I can post my story here but be prepared to blown away.
My story starts at 15 years of age when some friends and I were running outside in the hallways at school, running full speed I tripped (got pushed that I remember) and hit a concrete wall head on. The blow was so hard it knocked me out and being 6 foot tall at the time my fall unconscious to the ground was even harder. When I hit the ground I went into a full seizure. I woke up strapped to a board in the ER, don't remember a thing.
For 20 years afterwards I suffered with migraines, neck pain, numbing fingers you name it. After trips to the ER for pain, MRI's showing the discs and bulges getting worse I enrolled in to Pain Management. After a year of injections I decided to look for a surgeon. I was amazed at Barth Green's group from the University of Miami in 2008 after a paralyzed pro football player walked to the 50 yard line less than a year after his injury. It took me months to get in just to meet the team.
In October 2009 I went under the knife. My C5 Fusion surgery was to only take 45 minutes but when I awoke in the ICU I was screaming my head off. I wasn't suppose to have a voice but I was screaming so hard it popped in. I remember looking at the clock and 4 hours had passed and when I saw my wife she was crying too. I asked what had happened and why did all that time pass. She told me when they got in there they found the C5 broken apart and peices of bone had to be picked out of my spinal cord. I had a flash back if me running in the high school halls and wondered what my life would have been if I didn't hit that wall.
They could not get a hold of my pain post surgery. I cried myself to sleep the first night. Morphine just made me sick so I took pills instead of IV stuff but they couldn't manage me. The next day I thought I was going home but they told me I had the flu. Then another day went by and they said I was still sick. On day 5 of death pain they finally released me. My best friend took care of me for 2 weeks, I don't remember a thing, not even the pain. He'd crawl in my bedroom at night wake me up to take pills, he was a god send.
Every month after surgery I got a sinus infection to the point I could barely see. Finally I was sent to an ENT and when he looked into my sinuses he found something that shocked him. A few people entered the room and the dr told me they would need to biopsy what they found but would have to go get it. I was held down by 4 people and they stuck a 3 foot rod in my nose. I could feel it behind my eye. The next day I got the call that they needed to see me right away. Doctor tells me I have a MERSA cyst that's spreading which needs to be removed right away. So 48 hours later and 6 months after fusion surgery I'm back in another surgery to have this thing removed. The same friend takes care of me again for another week and now it's recovery time again.
Then 3 months later I'm at work and start throwing up uncontrollably for hours. I'm home for days until I recover. Then I'm back to work and again throwing up like crazy. They take me to the ER and I'm so dehydrated they go through 4 bags of saline. I'm thinking I can go home but they tell me my red blood count it 25,000 and they can't let me go until it's under 5,000. So 2 days later I'm finally home and feeling ok enough to go to work. Again I am throwing up and still recovering from neck surgery it's killing my neck even more. Now I'm back in my home hospital where the doctors and nurses know me and my issues. So 48 hours I'm told I have colitis. All the antibiotics for all those months just about
killed me literally.
After a full year of recovery my neck pain and migraines are still raging. I can't understand why the surgery didn't give me the relief I expected. My wife tells me some thing that blows me away. Apparently when they were fixing my C5 they discovered the C4 to be really damaged and told her this while I was in ICU. She asked then why didn't you fix it while you were in there? Apparently they cannot fix what they want because insurance won't pay for it and if something happens to the repair they can be sued.
So here I am 5 years later still going through pain management because they didn't fix everything while they had me
open. They also gave me MERSA that I'll have for the rest of my life. I get to have these symptoms forever and all I got from the U of Miami was we are sorry. Should have sued them. Anyway that's my story.
Post Edited (jpjr50) : 7/22/2014 6:33:56 AM (GMT-6)