This photo was taken over a year ago which shows medical bills resulting from the car accident of 12/31/99. There is another stack I have accumulated since then which includes the scripts from the past 14 months, doctors visits and the records from the heart attack. Previously to 12/31/99 and going back to ten years before the accident I have about six pages of records!
12/31/1999 10:30 am car accident in Kannapolis; Mrs. M plowed into the back of my car doing 45-50 mph without braking causing my car to hit the vehicle in front of me. All three cars were totaled and I suffered injuries. I was seen at NorthEast Medical Center later that day and told it was probably a contusion to my kneecap that was causing the burning pain that was felt immediately upon impact.
1/7/2000 Went to see a doctor about the burning pain in my left knee. I was put on anti-inflammatory and told to come back if no improvement in my condition. I was told to take Aleve or aspirin for the swelling and pain.
1/21/2000 approx I went back to Dr. M and was referred to Dr. Ohl at Charlotte Orthopedic. I was given a script for Naproxin. She said she thought that the cartilage was torn.
1/27/2000 approx Saw Dr. O and he said it was probably dashboard knee and it would get better eventually. I was given a script for an anti-inflammatory Viiox. None of the anti-inflammatories I took ever relieved the pain. And I tried them all. Viiox, Bextra, Naproxin and finally settling on Celebrex which has less impact on the heart and worked best for me.
Twice in Feb. I went back to Dr. O with complaints of burning left knee pain.
March 2000 I had fallen several times at home and once again went to see Dr. O. One night I fell in my bathtub which is big and deep because it is a Jacuzzi tub. I got turned around when struggling to get up and scraped my bum badly on the faucet. I had to go out and by Kotex to use for dressing of the wound. I fell outside in the yard late at night too in Feb. when letting the dogs out of the kennel to bring them inside; it was about 30 degrees. I laid there for almost 30 minutes before I could stand up. I thought my leg was broken and the pain was intense. Johannes ran out of the kennel and his knee clipped my shin hard. He sent me for an MRI of the left knee which revealed a torn medial meniscus and I was scheduled for surgery to repair this damage.
April 14, 2000 Surgery to repair torn medial meniscus and also a Chrondal lesion was lasered off the left kneecap. This surgery did nothing to heal my injury. I was referred to physical therapy. All three of my kids drove up from Atlanta to be with me during the surgery. My two grandchildren also came along.
April 29, 2000. PT started and I had to come to them 3 times a week for one hour sessions. I continued PT for several months and I never achieved Dr. Ohl’s goal for me to be able to squat and get up without assistance. In fact, the PT made things much worse. I was still having burning pain in my left knee and now began having muscle cramps in my legs and feet. At the end of several months of treatment all I could do was to lay there with ice packs on my knee and was not able to do any exercises at all.
Fall 2000 I was referred to an acupuncturist for treatment by Dr. O. I went to this doctor till the spring of 2001. I received no relief from pain at all. By this time I was having great difficulties with my gait and began using a brace and ace wraps.
March 8, 2001 I saw another ortho doctor T. He said he thought the problem was reflex sympathic syndrome; which causes severe pain in limbs and there is no known cure or satisfactory treatment. He sent me back to Dr. O for further evaluation.
March 21, 2001 approx. Dr. O admitted he did not know what was wrong with me and discharged me from his care. That was a terrible day.
End of March 2001. I began experiencing some problems at work; making stupid mistakes. I also had some road rage situations that made me furious. On a routine woman’s check up my doctor talked to me about what was happening in my life. She said I was suffering from chronic pain and depression and started me on Celexa. Celexa helps a lot with depression but it also helps ease pain. I stayed on this for several months until I was laid off and lost the insurance.
For over a year I believe I received no treatment for my knee, chronic pain or depression because I had no insurance as I had been laid off my job in July of 2001. A friend HC, who is an acupuncturist did some treatments at a reduced fee. This lasted a few months. HC asked me if I had injured my back in the car accident and I answered that I did not think so. I continued to experience severe burning pain in the left knee, cramping in the legs and feet and some muscle soreness that began at the left knee and was traveling up and down the leg. It was later diagnosed as Myofacial Pain Syndrome.
June 3, 2002 I got a job at Nevins with medical insurance. So I was able to once again see my PCP Dr. M for pain treatment. She was able to treat me with Vicodin beginning at two a day and later up to three or four a day at higher and higher strength. Several months later she had to insist on getting me to see a pain management specialist.
Fall 2002. I began therapy through the EAP at work so I could work on grief issues for the loss of body functions, the pain and depression due to car accident. The therapist was nice but did not seem to get why I was seeing him. I needed something more like in the way of cognitive behavioral therapy that could actually give me the tools I needed to handle the intense and intractable pain and the resulting life issues. So I stopped seeing this therapist and began searching for someone more suitable.
Jan. 2003 Dr. M sent me to a neurologist by the name of Dr. AH at Prespeterian Hospital I believe. She conducted an invasive nerve conduction test on my entire left leg. Her conclusion was that the nerve had been either severed or severely damaged under the left knee cap. I asked her if there was surgery or something to cure this. She advised me it was something I was going to have to live with the rest of my life. This was very upsetting news to say the least. And that is when serious depression set in.
May 3, 2003 Dr. M referred me to South East Pain Care to Dr. B. He is a nice man and I enjoyed meeting him. He started off by saying after he examined me that I was not crazy, that there was something wrong with my leg, there was no cure but he was going to do everything he can to help lower my pain levels. He was the one who explained what chronic pain was. He also explained how this led to depression. He warned me there would be no miracles and that I would have some measure of pain for the rest of my life. He gave me scripts for 10mg of Oxycotin once a day and Vicodin 500mg three times a day for breakthrough pain. He wanted me to take the Oxy during the day but I found it made me very sleepy and had an affect on my driving back and forth to work each day. He was okay with that and wanted to do a med check in a month. Dr. B also said I had depression and put me back on Celexa. Later he changed it to Effexor. Dr. B is a board certified pain care specialist and works out of Carolina Medical Center.
July 2003 Dr. B performed the first caudal nerve block and it was done under a fluoroscopic machine and I had an epidural. This procedure was extremely painful and I had to use a wheel chair when being discharged because I could not feel my legs. My daughter B and grand-daughter came up from Atlanta for that one to care for me. This surgical procedure only offered pain relief for two or three days. Dr. B told me later that the pain relief was from the lidocaine he used to numb me and not from the procedure or the drugs he injected near my spine.
Sept. 2003 approx. My friend D (and later she became my partner, the one who left me after the heart attack) took the day off so that I could have the second and final nerve block in my spine. The same results; pain relief for a few days only. Dr. B, K the nurse and I were all disappointed at these sad results. I continued with my narcotic pain meds; Dr. B having to increase the dosage of the Vicodin all the while because the pain kept increasing and the MFPS continued to advance throughout my body.
Three times between Sept. 2003 and April 2004 Dr. B did lidocaine injections into six bad trigger points in my buttocks. As with the nerve blocks I got relief for a few days only. Trigger point injections are also extremely painful but sometimes they do help some patients.
April 2004 I saw another neuro doctor at Carolina Neurology in concord Dr.B referred me to because I experienced a sudden increase in pain and my arms and legs were starting to go numb and tingle. My gait had deteriorated some more.
That doctor ran another nerve conduction test from the waist down on both legs. This revealed that I also had some nerve damage on the right side as well. But the left side was more severe. I also had an MRI of my back which revealed bulging discs in the lumbar and sacral areas. He sent me back to Dr. B and said eventually I would need to have back surgery on the five bulging discs but for now I was doing okay with it.
In June or July of 2004, I went for a routine check up with Dr. B. When a patient is on narcotic therapy they have to see the doctor several times the first year and then once a year after that. We talked about a plan for pain maintenance. We discussed having a spinal cord stimulator implanted. He gave me a video about this procedure and told me to call and make an appointment if I wanted to have this surgery. I thought this surgery was the best solution because that intense and constant burning pain in my left knee was driving me crazy. Dr. B diagnosed me at this time with fibromyalgia and wished me well considering I had both fibro and MFPS! He said that sucked! He was right. He is right it does.
July 12 to 16, 2004 Dr. B performed a trial spinal cord stimulator surgery in his office under epidural sedation. My daughter B had drove up from Atlanta with M and A to care for me. She left the children with me for that entire week. This surgery the wires were advanced up into the epidural space to T10. The wires were left outside my body and attached to a temp device which I carried around in a pouch. This surgery was incredibly painful. Imagine having wires shoved up your epidural space which is sitting right adjacent to the spinal cord. I had horrible shooting pains down my left side every time he advanced the wires and the wires ran into resistance in the narrow epidural space. Horrible!
My back was completely covered by bandages. I have photos of this and photos of the wires coming right out of my spine. It was a huge success and Dr. B and I decided to go ahead with the implant.
August 4, 2004 Surgery for the spinal cord stimulator was done at University Hospital. I stayed overnight. That surgery was incredible painful. Dr. B said the trauma set off a fibro pain flare and that is why my recovery period was so long. I was out of work for the most part from August 4th to the end of Sept. when I was “laid off” while on FMLA.
It took six months to recover from this surgery. The device works very well but unfortunately it only helped the pain right on the left kneecap and did nothing for all the other pain. The entire team called me their shining star patient because I was a good patient and because it proved to be so successful. The device is Synergy from Medtronic. The same device and surgery that Jerry Lewis had. Only his remote control is a beautiful color red and mine is a dull gray. I would have loved to have a red device.LOL
October 2004 Dr. B put me on Methadone 10mg per day because I had lost my insurance once again when laid off. He also kept me on Vicodin as well. He also said that he and SE Pain Care had done all the surgical procedures that were possible and that for the rest of my life I would just be on pain maintenance.
July 7, 2005 I applied for SSDI and was granted SSI and Medicaid almost immediately. At that time Dr. B changed me over to Oxy to 10 mg three times a day and no more Vicodin for break through pain. Oxy is so much more effective for pain than the methadone. There should not have been any breakthrough pain because I was getting Oxy 24/7 but there was about six hours after taking my dose.
July 2005 Began seeing Dr. G at Daymark Recovery and she put me on Cymbalta 90mg with is an SSNRI; which is very effective on depression and pain. She diagnosed me as having major depressive disorder. I continue to see Dr. G up until present.
December 2006 Dr. B increased my Oxy to 20 mg three times a day. I still break through after 6 hours but it is far better pain coverage. I was awarded SSDI around the middle of the month and began receiving my disability payments the 3rd of Jan. 2006. I was one of the few persons known to have gotten SSDI on the first try without an attorney.
Feb. 1, 2006 I lost my Medicaid and was once again without insurance. Dr. B put me back on Methadone which costs less than $20 a month but far less affective than the Oxy. I am still a patient of Dr. B’s and will see him again in October.
March 1, 2006 I had run out of Oxy and went through three days of withdrawals till I could come in and get my script for Methadone. Withdrawal from narcotics is terrible!
March 12-13, 2006 My partner D drove me to the hospital and I presented to NE Medical Center with chest pains and said I was having a heart attack. They kept me overnight and scheduled a stress test for the following day. The stress test was done by giving me an injection of dobutaline because I could not walk well enough for them to do a stress test. This was a horrible experience and I had chest pain through out the entire test.
They sent me home saying it was not my heart but probably gall bladder disease despite the fact I had most high risk factors. I knew they were wrong and called my new PCP to ask for an immediate appointment so I could get her to call them and get me back in there for further testing such as the 64 slice CT scan. I was schedule to see her on Wed., this was Monday night. I never made that appointment.
March 14, 2006 At 10:30 am I began having hard chest pain and was short of breath. It was frightening. I called an ambulance, then I called D at work and she stayed on the phone with me till the ambulance arrived and was rushed to NE Medical Center where I had a heart attack a short while after admission. I was sent to the cath lab where an angioplasty was performed with medical stent placement done as well. The heart attack was in the left descending artery and it left my heart severely damaged by heart failure and an ejection fraction of 30 percent.
August 22 saw new cardiologist at Sanger Clinic and I like the guy and feel I can trust him. Scheduled another round of heart testing nuclear echo, stress test and lab work. We are hoping to see an improvement in my ejection fraction. He thinks it will hit 50% which is a low medium. I will be estactic. And this will be the first good break I have had in awhile besides having the most wonderful family in the world!
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