Dear Ed,

As promised here is my story. My pain problems began as a child. My earliest memories were of headaches. Any time I would complain,I was told everybody had problems so deal with it. This was not cruelty on the part of my family,but the same thing they had always been told.

By the age of eight or ten, my parents had even taken me to a shrink. Of course,nothing was found,but the headaches persisted. When I was fifteen I had my first major back episode. One Saturday after helping my dad all day,I got in the shower. When I bent over to adjust the water,I got stuck. I cannot begin to describe the pain and the panic that set in. I yelled for help,but nobody could hear me. After a few minutes,the pain subsided and everything seemed to slide back in to place. I told my parents,but was told that I just over did a bit. Also the usual lines like; suck it up,work it out,etc.. I decided to try harder to improve my physical condition. I'd always been very active,and my father had always been an athelete. Life went on.

In 1977 , after a couple of years working construction,I decided to get serious about a career. I had gone to automotive school after high school,but decided not to pursue it. Instead I went into plastics. I got a job as an extruder operator in a monofiliment plant. Later I became a supervisor. That same year I got married.

By 1978,my wife and I were ready to move in to our own home. It was a small doublewide,but it was a start. To save money I decided to install the water and septic system myself. I dug,by hand, a thousand feet of water line,two hundred feet of drain field, and the hole for the septic tank. One day while digging I got stuck. I was forced to see the family doctor,who put me on pain pills and muscle relaxers then sent me to a orthopedic specialist. I was told I needed to exercise and be more careful when lifting. After a week or so I got better and went back to work.

The back problems persisted,but I kept on going. All this time being told it was all in my head. I divorced in '85 and got custody of my two sons. My job was shift work(12 hr. shifts) so I worked a full time ,did side work,and took care of two kids.

In '87 I remarried,but within three months was on medical leave. This was the fourth time in just a few years,and once I had even lost the use of my legs,temporarily. By now the specialist had told me that I had a transient vertabrae ( a birth defect). Imagine after all these years finding out I had had the equivilent of four broken backs. On top of everything else ,it practically took an act of god to get help.

In March of '88 I had a spinal fusion. This helped some. I didn't get stuck anymore, but the pain was still there and has gotten worse over the years. Also it took two years of legal battles to finally get my social security. When I did finally get my benefits I poured it all into buying a nice house,in a nice neighborhood. During this time my wife was going to school to get her LPN license. After she finished school in '90 ,she went to work as a nurse. In Dec. of that year she passed out on Christmas day,and was later diagnosed with multiple schlorosis. She ended up in a wheel chair,and legally blind. By now there were three kidsand a wife that I had to care for.

In'93 things were really just getting ready to hit the fan. A new neighbor moved in next door and for awhile we got along just fine. That year after our pet dog was mysteriously poisoned and died,we adopted another dog. This got us involved with Pets Inc. ,a local animal shelter. We started fostering two dogs at a time and would change each time one was adopted out. We never had more than four dogs,and besides we had an acre of fenced back yard. The neighbor was a Rotwieller breeder so we didn't expect any problems. Suddenly ,animal control was at our door every time we turned around. The bad part was the complaints didn't even match our dogs. We ended up having to file a freedom of information act request,because animal control wouldn't tell us who was doing this. To our suprise,it turned out to be the neighbor.

Once we found him out,all hell broke loose. This guy started sueing us for any and every thing.

Eventually he told us he was going to break us,starting with social security. An anonymous complaint was filed with our local disability review board. The next thing we know ,my wife and my benefits were taken away. When we went to check our file ,we found out a video tape had been hand delivered to the board by the state representative from our district(a friend of the neighbor.) To this day we have never been allowed to see this tape. S.S. says they sent it back to the representative and he says he doesn't have it. This means the rep. has never had account for his part in this fraud and without the tape we couldn't prove who made it,so we could't file charges or sue the individual. On top of it all,the tape was disallowed as evidence and the authorities don't seem to care that a fraud was committed.

Eventually my wife got her benefits back ,but not me.The marriage broke up in'99 ,but by then we had lost the house ,two out of three of the cars(including a classic '72 AMX we showed), savings,and anything else worth a dime. We had to sell the house( $210,000) for $115,000 just to get out of it,and we only had seven years left on the mortgage.At this point my sons had to withdraw from school because of legal problems. My oldest even lost a full scholarship. I rarely ever see the boys,and my daughter is in a state home. I've seen her three or four times inthe last twoyears,but I do get to talk with her once a week now. As for me, I have degenerative disc disease, arthritus everywhere,carpal tunnel syndrome,depression,and chronic pain. I still haven't got my social security back,so I have no income. The only help I get is food stamps, sample meds. from my doctor,and my mother has been supporting me the last couple of years with her social security. To sum it all up,I have no family,no income, no pain relief,and no life.

Until I found your site ,I had just about given up,but now I'm a little more hopeful. Feel free to use this on your "Horror Story" site. Many of my friends have told me that talking to me makes their problems seem trivial.

Any help you can suggest would be appreciated. I'm waiting on word about a law review,but I'm not very hopefulsince even my representative or advocate ,says I've probably been tagged,and doesn't expect me to win.

Sincerely Bruce,(Dogpatchhollow@aol.com)