7 replies to this topic

[Hoanui]

Hi, I joined this site yesterday but I have no idea if I even have the right to be here or if this is the correct part of the forum to post this.

I'm not in a wheelchair so can I still be a member or is it for wheelchair warriors only? I've had an A,C,D&F - Anterior Cervical Discectomy & Fusion in April 2007 and a laminectomy in May this year, 2008. I wont add any more at this stage because if I'm on the wrong site I'll try to find somewhere else. Thank you for your time.

Cheers! ;)

[reaven85]

well you have a sci? So Yeah your in the right place...WELCOME! This place is cool people around here are Helpful,Honest,and Funny! But beware of e-dog.....he is brutal...

Edited by reaven85, 19 November 2008 - 11:46 AM.

[Hoanui]

reaven85, on Nov 19 2008, 11:46 AM, said:

well you have a sci? So Yeah your in the right place...WELCOME! This place is cool people around here are Helpful,Honest,and Funny! But beware of e-dog.....he is brutal...

Hi...PHEW...thank you! I was beginning to feel isolated up here even when I knew I wasn't alone. I just didn't want to intrude on people with far worse conditions than mine.

I'm sure e-dog likes a gooood belly rub ;)

I've been feeling my injury lately; I've slipped and fallen hard in my back garden on muddy/wet grass twice in the past two weeks and it got to me last night. I'm becoming paranoid about my neck because there's been 4 times in as many weeks when my legs just wont work for a few mins first thing in the morning or if I've been sitting studying at my PC - just can't get up. It passes but I've noticed that walking is getting harder recently.

It all started 3 years ago after being attacked by a madman with an axe. He hit me twice on the right leg then practically ripped my head off it's moorings on the third blow to my face. Paresthesia set into my feet a few weeks later and after 11 months had worked its way up to my neck - C7 - C6 - C5. Doctors at my local surgery didn't know what it was and poopooed me when I did some research and said it was a stenosis. Despite needing two walking sticks to get around they still did nothing; no tests - reflex or otherwise. Then a Dr I knew, thankfully, filled in as a locum sent me for an MRI and 3 weeks later I had the A,C, D & F.

I know everyone is different but is there a general or typical improvement or decline in my type of condition? I'm still waiting for physio after my first op so I'm not holding my breath for physio after the second op (I don't even know what help I should/could be getting.) I'm on 8 Tramadol, 8 Paracetamol and 8 Baclofen per day; I can increase on this as an when needed although I do try to titrate the dosages.

Sorry to rattle on so much but I get no answers or help from any of the medical fraternity here and there's no-one else to talk to with anything like this condition in this village.

Anyway, thank you all for your time. I'll try to find the answers to q's on the forum before I dive in and ask the same question that's been asked 500 times. ;)

[nomis]

Hi Hoanui

That's not good to hear you've been three years and still not getting the medical information and care you probably need. I believe your Scottish medical system works similar to ours in New Zealand and I'd say you need to get more confrontational with your local medical people or seek further afield. Squeaky wheels get attention etc.

If physio work was supposed to help your recovery from the last op then it's probably too late now and any benefits that might have been gained are likely lost. If you're still getting unexplained weaknesses you need to know why and you need to know that fast.

[Tash]

Welcome Hoanui,

Good to have you here. Read the post and add your own. Take the advice that you need and discard the advice that you dont. The people here are great and they will accept you just the way that you are. I am a caregiver = carer of a c5/6 incomplete quad and the folks here have accepted me.

If you need some navigation you can pm me and I will help you navigate your way through here. I found that a little confusing when I first came. At any rate with visiting so much and this is a very addictive place btw, you will learn all the ways to get what you are looking for. After you read and wrote all you can...come to the Chat Room or just came anyway. There is where the action begins live. You can talk to all sorts of people form around the world and sometimes in your own back yard. LOL! Enjoy your experience, relax and have fun!

[evilmac64]

no advise just welcome

[Hoanui]

Thank you all for your kindness. It's easy to feel 'forgotten' when you live out in the sticks like I do; my town is seven miles from the main road but it might as well be 700.

I have to see my surgeon on the 4th of Dec for a follow up and I'll see what he says about my legs. Hopefully I won’t need more surgery. As for the physio...well. We have one of the finest hospitals in the UK an hour away from here but it's not worth damn all if the doctors won’t send you there to have a condition investigated. My idiot doctor told a teen girl here that the lump in her abdomen was a fatty lump so watch your diet and exercise more. 14 months later a 28lb cyst was removed. I accused him in a letter of being incompetent and dangerous. He didn't like me much after that especially when I told him I'd rather die than have him treat me. If I'm told they have made a mistake then I can accept that because they're human but to hide it behind incompetence is ludicrous.

I tore a strip off one obnoxious woman at my local surgery - because my repeat prescription hadn't been filled and it had been there a week - days later she objected at me leaving in a 'strop' so she laid into me about patient care. THAT DID IT! 2 people in my village were diagnosed with depression, a year later a locum, again, sent them for tests they never had and they both had terminal cancer! How's that for patient care I asked. Luckily there was a stout wooden counter between me and her. I made a complaint anyway - something I'm always loathed to do but this loud mouth (she had broken patient confidentiality before this) needed a damn good slap.

Anyhoo, yesterday I told a friend of mine in Corpus Christi, Texas about this site and she's passed it on to a friend of hers in California with a sci so this site may well help someone else too.

I'm looking forward to getting to know this site

[Hoanui]

Thank you, Mac. ;)