I used to be very busy with 2 jobs.  My family is everything to me.  My husband and I just celebrated our 28th Anniversary.  We have two kids. Jenni is 27 and Josh is 24.  I have Sooo many health problems now I can't do any exercise anymore.  My recumbent bike hurts my ITBS in my knees so I can only ride it every now and then for about 25 minutes at a time.  I mean about once a month then my knees hurt so bad I am out of commission for a month again.  Just not worth it.  I have gained 50 lbs in the last 5 years since my health went down the tubes.  I am trying to stay positive for my family but it is very hard.  I just try not to talk about my problems or pain as much as possible.  Although it is a 24/7 thing.  My life is so different now than it was.  I have 3 kitties who keep me moving.  If I didn't have to get up and down with them all day I probably would just turn into a permanent fixture of my chair or bed.  Fibromyalgia is so hard to live with!  People just don't understand how much it hurts or how I have no memory anymore, headaches, tired and I could go on and on.  Nothing helps or I am allergic to it.  I still have faith in God He knows what He is doing and I just have to cope.  It could always be worse.  So many more people do have it worse.  My family sustains me!  Here is my health trouble story.

I fell at work on Jan 5, 2005 and had to wait 4 months before my first knee surgery (W/C and Dr. fought about getting a TKR on both knees) Had to go through shots, meds, rehab first.  I found out on my first MRI, I have claustrophobia.  Major damage lots of work.  6 months before my other knee surgery.  More damage lots of work.  I not only put holes in both knees and tore both knees meniscus, but I also found out I had grade 4 OA and malalignment in both knees.  I didn't have a good knee to lean on for the other knee to get better.  It got worse and worse.  After 2nd knee surgery I hemorrhaged inside knee and had to go to Dr. to get a needle inserted in incision and pull out as much blood as they could!  This is insane.  Had to be admitted 1 week later (When my Dr. was on vacation) for DVT.  SOOO much pain!  Put on dilaudid and slept finally! {My Dr. wanted to do TKR’s on both knees because of the OA but Work Comp denied it because it wasn’t done in my fall.}  During this time I was in so much pain.  More I think than I have ever been, for longer than I have ever been.  (W/C started backing out of everything.  Denying I got hurt at work at all.  Major stress.  My husbands insurance wouldn’t pay for anything because it was work related.)  

Right after I fell I started having low back pain down leg.  During a shower, my right knee went out on me and I fell HARD on the side of the tub.  I had a huge deep hematoma on my total left butt cheek and down my whole left thigh.  It took 3 months to go away and traveled down my whole leg.  More tests.  I found out from a Neurosurgeon I had two herniated discs in my lumbar region.  I went through months of rehab and steroid injections to no avail.  I was terminated from my job.  Depression started.

During all of this I was going through so much stress trying to get W/C.  Had to go to several of their Drs. and their tests (again claustrophobia!)  Depositions, delayed court dates.  Anxiety started.

Started having severe pain in abdomen.  More tests.  I found out I had 15 gallstones and had to have Gallbladder out.  I went to knee and back rehab the day after surgery with a drainage bag! To me this was so minute compared to what I had already been through.  During rehab on my knees and back I got ITBS in my right knee.  It is still there today if I do anything to aggravate it.  Couldn’t do rehab anymore.  Can’t exercise at all

Started having severe pain in neck, shoulder and arm.  Numbness in arm and hand.  Loss of strength in hand.  More tests.  Had carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists and I had a herniated disc in my neck and it was serious.  It was causing irreparable nerve damage in my left arm and hand.  Tried shots, said it wouldn’t hurt but he hit a nerve!  SEVERE streaming pain for 2 minutes!  Did this twice and it didn’t work. I went through months of having steroid injections in both my knees, back and neck.  None of them helped.  Had all the tests again DDD in my total spine.

Neurosurgeon said I had to get neck done before back.  It was more serious.  Fibromyalgia started.   Right before my neck surgery I go by Ambulance to ER with heart rate of 215 twice in two weeks.  More tests by Electro physiologist? Electro cardiologist? Can’t remember what he was, but he was the only one in my State!  Before Neurosurgeon would do my neck surgery he said I had to have Cardiologist release me from heart problems first. This was a lot of stress!  I didn’t know if I was going to die or what.  Dr. said I had SVT and had to have some extra cells on the inside of my heart removed, because they were making my heart fire too much.  After many tests (More claustrophobia!) He went in through my groin and neck with a wire and camera and burned off the extra cells.  It’s called a cardiac ablation.  He said it was a classic text book case of SVT.

Then I had a neck fusion with a cadaver bone and wore a brace for 6 weeks continuously or I could get paralyzed. 

Then I got a temporary Spinal Chord Stimulator put in for lumbar pain.  Wore battery on outside and had one wire placed inside my thoracic spinal column on outpatient basis.  Worked for 3 days and then slipped in column and put both legs to sleep!  Had to have permanent SCS put in with special features.  My Pain Management Dr. and My Neurosurgeon both had to go in and surgically cut my bones in back and place three wires that were laminated in to spinal column so it wouldn’t move again.  Then they cut a big incision on my hip to place battery inside of my body.  This was sooo painful to recover from and it did help some of the pain in my legs and butt but not my low back.  Nothing will I guess.

I had to have Carpal tunnel surgery by Neurosurgeon after recovering from neck.  It was pretty bad he said.  It was a pretty easy surgery to get over, I thought.  Nothing like the rest I had been through! 

Then I started noticing I couldn’t swallow!  More tests and Radiologist wrote at the end of the report in the discussion he saw only a small hiatal hernia and proof of gerd.  It’s the end of 2007 now and my husbands insurance changed effective 1/1/2008, as well as all my Drs. and Hospital too!   

Went to new PCP on 1/3/2008 with all my records from all my Drs. (12) and took them to my new PCP.  I read them and before I gave him a copy I noticed in the report from the radiologist, who did my throat scan, wrote a note that he saw a 10cm nodule on the side of my thyroid.  But he didn’t write it in the discussion at the bottom of the report which is all the Drs. usually read.  I mentioned it to my new PCP and he felt my thyroid and sent me for more tests! 

New PCP wasn’t going to prescribe me the Duragesic 50 Patch or my Zanaflex 4mcg; I was on, because he said he didn’t like to prescribe that.  I called my old Dr. (I had been with him for 7 years so he knew I was no drug addict.  Actually I hated pain killers.  After all of this I am now allergic to about 12 different meds of which are HBP meds, antibiotics, and pain meds.) My old PCP called my new PCP and explained what all I had been through and he started all my meds immediately.

Tests showed my thyroid to be covered with nodules.  More blood tests.  (I should be out of blood by now!)  I was DX’ed with Hypothyroidism 2/2008.  Put on Synthroid.  Still trying to get it regulated.

Sent to a Rheumatologist because of blood work in February.  DX’ed with Lupus SLE 3/2008, ovarian cyst and kidney stones 4/2008.  Did a 24hr. urine test and found protein in urine again.  Being sent to a Nephrologist on 7/29).  Tests also showed high liver enzymes. More tests.  Hasn’t told me about liver yet for sure other than it is inflamed. 

SOOOO from Jan. 2005-current I have had 5 joint surgeries, 3 organ surgeries, DX’ed with Lupus SLE, DDD total spine, OA grade IV (both knees), Fibromyalgia, Claustrophobia, high blood pressure, hiatal hernia, gerd, depression, anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, hypothyroidism, Breast Fibroids (2 ½ hour mammogram so they could get pictures of all of them and they are sooo tender, I cried the whole time), Heart Ablation, Kidney & Gallbladder stones, thyroid nodules, colon polyp removal (I wake up screaming when colonoscopy is done because I have such a sensitive colon.  I have had 3 done with same results. Gastroenterologist says he has never given anyone as much meds as me!  They will have to knock me out the next time, because I always wake up screaming!! I wonder if this has to do with the Fibromyalgia), ovarian cyst, Kidney and Liver inflammation, depression, anxiety, MVP, Spinal Chord Stimulator, Cervical fusion with metal and cadaver bone inserted, waiting for age 55 to get TKR's unless they come up with an alternative before then.  PLEASE!

I have hemorrhaged 3 times in my lifetime.  When I was 12 years old I had a T&A and did.  When I was 22 I hemorrhaged after I had my daughter.  I hemorrhaged after my second knee surgery.  I guess you could say I hemorrhaged when I fell in shower too.  But I fell hard!  My blood tests show I have a high platelet count though.  Wonder why?  My son is 22 and still has nosebleeds everyday.  Even after having 3 sinus surgeries.  Mine bleeds all the time also.  What’s with that?  I don’t think I want to know so I am not bringing it up!  LOL