Hi all,
My name is Mike Silvers. I'm a 43 year old slightly overweight male. I have enjoyed a happy and loving marriage for the past 25 years. We have three children. Our oldest daughter is 23, and just recently gave birth to our first grandchild. A beautiful baby girl. Our only son is now 17 and our youngest daughter is 15.
Ellen and I were partners in a small office machine business. Our company ran well, she took care of the office, and I took care of the sales and service calls. It would never have made us wealthy, but it provided a fair income, and it was a heck of a lot of fun. We have always been supportive of our community. We both volunteered for our local ambulance company. She as an EMT, and me as a dispatcher. Times were very busy for us, as I decided to take on even more by enrolling in an EMT class myself.
I was very successful in my EMT class, and passed with flying colors. 23 of 25 people had passed the class, and we all decided to have a picnic to celebrate. It was there that my troubles began.
We decided to play a few games of volleyball, and one ball was hit in my direction. As I jumped to return the serve, I somehow moved my neck into the wrong position. I'm not sure if it was extension or flexion, at any rate, I saw a flash of light (apparently from the shock to my spinal cord) and dropped to my knees. Everyone around came to my aid, but I was very stubborn, and I felt, I'll be damned if I'm going to let a bunch of rookie emt's backboard and c-collar me. So against recommendations from our instructor as well as numerous emt's, I staggered back to my table, and sat the rest of the evening.
At this point, I felt no pain at all. But two days later, I could barely walk, my legs wobbled like jelly, and I had no feeling in most of my hands. It was then I decided to go to the doctor. Well, it was determined that I had herniated two disks C5-C6 and C6-C7. The upper disk being the worse of the two. I went in for surgery three days later, for an anterior lamenectomy (a fusion). It was after the first surgery that I began to develop a sever pain in the back of my neck. My spinal cord was damaged from the impact of my disks, and the doctors said that the results were permanent.
After the first surgery, in August of 1995, I was able to walk, albeit with a quite a bit of difficulty, which was some improvement, but the feelings in my hands has never returned. The pain, which is midline posterior, just above the shoulders began to get worse as time went on. At best, it felt like a twinge, at its worst, which was most of the time, it felt as though someone were forcing a soldering iron through my neck.
The second surgery was in February of 1997, and it was a posterior spinal fusion of C5- C6- C7. This surgery installed small metal rods screwed to my cervical vertebrae, and the backs of my vertebrae were removed to relieve pressure which had been building on my cord. But still no relief for the pain.
I have tried a complete array of pain medications and procedures, from Tylenol 3's to TENS units, hypnosis to biofeedback. I received the most relief from the morphine, but didnt like the "up in the clouds" feeling I had with it. My family physician finally decided to send me to a local pain mangagement clinic, where I received cervical steroid/anesthetic injections, a series of 4 injections, once a day for four days.
The first time I got these injections, I saw a dramatic relief. As a matter of fact, i was almost pain free. And this lasted almost 2 1/2 months. The second series of shots showed a partial relief which lasted approximately 2 months. The third series of injections provided a little relief and lasted around a month, and this last series offered almost no relief whatsever. The docs at this pain clinic referred me to a different pain clinic which I went to yesterday (April 7).
We discussed an internal spinal cord stimulator, but that was ruled out because of the numerous nerves and nerve routes which were affected. We also discussed the internal morphine pump, but decided to hold off on that until it becomes the last resort. My doctor prescribed neurotonin and ms contin, and asked me to keep a log of ups and downs, and medication usage. Well, that's where I stand at this point.
Ellen tells me that this was God's way of slowing me down, because I spent so much time working and volunteering that I had little time for anything else. I questioned God's motives. I felt that He was punishing me. Not because of this injury alone, but within a six month period I suffered this injury, had to close my business, and lost both my grandmother and my father. It seemed like my whole world was being taken away from me. Emotionally, I have recovered somewhat. I still have my ups and downs. But I realize now that I have time to spend with my family and watching them grow.
I would like to join this support group, not only to hear what others have to say, but to inform others of my past encounters as well as treatments yet to be.
Thank you,
Sincerely Michael Silvers