On March 11th 2017 my life changed in a few seconds
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It seemed I was hit by a small white bus, on my moped on the way back from work to home. As I was unconscious for almost an hour I hadn’t noticed anything about the smash. I woke up in an ambulance and didn’t understand a thing. I stayed in the hospital for 3 days with a Confucio Cerebri (brain contusion), a smashed left underleg and terrible pain in my neck and lower back. I couldn’t lift up my head and my back turned black within 3 days because of a hematoma. Because I didn’t have much complaints of the normal symptoms with Brain Contusion (headaches, dizzyness, throwing up) I was releases from the hospital after 3 days. My complaints about the backpain were ignored by saying: “Yes, mam, you experianced a tough smash”
Once at home my backpain got worse and worse; I couldn’t walk for more than 15 minutes. The pain went through my left hip and leg to my foot. Also the wounds on my left underleg were ignored in the hospital. There was a hole wich wouldn’t heal at all. My homedoctor had send me for an echo wich told me the muscle of my tibia has been loose from the bone, wich caused blood and fluid in between. It should have been swindleld right away, wich was too late now. The open wound I treated myself with help from my homedoctor with clean bandages everyday and betadine cream. It took weeks before this was healed. An ugly scar is still there. The hematoma from my knee to my toes had heald itself after several weeks. A hard sensitive bubble is still there on my tendon above my ankle.
But my back pain didn’t heal by itself. And also while sitting I had this whining pain in my tailbone. My homedoctor adviced me by force to ge tan MRI done, wich, at first, didn’t give me any explanation; there seemed nothing was wrong. But when I was on consulting hour with my neurologist, he noticed there was a fracture shown yet. My trust in this hospital and their radiologists was completely gone at that very moment and I asked for all my medical reports immediatly and had send them for a Second Opinion.
On my neckscan there seemd to be a disease calles D.I.S.H. wich means there is wild bone growing on my neckbones. Not necessarily related to the accident. But my backscan reported several vertebral fractures! I could get surgery for this by Spinal Fusion of the L4 and L5 vertebrals. The waitinglist for this surgery was almost a year. I couldn’t wait so long as it allready took me months to get here. I got the opportunity to get surgery in Istanbul (long story wich is not worth it to tell). I had the Spondylodese surgery on september 15th 2017. While on the surgery table my L1, L2 and L3 discs seemed to be damaged as well so the did Discectomy on those right away.
On the scan there was also shown a Cyst in the S2 bone wich has been damaged by the accident smash and is causing pressure on the nerve, wich is the explanation I’m having pain on my tailbone while sitting. Unfortunatly the neurosurgeon in Istanbull didn’t have the know-how about Tarlov cysts and it would have been also too much to do this surgery at the same time as the Spinal Fusion because of the distance between L4/L5 and S2.
While I was recovering from the Spinal Fusion surgery I was looking on the internet for more information about Tarlov Cysts. I found out there are so few doctors that will confirm that those cysts can be sympthomatic. There are only a few who do confirm the symptoms and there even was one neurosurgeon who developed a way to do surgery on them, Dr’Frank Feigenbaum, an American who opened a hospital in Cypruss for European people. I had send him my MRI’s and got a personal phonecall from him in wich he confirmed my Tarlov Cyst is causing the problems and pain. He got me a treatment plan and a bill and I send this to my insurancecompany for funding.
Unfortunatly my Insurance company is NOT going to fund this surgery with the reason there’s not enough scientific research and proof this surgery will be the solution to my problem. This is a very big dissapointment for me as this will mean I have to have pain the rest of my life while sitting or take Tramadol the rest of my life. Wich I have to take more and more to get the same results in pain relieve.
I don’t want that! I want my life back the way it was before march 11th 2017. Wich I can forget anyway because of the Spinal Fusion. My back will never be as mobile as it was before. I can live with that with a few small modifications. The rehabilitation training has just been started; wich will prove what’s left to achieve from my body. But If I keep having pain while sitting without surgery, I will also have the risk the Tarlov Cyst will grow and will give me even more complaints, like numbness and failures in the leg…Than what?
I allready lost a lot because of the accident: my social life, can’t babysit my little grandson, my boyfriend has left, lost my job, but most of all my physical health…. My job as Social Worker for menatlly disabled people I can’t do it anymore because of my physical condition. My biggest and most favourate hobby Gardening, I can’t do it anymore. What’s left? What could I do in the future for work and hobbies?
I’m not going to accept the decision of my Insurance company. I will appeal! I will look for all the documentations I can find and will sent it to them in the hope I can convince them. Even if I have to do this with my lawyer. I would love to function normal again in this society and give my contribute in the future with a nice job; standing, sitting or alternately. But it has to be done without pain as much as there will be possible, without too much medication. I won’t let me been given up on yet!
Life begins at 50, some people say jokingly. Well I turn into 50 this year july…..we shall see!?
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