This site has given us back our sanity, but we keep losing it again.
My husband had an accident 8 years ago and is still going through a massive claim at the moment, it is driving us mad. Infact dealing with all the different doctors and their conflicting opinions is far worse than the injury itself. Going infront of the Judge and being asked a shed load of questions and having to repeat yourself over and over again, by a Barrester who charges £2,150.00 for half a days work.
John has an incomplete SCI at C5/C6 the cord was flattened on the left side, now it has caused loads of medical problems for John, spasticity (his tendons become really tight behind his knees and at his elbows which prevents him from walking without every single step causing him severe pain), spasms right through his body daily, retention (AD) Chronic Pain plus problems with his liver due to the high amount of medication he is on.
We received a doctors report on Friday for the defendants side (the company he worked for) and their doctor has said that the injury at work was a mere neck sprain, the symptoms John has are all linked to Spondulitus and he would have had them anyway. Well when he went to work he was fine, could carry carcasses of meat around all day, do 200 push ups, cycle, swim and walk, but since the accident he has got progressively worse and cannot do any of them things. This doctor is trying to blame medication for the AD etc, but first signs of AD where in 2002 and he wasn't even on amitryptiline until 2003. He is also blaming Oxycontin and John was not prescribed that until 2005. Why don't they ask you a question before surmising wrongly.
It is so annoying, you watch tv and they say, have you had an injury and you can have £18,000.00 what they really need to tell you is the amount of grief you have to go through and how long it takes.
The psychiatrist he had to see said that John was more embarressed by his unusual limp, but that once he is in a wheelchair full time, he will be less embarressed because people would obviously know he was disabled and people would stare less. How mad did that make us.
The best of it is rehabilitation doctors tell you that you have to try and do as much for yourself as possible to keep strength and muscle working, but John is constantly being told make sure you don't do this, that or the other because the defendant's have probably got a private investigator watching your every move. We keep trying to say, John can do somethings, lift a box, but afterwards he is in excrutiating pain, he may try to walk to far, afterwards he is in excrutiating pain, but what is he supposed to do, sit down and not move again, life has to go on and he feels he needs to try and do as much as he can and then deal with the pain afterwards.
I have to say I am so proud of the way he deals with the chronic pain he is in and between us we have worked out how to do most things, we still have to live, but instead of giving him credit for dealing with a bad situation in a positive way, he gets told that he cannot be hurting as much as he says he is by the defendants side, if he can do this that and the other.
My arguement is that if he was trying to pull the wool over somebodies eyes, and that he wasn't really in as much pain as he is, he would just sit in a chair for a few years and then reap the benefit, he is just trying to deal with this injury in the best way he can, and all the solicitors, doctors and barresters just haven't got a clue.
Are any of you going through a similar thing, if so can you please give us some advice as we are going slowly mad.
As you can probably see, this is a topic which is driving us mad.
Maria
