My current physical problems started in 1980 when I went home to a little town in
Indiana from were I was living in Denver, Colorado. Before even stopping to see my folks I
stopped to see an old friend who had constantly kept me advised of an old house he had
renovated that was three stories including this beautiful attic with 4 giant dormered
windows. A Victorian all the way and beautiful like he said. I know sooner got there and
he told me had a surprise for me. When I was in the service his father’s house had
burned and very few things could be salvaged. He had however been able to salvage the
massive model railroad system we had spent a zillion hours playing with in our child hood.
I broke into a trot with him sprinting to the attic. Low and behold his father would have
been so proud. The windows were open and I heard someone calling up from below so I went
to the window which began only 9 inches from the floor and put my hands on the sill to
support myself and leaned out to see who was there. My friend bless his soul without
thinking poked me in the sides very enthusiastically and my arms straightened my knees
locked and I shot out of that window with amazing speed down three flights as quick as old
Johnny Candle stick got over that candle. I flipped twice and landed rolling head over
heals thus saving my life but first causing a couple compression fractures to L-1 and L-2
with splintering to L-3 and T-12. L-1 and L-2 looked like cheese wedges or pizza slices
take your choice. The bad part was I only received a 4.9 from Olympic judges when it was
clearly a perfect 10!
I went to the leading spinal surgeon in Indiana and he told me that there were many want
to be famous spinal surgeons in our country but he personally would not have any surgery
done until I absolutely could not exist without it. He suggested I go on full disability
and wait. He also said he gave me 10 years tops before I would be forced into surgery due
to bone spurs protruding into the spinal canal. True to his statement in 1989 I developed
bone spurs into the spinal canal rendering myself totally disabled unable to move or care
for myself. Up till this time I had been employed full time choosing not to go on relief
but instead working in retail as a buyer/manager for a major college bookstore chain. I
worked through the pain up to 1989 using only IBY'S to kill the pain. The pain level was
normally at a 4 or 5 and I unloaded trucks or whatever it took to maintain the lifestyle
my family and I had become accustomed to. With such a wonderful wife as a partner in life
all else seemed small.
The surgery in 1989 at Baltimore Memorial was a slam-dunk. Absolutely the cats meow. DR
Asdorian did a miracle cure kinda thing! I knew I owed my very life to him. He fused L-1
and L-2 with my rib and removed multiple fragments and spurs protruding into the spinal
canal. It took 6 months of the company I worked for letting me work 3 days a week and
paying me salary for 5. Wearing a turtle type brace with three straps with Velcro on the
side for 6 months and bing, bang and a boom I was the best I had been since my fall in
1980! Still mad I had only got a 4.9 for the dive from the judges I wept with my wife in
happiness.
Now it's Sept 1995 and my chronic pain has stayed at a 2 to 3 and life is wonderful. I am
managing a large retail chain store and one day I get a message that we have a big
surprise shipment of goods coming in we have to a whole reset of the store over the next 2
nights. I go on the 10:00 PM to 6:00 am shift and roll up my sleeves to help get this job
accomplished. I have always believed you lead by example (I lived to regret that belief)
so there I was. We had to move a 20 foot long shelving unit and we all got down and braced
ourselves and pushed with our feet bracing our back while setting on the floor while
others used various tools to help us slide the shelf. OUCH!!!!!!! I broke the previous
fusion loose and or something severe and I knew it right away.
Workman's Comp should be listed as a 4 letter cussing word. I hurt myself on 26 Sept 1995
and did not receive a medical procedure of any kind other than every x-ray known to
mankind until 12 Aug 1997. I went through 5 doctors who prescribed physical therapy and
the therapists wrote that bracing and or surgical intervention was the only option they
could suggest. They also wrote further therapy they felt would only exaggerate the
symptoms. They informed all who read that I had followed every instruction and performed
all exercises as requested to the point of tears at which point they made me stop. I was
determined to be better even if it meant going further into pain. The old saying no pain
no gain is a poor way of recovering the therapist thought. Then I found a doctor who made
me get a bone scan which they thought finally showed a weak spot in the old fusion and
back to the table I went thinking only of how well the last one had gone and knowing this
one would be as successful! They fused my L-1 and L-2 with my hip bone graph and then
drilled 2 hole in that and 2 hole in T-12 and screw 4 titanium screws into a titanium
plate anchoring it all nice and strong.
Wake up and smell the coffee cruel world. I knew it didn't work when I woke up. The pain
was still excruciating but now I had a hip graph and a surgical sight to add. I tried to
tell the doctor but he was chief orthopedic surgeon and when he brought around all the
little doctors in training he said I was crazy he only did perfect work that I was somehow
misinterpreting the messages going to my head! He turned around and told the residents
being trained this was a perfect example of why you don't give people like me pain
medication because even when they are fixed they crave more and will lie to get it! They
all laughed and he turned told the nurse to cut my pain meds by half each day until I left
in 5 days. Well needless to say the same pain was still there as I am writing this letter
so I had to go along with this farce to get out of the hospital. He would not release me
until he in his words weaned me off the Vicodin I should have never been prescribed. When
my wife and I decided to do this surgery this doctor said he only gave a 25% chance of
this working and now he was saying I would soon be back to pre-injury status.
I went back to my family doctor and he immediately put me back on vicodin es 8 per day. He
was so mad that he waged a full-scale attack to get me care via my wives insurance
company. It worked and they paid for my meds. Then in May 1998 the doctor who did the
surgery against the new therapist and my family doctor's wishes told workman comp I was
ready to go back to work after at a office visit he reiterated how he never made a mistake
in his career. I pointed out that even god made mosquitoes, which I felt, was a mistake
and he blew up. Said that a worthless shit like me would never make another poor tasteless
joke about someone of his obvious higher ranking in life again. He told me he would show
me and right in front of me wrote return to work - back to pre-injury status. He looked at
me again and just smiled. From gods mouth to his ears is how he believed it was done.
Well thank god for my wives HMO because they took me under they're wing and ran. More
doctors and facet blocks some of this and some of that and a little of the other. They
were willing to try everything I would consent to. I consented to all the injections and
found out that the bone fusion and plate would not let them get to the nerves underneath
and those were the nerves that were causing my distress they felt. In comes the spinal
stimulator with 2 leads set into my spinal cord. This was good to confuse the leg pain but
was never meant to handle the back pain. Then came the internal morphine pump which now
has Dilada (spelling) in it because the morphine made me to high and I had delusions and
it scared my wife and kids. They also put a drug similar to Novocain like for teeth in it
with the morphine and it made my face droop like I had had a seizure and we had to
discontinue it. I am still on the 6-vicodin hp per day as well as 22mg on the internal
pump.
Judgment day came and I was awarded a settlement, which I split and left half in the
agreement to be paid to my wives insurance company if they ever came after me in court.
Well I had to sign a gag order to get the whole thing over. Later the HMO said I had been
less that honest with them by not telling them of the settlement when I had left half of
the money. No one would tell them it was there when they asked for reimbursement for the
care they had provided in leu of workman's comp. To this day workman's comp is still
fighting not to let loose of the money and I am being held hostage and not allowed to go
back to pain therapy both physical and mental do to poor advise from our lawyers. August
18, 1999 should finally bring the court case to a conclusion and if I don not prevail my
medical coverage will be discontinued. My only recourse then will be to sue my lawyer and
win for not researching before he instructed us on his legal advice.
All this under the bridge and still I am at an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 pain wise. I am in
bed or my recliner 16 to 18 hours a day. With minimal exertion I spike to 10's with
blinding pain. I have a hospital bed with trapeze and a great lazyboy lounger or I
couldn't make it.
Only by the grace of god to give me someone like my wife Diane could I have made it. She
took me to all my appointments, cleaned all my wounds from the beginning and picked up the
slack with the children. She took a second job when things got bad and never made me feel
unwanted. What a wonderful person she is. Families suffer in different ways but just as
severely as the injured party. Every decision is based on my pain and my inability to
physically do day to day chores and or normal responsibilities a healthy father could do
on his own.
My goal is to survive and show my children that you never say die. You never give up no
matter how dismal it may seem. There is always someone else whom has it worse and not to
take comfort in that but to strive and make them selves better every day. Once you stop
reaching for the brass ring there are no more tomorrow's and life can not be lived without
expectations to achieve and enjoy.
Dennis has been kind enough to offer anyone interested to e-mail him..
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