After that 2nd surgery and 1st fusion, I thought I would be done. Well I had to do physical therapy first because I couldn't move my toes. After getting my toes to work again I was relieved because it really was hard to walk right with them numb and at 40 I was walking around with a cane, and I hated it! I felt so old! I went for SS disability because I couldn't work anymore, I could barely do housework, and I made myself do that! I HAD kind of an OCD attitude towards my house, but this past year, I have had to let that go! I still clean but it's one chore a day and my hubby helps me so much with the hard stuff like vacuuming the floors. So after 7 years of no problems with the back except when the cold weather hit or I over did it, the back went out again! I was trying to start work again by working part time at a call center. I thought if I could get back to working I could get off of disability. I loved working. 2011, my back had different plans for me! I had got to where after sitting for the 4 hours at work, I wouldn't be able to do anything once I got home. My back would kill me so I finally went to another surgeon. I had my other surgeries in SC, I didn't know these doctors in KS. I wish now I had never met them. Dr. W. as I'll call him was kind of laid back, almost too laid back but even though he did say there were risks with another fusion, that was what would fix me again. Now mind you every fusion you get, your spine gets weaker with the other discs and it becomes a chain of degeneration that just won't stop it seems like. Anyway, in surgery he took out my old hardware so he could get to the levels to fuse, this time 3 & 4 and 4 & 5. When I woke up from the surgery I was in so much pain! It was like I was on fire and my legs were burning! I begged them to figure out what was wrong but they said that would wear off because the nerves had been messed with and they would calm down. Well 3 days later they still hadn't calmed down, thank GOD for the morphine pump I had my finger on and pushed every time I was allowed. They came in on the 3rd day and said they would send me home the next day and I yelled at them that they WOULD NOT send me home until they figured out why my legs were burning. So they finally agreed to do a 3 D X-ray on me to see if they could find anything and sure enough, they came in and told me they saw 2 screws on a nerve or 1 screw on 2 nerves, to be honest I can't remember which it was now, all I know is I had to go back into surgery and let them adjust the screws.....well too late, the damage was done. The burning did calm down but it did not go away in my left leg as well as it should have so then I was left with pain in my leg, so put me on another medication and send me home. My back has never stopped hurting since! They really messed me up! In 2013, I couldn't take it anymore and I had a spinal cord stimulator implanted to help with my pain and help me get off all the meds. It worked so well! For 6 months it helped me get off my pain pills, my Cymbalta and at least be able to walk around my neighborhood. When 2014 started, I thought I could try working out a little at Curves again. I asked permission and got it from my Dr. He didn't know how Curves worked so after I started, about a month later, I was in dire pain again and this was the worst yet pain wise. I had to stop working out and have a CAT scan because after the implant there are no more MRIs. He sent me to the ortho surgeon who wanted a myelogram which is like a CAT scan with contrast. When I went back to get the results he was straight up and said, good news and bad news. The good news is you don't need surgery, the bad news is you have Adhesive Arachnoiditis and there is no cure. There is no surgery, there's nothing we can do for it. You will need to see about pain management and therapy to deal with the pain and PT might help. So I left devastated. Arachnoiditis, Adhesive which is the final stage of it is what I have. The nerves in your spinal cord get all clumped together and stick together like spaghetti and best as I can tell, it causes so many symptoms and so much pain and so much havoc on your body, I don't know how I will live for maybe another 30 years or more with it. I just don't know. I have a lot of fear for my future but I do have my faith in Christ, so that is my strongest suit right now! FAITH, don't know what I would do without it. I will write some more tomorrow about arachnoiditis and what can happen with it. One month after getting the diagnosis, I got diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome which is an autoimmune disease. It's a connective tissue disease that depletes your moisture glands and gives you dry eyes, dry mouth and so much joint pain and rashes and can cause me to get Lymphoma, in fact I have a 44X more chance of getting it now that I have Sjogren's. Wonderful, just wonderful! I will let off some more steam tomorrow! I have had a long day, now I'm trying to finish my birthday cake to take to my birthday dinner tomorrow night. 51 is coming on Sunday. I will be on the first year of the second half of my life, or less. It's in God's hands right? Let's meet here tomorrow! Thanks for reading!
Love to you all,
Cindy
Love to you all,
Cindy
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