Hi everyone!
My name is Susan. I am 49 yrs. old, will be 50 on the 27th of this month. YUCK! Not looking forward to that! Although I feel 80 most of the time!
I have 3 kids, well, grown kids. My oldest son is 30, another son is 19, and a daughter is 18. My granddaughter, Ciara Nicole, is going to be 4 on the 20th of this month.. She has been with us since day 1. Actually she was in ICU from birth to 3 days old when her "Mother" decided to go back to Houston. Her "Mother's Father" had offered her a new mobile home if she would leave the baby here and go home. So she did. Luckily for us, as shy and is my right-hand helper. Her Biological Mom has never called or been back, so I am Mom to her as well!
I was married 5 times by the time I was 36. After my last divorce, I decided to devote my life to my children. The 2 younger kids have Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder w/Hyperactivity. My son, Chris, who is now 19, had the worst of it. My daughter's case was mild and controlled with meds. His case though was much worse. He walked at 6 months, and from then on was a holy terror!! Well, things went from bad to worse. At the time I was still married to their Father, who is an alcoholic. The whole time we were married I worked 3 jobs, took care of 3 kids, and him, the house, the bills, the whole enchilada! He spent his days working, oh yes, but come Fridays, payday, he collected his check, went to the bar, and didn't come home till it was all gone. No mind he had a family. I was always there to pick him up and all the pieces. In the middle of all this all these problems with the two younger kids started.
Christopher started Kindergarten only for them to call me after 3 days when he had picked up a desk and tried to hit another kid. I was told, to medicate him or he couldn't come back. I had no clue that they couldn't do that, so began the whirlwind of doctors for him. Stress, stress, stress!! Finally when he was 5 and Kaci, my daughter, was 4 he went on a job interview and never came back. As soon as I could, we moved so he couldn't find us and thus my life began as a single Mother.
It was in 1994 I finally got a diagnosis as to why my foot was going numb. I had a tumor between my 3rd and 4th toes on my left foot. I had had it there for probably 2 years. It finally grew so big, the size of a 50 cent piece and I was sure that was pressing on the nerves causing it to go numb. I have always been a bare-foot girl. I have always loved going bare-footed, everywhere I could get away with it! I was always bare-foot or in boots and jeans. Well, I went to a Podiatrist in LaPorte and he scheduled me for day-surgery. My older son took me and waited for me to get done. I remember waking up and hearing them talking about if I could breathe on my own they could take the breathing tube out! I freaked out! They said I had stopped breathing during the surgery. Well, come to find out way later, they had over-dosed me on the antithesistic! I didn't bother with any attorney, although I should have! Well, OK tumor out, right? Foot should have feeling in it, right? WRONG! I had to stay off my feet for 6 weeks after the surgery. Well, by the end of the 4th week, the right foot had the same problem. I went back to the foot doc and yep, a small tumor there. OK, then that's the cause of this numbness, correct? Not necessarily so, he says. Have you ever been checked for Diabetes, he asked. No, I hadn't, but had suspected that I had it for years. My Grandmother had it and a tale was that it skipped a generation and my Mom didn't have it.
So off I went to the family GP to be checked for it and yeppers, I had it!! Oh, crap, not what I wanted to hear!! I am not a good person for following directions if it is good for me! LOL Like the diet. I tried and tried, but couldn't get into the healthy things I am supposed to eat. I do watch it for the most part.
I have had nightmares with doctors as you all have had I am sure. I have been to 9 doctors before I found this clinic. It is a pain-management clinic. The first thing they did was a nerve block. Well, the doc was runnin late comin back from lunch and was in a big rush with all the patients waitin, right? Well, lucky me, I was the first one. He forgot to deaden the area where he did the block and I almost came off the table to punch him out!! I almost fell off the table tryin to get to him!! LOL I had never felt such pain when that thing went up my spine!! I thought I was dyin. Well, after the fact before I left I reported him for the way he treated me. When it happened, I screamed, and he told me to shut up damnit!! Just be quiet and be still. Shut my mouth!! Over and over. Well, he is the partner in this clinic that does all these procedures. My other doc told me to try it again. It only lasted 2 days. So BRAVE ME, let the fool touch me again. Well, he handled me with kid gloves! LOL The hospital was so scared I was gonna sue them! Well, it didn't stay even 2 days. So I gave up on them. Now they want me to do the Spinal Cord Stimulator. I have put this off for a year now. I just am too scared to have something runnin up my spine all the time. Terrified!!!!
So then they want me to go on Morphine. I have this little girl I am helpin my son raise. I am the only Mom Ciara Nicole has. I cannot be spaced out and drugged up. I am a Pisces too, and I have a very addictive personality. And I know it, so I am careful.! I take 40 mg. of Oxycontin 2 times a day. I take Neurotin 3 of them every 3 hours! I am still in pain!!! I mean bad pain usually early evenin till bedtime and sometimes past. I take Excedrin PM to help me sleep. When I have really really bad pain days all I want to do is sleep it off.
Well, folk, this ended up being very long. I made it as short as I could and still get everything in. Like I said, I don't have alot of things wrong. I do believe I have developed Fibromyalgia. I have alot of the signs. I will ask doc on the next visit.
Thank you all for letting me part of your ListFamily. I look forward to getting to know you all and hopefully learning alot.
Hugs,
Susan
FEB 08,2000