Good thoughts needed for Brian (csuviper)

On the bright side, if I stub my toe it shouldn’t hurt as bad

 

Thought I would give you an update because you guys are all awesome and have been praying for me.

Dr. visit on Monday was kind of a waste. Didn’t tell me anything the hospital didn’t already tell me. I have a follow up with a Neurologist on Monday.

I have a spitting headache that only gets better by switching between Ibuprofen and acetaminophen or doubling up on them. It’s spreading out from pains on the back of my neck near the skull and sometimes goes to the temple area. Had it since Saturday when the meds from the hospital wore off.

The numbness on my right side isn’t too bad. No pain, just annoying and a little limiting. I think it has gone down some since I was released Friday. Either that or I’m just getting better at managing it. Walking is getting better as I walk more. I can drive because I can still feel the pedal and the shifter. Can’t run. It feels like I’m galloping because I can’t manage my right leg well enough.

 

Thanks for the update Brian. I think of you everyday, and also understand how frustrating this can be. I went down to a dark place and almost didn't come out. It's actually really good to discuss this openly. I didn't due to being proud and didn't want to show any weakness.

Is there a shortage of Neurologists in the Denver area? Only reason I ask is when I had my nerve issues for 2 years, seeing a Nero took usually 6-8 months unless you were in a hospital bed. After that you only seen their PA's. All they wanted was to give me drugs that never worked. I must have tried 8 different drugs, went to pain management doctors and got injections, deep tissue therapists, Acupuncturists, Chiropractors, etc. I got desperate for any relief. Hell, I almost started taking MJ and throwing a 6+ figure job out the door.

Funny thing, a Nurse Practitioner and a Physical Therapist solved my issues after 2 years of getting disappointing results.

 

Yep

 

Thanks Chris for opening up. Mine surely isn’t as bad as it sounds yours was or some of the others. I am very greatful it wasn’t worse and now very optimistic that I will be back to full health.
After calling around places I kept circling back to blue sky neurology. What I need is a cerebrovascualar neurologist and he is booked out till May. I got an appointment Monday with I think another neurologist. Now I’m second guessing if it’s just a PA. I’ll call tomorrow.

 

I can talk about it now, and this does matter. I have only met Brian once (recently), and seeing him in person I know how difficult it is being young with injuries that could impact his world. This might be a long one......and maybe this might help Brian out with decision making for his care/make sound decisions with what makes sense.

I was doing the home remodel, in a huge outage at work, and trying to get everything done...almost by myself. I had 38000 to spend on the remodel, and up to around 52K was where I would shut it down. It really is amazing how fast 50,000 goes when remodeling a home. A fault of mine, I have a hard time asking for help. My wife was taking care of very young kids (2.5 and 1). I think that she had it rougher. I was building my retaining wall and my back hurt. That evening I started getting tingling in my feet and then it came. My dick (I hate the word penis) started burning like no other, and then my feet were on fire. So I went to urgent care. Of course they said I had a STD. I told them this is not the issue. I can pee just fine, my dick was on fire all the time...along with my feet. They tested me for STDs. Surprise...no STD.

I made an appointment with my primary care doc. He said in 35 years of his practice, if he had a nickel for every time a cheating spouse gave their partners an STD he would be a richer man. So again, he did another more in depth test for STD's. Surprise...my wife's not a whore. He then said it sounds like some powder laundry detergent got lodged in the end of my dick. So yes, I drank more fluids than a fish and changed laundry detergent. No help. Still in serous pain.

Next up, I was directed to a foot Dr. I really thought this was a flippen stretch, but this is our highly educated medical community. Someone thought I had a bad case of jock itch from my feet. The Dr said he sees this all the time with athletes not taking care of their feet, and then not putting on socks before their underwear, and in turn bringing the foot rot up to your genitals. I didn't have any issues with my feet or my balls, but what the hell. This was a huge waste of money. I didn't have jock itch or jungle foot, but hey, maybe some of you gym rats just learned something.

Next was a Urologist. He never even looked at me and suggested I had an enlarged prostrate. I was actually kinda pissed he didn't shove a couple fingers up my ass, but still got paid. I want them to work for it. He put me on 800MG Ibuprofen for 6 months. He said this would help with the inflamed prostrate or inflammation I might have. I had concerns about liver health and he said don't worry about it. We had our second kid and didn't expect nor want anymore. So at least I had him fondle my balls and give me the snip. More cost, no help in the pain department.

Next up was a Pain Management Dr. Holy hell this was expensive. 2x per week, deep tissue massages to my ass. Now this isn't a nice massage. This was actually very painful, and a little degrading since I had to be bare ass'd and were getting close to area's I didn't want any slip ups....moooon river. The pain management doctors said I had Sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Doing the research, mostly this is from runners, and out of that bunch...women mostly. Another large group was bicyclists. Now when in the military in SCal, I ran at least 5 miles every other day and mountain biking/MX was my life in CO. I went with it. So after a few months of these painful and degrading ass massages that were doing nothing, we started injections to my ass. This didn't do shit, and then had to go do a degrading ass massage within 20 min of injections. Lucky for me, the massage therapists were in the same building. (there's a flippen racket for ya) Next up after a few months we started talking about nerve release surgery in my hip. In the mean time, we wanted to make sure my spine was fine. 4 MRI's later...Hey, I don't have a bulging disc or MS. Two more things checked off of the long list of shit this could possibly be wrong with me. My list was narrowed to 40 things. At this point, no relief of pain and a metric buttload of money spent. This cost thousands. I have a 3000.00 deductible and then co-pays, and then co-insurance, per year.

In the midst of all this, my primary care Dr decided to join a group of Doctors called VIP MD. He would charge each person in the household 1600.00 per person, per year, and you would have 24/7 care at your fingertips. This cost did not include house calls, prescriptions, co-pays, or surgeries. So I pretty much shook his had and said goodbye. I started using my company Nurse Practitioners as my primary care Dr.'s. As my luck is, I got a real "go getter". She evaluated me, did a shitload of blood tests, and recommended Acupuncture. I'll get into that later. Anyway, on my last discussion with this NP, she said it was all in my head and the pain is self induced because she couldn't find out what was wrong. Can you believe she said that? She recommended I check in with a mental health physiologist. Oddly enough, she committed suicide later that week. Guess her internal struggle was real. I hope she finally found peace.

So on to this short story/maybe book. I went to a highly recommended acupuncturist. I paid for 12 treatments and only went to 8 or so. It was relaxing, he was very professional, and accidentally left needles in my legs twice, that I found out a short time after I left. This did nothing for me. I'm not saying it doesn't give any relief to people, it just didn't do anything for me. The nervous system is a part of the body that controls everything, so why not give it a try. No help here. Spent another 260.00.

Next up was a second Urologist. I went to one that was highly recommended. This was a stretch, but at this point...desperate. He was honest with me and said with the symptoms I had, it sounds like nerves and not a Urology problem. Well this Urologist, unlike the first one did shove a couple fingers up my ass and check my prostrate. I have a normal prostrate and I'm pretty sure I will never turn gay, and he earned his pay stub . He said he could do a scope up the urethra and check things out. Well, come to find out I had a blockage. This had nothing to do with my symptoms, but just added to my costs. So yep, I got a ream job and pissed blood for a week. That was awesome. So I guess there is some silver lining here.

Well, I still had no relief and the pain still there. It was getting better depending on what I did. Some days were good, others I could have taken a swan dive off my roof and been totally fine with it. Not joking. Somewhere in this I started drinking...a lot. I have always put down a few, but I was making a half gallon of whatever disappear like a magician. I would drink all the time...all day. I would come up with excuses not to pick up my kids from the daycare as much as possible...because I won't drink and drive, nor want to kill anyone that way. Mondays were always the worst. That is the days my wife would bowl and I couldn't drink. I would pick up my kids at 3:00 sharp and be at home by 3:20 so I could drown myself. When I wasn't drunk as fuck, I would take risks. I drove my Corvette like I was on the race team. I was actually really impressed with it. I pushed that car like I had nothing to lose. I sold that car out of necessity...I was going to die in it. I told the wife I didn't like it. Yeah, a 38 year old man with a Corvette...anyway...

Next up was a Chiropractor. We took xrays and he told me exactly what I have known since 6 years old with a curvature in my back. He played it off a little worse than what it is, and everyone has some abnormal curvature in their backs. I went to him for 2 times per week for two months, then once a week for the rest of my contracted year. I did see some improvement, but only on days he cracked my lower back by stretching my leg over the other, stretching my ass muscles. So I started doing some more research. I can't tell you how many hours I spent researching, but it was a lot. I did come up with some ideas, but I was doing the wrong things to help.

My list of possibilities was getting shorter for my nerve pain. I had a few items left. HIV was one of them. I figured I would have seen some serious complications of that virus after this many years of marriage and finding out my wife wasn't a whore a year earlier was a relief. Don't get on WebMD. You will freak yourself out. I went to the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs and had an HIV test. This is the few tests to think negatively on. Well that was negative. Next up was another Diabetes test. That tested negative as well. Now I am starting to think this might be in my head. What was I missing? Heavy drinking can cause nerve damage. Now that had me a little worried.

My final stop was going back to my new and less psychotic Nurse Practitioner. She cleared her schedule on an afternoon and we reviewed everything. She just shook her head in disbelief of what I'd been through on this two year journey...more like nightmare. She just made sense of it all and said, "We know what it is, and it can only be nerve pain, we just need to find from where. I have an idea and would like to send to to a physical therapy place that I recommend." I gave her my best Forest Gump "ok", and laughed and went this route.

Last stop was the PT place recommended. The team I met with said right off the bat, it's your hamstrings, and you have quad dominance over hamstring muscles. You need to stretch. I'm pretty sure I blurted "bullshit" out of disbelief. Well, happy to say after 2 months of treatments I had no pain anymore. The last treatment was in 2015.

A GD hamstring tendons like piano wires was the problem.

 

See long post...LOL

 

Yeah....

or where you talking about the second Urologist?

I think that story is pretty funny now, however at the time...I was struggling.

 

Wow @ColoradoTJ what a mess. Long process of BS. If you felt the way you did after back pain they should have known right away that it would be nervous system and not STD, Athletes Foot/Jock itch. What i have notices and you guys to is that they see a symptom and go right to potential obvious things without really analyzing all the issues.
I was almost released the night i went in to the ER because they thought it was just an inner ear problem and it would resolve itself. I had to enforce the fact that i couldn't walk and remind them of other symptoms besides dizziness. Finally the next day that did an MRI but it turned up nothing. They were still stuck on inner ear problem and had the PT do some things that would help the inner ear. I kept telling them that it wasnt the inner ear. It wasnt until my meeting with the OT where i was able to get past the inner ear thing and making them look at my neck.

The bad pain is on the back of my head where the muscle joins the skull. I think i have a problem there. That has been unchecked so far. Since the vertebral artery dissection was found and accounts for most the symptoms that is how they are treating me. When i go to the neurologist on monday i am going to make sure he knows that my head hurts really bad and i think its related to muscle and not the dissection. See if he can issue a separate test of sorts.

My mom is an RN (retired) and is not afraid of asking questions and being very pushy for things. Helps that she knows most the lingo too. She will be there for the appointment.

 

Thinking my numbness is muscle related and not the dissection. Possible.