I don’t believe in lying to a doctor nor do I think a doctor should treat you like crap for being honest.
I have warned my ortho (Dr. James) that because he spoiled me with his greatness and understanding I will not stop till I find someone who will treat me with mutual respect.
I have not smoked pot since I saw that PM- I am so scared that I will not be taken as a pain management patient and treated, then again I went 18 months w/o so I guess I can go the rest of my life w/o if need be.
Pain management is an ugly animal for both the patients who suffer and for the doctors who treat them.
I look forward to meeting with you.
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