[waynes]

Hi All…..

My wife Becky has been struggling with neck issues for several years. We believe they originated from a car accident more than 20 years ago. When the pain/discomfort started (about 15 years ago) her Doc at the time found nothing at the time and sent her to a shrink. (it’s all in your head). Living with that for a few years we started seeing a new doc who diagnosed her with Fibromyalgia and started treating her for that with no appreciable relief other than knowing it really wasn’t in her head.

Fast forward a few more years. Becky tripped on a sidewalk and tore a ligament in her ankle. New Doc (the other left active practice to care for her kids full time). During an exam new doc commented on how tense Becky’s shoulder muscles were. The actual comment was hard as a rock, like concrete. Further discussion led us to an orthopedic surgeon for her shoulder. Wound up shaving 1cm shaved off both sides of her AC joint and repairing a rotator cuff. After a year with that recovery Becky’s shoulder is much improved but the neck and arm pain is still an issue. Referred to Pain management doc. Pain Doc does x-ray and MRI. And finds the disc’s at C3-4, 4-5, 5-6 herniated/bulging. This is in ’06. He is a big proponent of ADR and anti fusion. His recommendation is to try and wait till multi level ADR is approved or go out of country.

Spring of 07 while Becky is returning from walking the dogs she hit a patch of black ice and lands on her butt with her back at about a 45 degree angle to the ground. ER finds nothing after lumbar MRI. Everything is fine, well, normal anyway, till March when Becky has sudden onset of severe lower abdominal pain. The kind of severe where she is sobbing constantly. ER says they find nothing and sends her home. Next day Family doc gets her admitted and for 10 days perform every test known in an attempt to locate the cause. Found nothing. Pain Doc thinks it could be lower back. New MRI shows nothing, Discogram confirms L5-S1 is the culprit. He starts the process to get implant for pain control. It is now September ’08.

The process is slowly moving along and Becky’s pain is tolerable at about a 5-6 out of 10. Next procedure is whats called a functional capacity evaluation. This is where a physical therapy provider tests how long you can stand in one place doing gross motor skills, and a few other things standing and sitting. The drive to this facility was about an hour long and kicked her pain to a 6-7. Becky couldn’t complete the testing and they sent her home. The trip home only made things worse. Bad enough that she can’t stop sobbing. That night Doc says go to ER. By the time we got there Becky was incoherent. Started pain pump and Neuro surg called in.

Becky wound up having L5-S1 fusion on 9-11-08. 5 days in hosp and 2 weeks in rehab. She has had only minor reoccurrences of the lower abdominal pain but the surgical pain has been intense and she has developed Sciatic problems. Shooting pain down her legs, Butt pain and low back pain. Her pain Doc has been doing a great job trying to manage her pain. After rehab she was on Fentanyl patches 100mcg/hr and Dilaudid. He brought her down to 35mcg/hr Fentanyl and percocet. Lately though her neck has gotten to the point that we cannot wait any longer. She is back up to 50mcg/he Fentanyl and Dilaudid every 4 hrs. Shooting mostly down her right arm but sometimes down her left also, Migraines and “temple headaches”. We are waiting now to see a Neurosurgeon for her neck. He does perform ADF although Multilevel is still out. We are also starting the process to see Dr. B in Germany and looking into India also.

I’m sure many of you can empathize. Becky’s life is gone. She is a VERY outgoing extroverted lady. She needs lots of people contact and it disappeared with this back thing. She has been fighting depression and trying to grieve the loss. Her friends have stopped calling and visiting and she needs that contact with people she knows. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Any way that’s where we are.

Thanks, Wayne