Good thoughts needed please...
Jan. 29th, 2004 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishI'm very worried for my friend Beth (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beth_bif). She has already been through two major surgeries on her neck, and is facing another very soon.
Apparently she has a birth defect in which there is not enough space for her spinal cord inside her vertebral column. The prior two surgeries fused some of her neck vertebrae to avoid putting any more pressure on her spinal cord, but there seems to be some evidence that the first surgery was not performed correctly, and the second surgery attempted to repair what was coming undone from the first surgery. In any case, neither of them worked and now she is looking at having a much more invasive surgery to make the space for her spinal column larger.
She went on disability Monday because she was in too much pain to continue to work, despite being on a morphine patch, and her entire left side is getting weak.
It makes me so angry because it seems to be a case of an insurance company practicing medicine instead of a doctor. She has been told that her first surgery should have been done by a neurosurgeon; however, her insurance company would only cover an orthopedic surgeon. She had a plate put in that should be removed; unfortunately, the neurosurgeon she's seeing now said he can't take it out because all of the screws holding it place have been stripped, which he's never seen happen before.
He also said there is only a 50/60% of this being successful, and she will be in extreme pain for at least 3 weeks afterward, until the major muscles they will have to sever heal. The possibility that she could be on disabilty for the rest of her life is very real, and it's getting her very down. She doesn't know yet when it's to be scheduled
I'm looking for support communities to refer her to. I've already found one for chronic pain, but if anyone knows of any others that might be helpful, I'd be grateful. Whether you are a friend or a friend of a friend, if you could send positive thoughts, encouragement, prayers, good feelings, jokes etc. her way, I know she'd appreciate them. She does have the journal above if you'd like to comment there; she mostly only uses it to read this.
Beth is my best friend since third grade and the sister I never had. I'm trying to keep positive myself, but I'm worried...
beth_bif). She has already been through two major surgeries on her neck, and is facing another very soon. Apparently she has a birth defect in which there is not enough space for her spinal cord inside her vertebral column. The prior two surgeries fused some of her neck vertebrae to avoid putting any more pressure on her spinal cord, but there seems to be some evidence that the first surgery was not performed correctly, and the second surgery attempted to repair what was coming undone from the first surgery. In any case, neither of them worked and now she is looking at having a much more invasive surgery to make the space for her spinal column larger.
She went on disability Monday because she was in too much pain to continue to work, despite being on a morphine patch, and her entire left side is getting weak.
It makes me so angry because it seems to be a case of an insurance company practicing medicine instead of a doctor. She has been told that her first surgery should have been done by a neurosurgeon; however, her insurance company would only cover an orthopedic surgeon. She had a plate put in that should be removed; unfortunately, the neurosurgeon she's seeing now said he can't take it out because all of the screws holding it place have been stripped, which he's never seen happen before.
He also said there is only a 50/60% of this being successful, and she will be in extreme pain for at least 3 weeks afterward, until the major muscles they will have to sever heal. The possibility that she could be on disabilty for the rest of her life is very real, and it's getting her very down. She doesn't know yet when it's to be scheduled
I'm looking for support communities to refer her to. I've already found one for chronic pain, but if anyone knows of any others that might be helpful, I'd be grateful. Whether you are a friend or a friend of a friend, if you could send positive thoughts, encouragement, prayers, good feelings, jokes etc. her way, I know she'd appreciate them. She does have the journal above if you'd like to comment there; she mostly only uses it to read this.
Beth is my best friend since third grade and the sister I never had. I'm trying to keep positive myself, but I'm worried...
