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  #1  
Old 04-15-2007, 09:09 PM
naner naner is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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i will finally introduce myself to this board. i have asked a question and replied to one without introducing myself. i am sorry to be so rude. im not usually like that but got in a hurry for info.
i am a 41 year old female. my injury occurred on dec 15 2005. i have(had) a full time job as a restaraunt manager for ten years. i would put an average of 50 to 60 hours in a week. i am also a volunteer emt in my small (870 people) town in west central illinois. have been an emt for 20 years. i am married for 23 years. have three sons 21,16,15. three dogs one cat one rabbit and several fish.
my injury occurred while on an ambulance call at about 3 in the morning. being in a rural area we cover a lot of miles in our ambulance district. this call was about 10 miles out in the country in a private lake subdivision. i was chair lifting an elderly female, who was not able to ambulate on her own,with the assistance of another female emt. i have also worked as a nurses aid for 10 years and know how to properly lift in all circumstances. when the fellow emt and i turned to place the pt on the cot i felt my back go. i finished the transfer and also finished the call and followed thru with the patient to the hospital. on the way to the hospital my back got stiffer and stiffer. by the time we got to the hospital i could not stand up straight.
however being a very stubborn and private person i did not make a big fuss over this. believe me i regret this very much. while my fellow emts were writing up their run report on the computer i laid down on the floor to try to get my back to relax. again i did not make a big fuss.
i reported the injury the next day to the director of our ambulance service and to the chief of the fire dept(they are together in one fire ditrict). i was not given any paper work to fill out at this time. i got a little better as the days went on and continued working as usual.
i was not in too bad of shape for about 2 months. the pain never went away but was tolerable somewhat with 800 mgs of ibuprofen two to three times a day. come about the middle of feb i had another episode of back pain with no pinpoint of causation. it was at this time i went to a dr.
an mri was ordered and showed protrusions at l3/4 l4/5 l5/s1. l3/4 was encroaching on the thecal sac to the right and has been quite the pain thru out all this. i am still working full time now and was referred to a nuero surgeon for follow up. nuero prescribed esi and land therapy. neither came to any satisfaction and no relief(esi caused more pain than helped). neuro then prescribed an SI joint injection, water therapy and cymbalta. the injection and the water therapy did not help. in fact when i would get out of the pool my back felt like all the weight of the world was crashing down on it.
so this takes me to august of 2006. neuro now wants a disco gram(heard of them by now dont sound great). disco and ct after was not good. all three levels were very painfull. l5/s1 held no contrast at all and the upper two levels held very little. u can see the contrast going around the disc into the vertabrae on l3/l4.
neuro wants to do nerve blocks to figure out which discs are causing the problems. i start to question this neuros thinking and request another referal from my pcp. new neuro told me he did not believe in disco grams or there diagnostic abilities. tells me there is nothing wrong with my back that loosing weight, excercising and quitting smoking wont cure.
well u can imagine my reply to this "expert". i then make my own appointment with an orthopedic surgeon in elgin illinois. i was very impressed with this man. very helpful in explaining things and answering questions. he advised me to wear a corsette that he fit me with and that due to their being three levles involved he would not recommend a fusion due to the lack of motion preservation.
again i am still working full time. have moved up to vicoden and cymbalta. it was very difficult to get thru the days but i was stubborn(and stupid) i kept working. we are into nov.now. much to my surprise my primary dr leaves the practice he was in. in work comps eyes i am now out of luck because my dr choices(two) have been used up with my initial primary dr and then the ortho of my choice in elgin.
i have now gotten to the point where wotking unmedicated was impossible as was working medicated due to the fact i cant be on top of everything like i should due to the fuzzy head. i started seeing a new primary in the same practice as the old primary. he is very compassionate and takes me off work and increases my vicoden to 1500 mgs a day and puts me on neurontin 900 mgs daoly and flexaril 30 mgs a day. i also hire a lawyer as to my surprise the work man comp company who has been paying the bills so far havent filed a claim with the state. my lawyer got the w/c to accept the new pcp as he is in the same practice and i have no choice but to find a new one. after being off work from nov 20 to the middle of march with no income w/c finally starts kickin in. my lawyer has also gotten them to back pay me to the original off work date. this is after they send me to an ime of their choice and it sure dont go in their favor!!! lawyer has also convinced w/c to allow me to go to see a dr to pursue adr with a referal from the ortho in elgin. appointment set up for dr geisler on april 23.
this takes me to now. been a tuff road with w/c but won that so far. i am getting along ok. have bad days and worse days. neurontin helps with the right leg nerve pain a lot. it is not totally gone but it is better. injured my knee about a month ago and have been diagnosed with chondomalacia in my left knee. ortho does not want to fix this until after if and when back surgery is done. left leg was my dominant and most weight carrying leg as the right is theweak and nerve problem one. am ambulating with a hinged knee brace. helps it not give out.
ok thats me in a nut shell. i told my hubby i am never turning 40 again as since then my body has just given out. had hysterectomy in sept of 2005 so that was a month after turning 40. then the back and knee thing since then.
well dont know if u are tired of reading but im tired of typing. i am very pleased to have found this web site in order to educate myself further on adr and to have more people to talk to. thank u all very much for reading this diary and staying till the end. hope your days are as pain free as possible and as sunshiny as can be!!!!
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12/15/05 injured on volunteered ambulance call
mrirotrusion at l3/l4 l4/l5 l5/s1 l3/4 encroacing on thecal sac
all conservative treatments: esi x2 si injection x1 land therapy,water therapy
discogram positive all levels
seen by two neuro surge
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  #2  
Old 04-16-2007, 07:10 AM
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Harrison Harrison is offline
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Welcome Naner, I hope we can help you with your next steps. I met Dr Geisler a few times, he's a very personable and highly experienced doctor. Good luck with your research, feel free to call any time.
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Fell on my ***winter 2003, Canceled fusion April 6 2004
Reborn June 25th, 2004, L5-S1 ADR Charite in Boston
Founder & moderator of ADRSupport - 2004
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