Re: rick's "tm" ordeals!
John Godfrey (djgodfrey(AT)worldnet.att.net)
Thu, 19 Nov 1998 07:04:08 -0800
NACYTRACY(AT)aol.com wrote:
>
> In June of 1998, I was working in Clarksdale, Mississippi , installing carpet
> in a comfort inn hotel. While lifting a roll of carpet to put a dolly under
> it I felt a pop or a snap in my lower back l It really didn't hurt that bad
> so I continued working that day. A few days later my back started aching. My
> knee hurt bad and my right foot got numb on the side. My right heel felt like
> I had a stone bruise. I made an appoinment with a local Dr.. He examined me
> and said that I had probably pinched a nerve in my lower back. And pulled a
> hamstring. Also, that I should see my own Dr.. Just my luck my doctor was
> out of town. When I got back in town, his office sent me to a specialist
> (neuro) in the same building. By this time I was starting to have a lot of
> pain and I was also starting to drag my right foot. To my surprise this neuro
> said that I should just take 3 weeks off work and the problem would probably
> go away. He couldn't have been more wrong. He completely misdianosed my
> condition.
> Things started really getting worse. I thought I was dying. I contacted the
> neuro again but he couldn't see me that day. I went to the e.r. In my
> hometown (Covington). They checked me out and couldn't make a diagnosis.
> They shot me with demerol and sent me home. The pain in my legs was so bad
> that I went back to the er 2 more times. This was over a 2 day period. I
> hurt so bad that I was screaming with pain similar to a severe sunburn. On
> the last trip to the er they finally contacted a neuro in Memphis, Tennessee
> . He said for us to come to the er (AT) Baptist Hospital East in Memphis. The
> er was filled with people so it was a very long agonizing wait (36 hours in er
> hallway)before even getting room in er. I don't even want to "go there"!
> Finally the neuro came to me to start running tests. By this time I had lost
> feelings in my lower back and both legs and I was really freaking out and
> scared. And if I'm scared I say I'm scared!! LOL my neuro's daughter, also a
> neuro, recognized my symptoms and did a spinal tap and mri.
> she diagnosed me with tm.
> that was 4 months ago and 4 months of physical therapy later, I am still
> paralyzed from waist down. This started after getting the "dreaded
> GOMBOO/Mississippi Crud/Delta Crud, the doctor in Mississippi called the flu
> like symptoms prior to my hurting my back lifting a roll of carpet. Gain this
> was in July 1998.
> I am not getting much better.
> because the diagnosis was tm, my workers comp. Used to cover me so we are now
> depending on friends and family for mostly everything. F of course GOD and
> our (my wife Jeanette) church family.
> what I want to know is how many people with this terrible ailment got it from
> an injury, .
> *******************************
Hi, Diana here... Guess what the same thing happened to me but you will
find these doctors all stick together and will almost never tell you
that it is caused by an injury esp if work related. They see "law suit"
immediately. I had two back injuries, one in June '94 and another
Feb'96, both at work. I had only been back to work for four days when I
awoke one morning totally paralyzed from chest down. My doc thought I
had injured a disk and maybe had been misdiagnosed. The Neuro in the ER
kept saying over and over you should have had flu or cold symptoms
sometime recently. I work(ed) for a very large company that treated me
so badly that I had my dr say I was well enough to go back to work and
immediately retired to remove the stress from my daily life.
Hope you have better luck than I did.