Hello Everyone,
My name is Janice, and I have a loving husband and 3 great, but exhausting, children. I
first started with migraines when I was only 14 weeks pregnant with my second child. When
I had a migraine it didn't go away in an hour or two, but last for up to a week or more. I
went through, just about everything they had, back then, to help anyone with migraines.
They were horrible and kept me in my dark, quiet room for days. I went to a Headache
clinic and did get back to living a better life. I was capable of working out, regularly,
had another child and returned to work. I was a nurse at a Rehabilitation hospital. I
loved my work and really enjoyed working with my patients. On July 13th, 1991 I was
transferring a patient from their wheelchair to the toilet, and he collapsed on top of me.
It was a normal lift that I did many times a day, but this time it just didn't go so
smoothly. He had his hand grabbed around my neck and I fell against the wall, and to the
floor. It felt as if my back was completely on fire. At first my pain was only in my back,
but within a few weeks, during my PT I was using the exercise bike and my right leg began
to ache and became really weak. This was just the beginning. I have been through so much
since that first pain in my back. I had a legal battle with w/c for 6 years. They referred
me to their doctors at the beginning and I was very naive with the legal aspects of w/c. I
can't even talk about what all they put me through, without getting all tensed up and
angry. I had to hunt for a lawyer that knew what he was doing to defend me. I had 3
lawyers. My father-in-law is who actually did all of their work. He even went to our state
capitol, with our state senator, and talk about my case with all the heads of the
departments. They thought that we had a good strong case against w/c, but it turned out
that the way the law is written gives w/c a lot of slack. Apparently, all of the people
that have faked their injuries have really allowed the insurance companies to get big loop
holes. This just isn't fair, that when I'm truly injured, the w/c is working against me
and not with me to help me get back to work. They had a letter written to their doctor to
release me back to work no matter what my condition. This still didn't help me during the
hearing, and they got away with way too much. Anyway, I settled with them and that is
finally over. I am under our own health insurance, even though it's expensive. It began to
cover my previous expenses after a waiting period of 6 months. During all of this I had to
go to many doctor exams for the insurance companies and they agreed with my doctors on
treatment, but w/c refused. So prior to settling, we had to pay for a disectomy at L5/S1.
this did offer me some relief, but not much. I had to wait 2 years before I could get back
to see my neurosurgeon, and was now under my own insurance. I now had a posterior spinal
fusion at L5/S1 and this created a ton of scar tissue. So now that was in Dec. of '98 and
I have even more pain then ever before. I have bilateral leg pain, severe lower back,
buttocks, sciatica, minimal arachnoiditis, arthritis at T10, and leg weakness, numbness,
coldness, heaviness, aching, shooting, piercing, burning and you name it all the way out
my toes and my heels. My children are a son 12, 2 daughters 11 and 9. They can be a big
help, but they can also be very frustrating. I feel badly that they had to grow up the way
they have, without a mother that can do the driving and play the active games with them,
About 11 months after my injury I was clinically depressed and had to be treated with
medicine for about 2 years. I had to struggle through so many different emotions, and
still do each and every day. I am now living with a very positive outlook, and will take
each day at a time. My husband has been very supportive and loving throughout al of this.
However, he is experiencing muscle atrophy, nerve damage to his one leg, exhaustion and
depression. I do give him so much credit and am not sure how he lasted this long, but his
body is just giving out on him. I am waiting to hear about having another posterior back
fusion with pedicle screws, but my neurosurgeon wishes me to be reevaluated for a morphine
pump prior to having the next fusion. I have family support near by and would never have
made it this far without their strength and love. I was praying for my last apt. to be
setting the fusion date, but instead he wants me to go for another evaluation, after just
having two evaluations done this past Feb., for the spinal cord stimulator and the
implanted morphine pumps. So I really feel let down, and I'm tired of having all these
tests. I still manage to smile each day, but my pain level is way past a ten with much
activity, and usually about and 8 without any activity. I go see my pain management doctor
this week and pray that he can offer me some hope, and some direction for relief. Well,
that's about it.......but I think that it's more then enough......I only wish that each
and every one of you have some painless days ahead....Good Luck and God Bless!
Janice has been kind enough to offer anyone interested to e-mail her..
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