I was born on 12-29-59,& I will turn "the big 40" soon.I don't have an "human" children,but we have 2 boston terriers that are loved as much as"human' kids--Lexi will be 8 months old on the 27th,& we just bought a 10 week old puppy from a friend in Texas.She does not have a name yet,because we just got her yesterday.
I also have 2 step daughters, Melia,who is 25 & still in school trying to figure out what she wants to do.And Stacey,who is 27,& will graduate from Albany College of Pharmacy in the spring.(I wish that pharmacists had "free access" to the schedule II meds!)
My story is a long one,are you ready? In January of 84 an idiot driver tried to beat a red light,& I guess that he forgot that when roads have several inches of snow on them, they tend to be slippery.Well he beat the light,but in the process he ran my car off of the road, & it landed on someones front (concrete) steps.I "doctor hopped" until October of 84,when the "no-fault" doc finally diagnosed a "burst fracture" of a vertebra, & a herniated disk at the T-12 /L-1 level of my back.He "threw a fit" about the lousy medical "care" that I had received since my accident, & he made immediate arrangments for me to be seen by a neurosurgeon at the "famous" Mass General Hospital in Boston.
I had to fly to Boston because of my severe pain,& Dave drove ahead & met me at Logan airport on 10-31-84.I was addmitted at Mass General,had a myelogram, & I signed a release allowing them to do a brand new test on me, the "MRI." On 11-4-84, I went to the OR, & the docs told Dave & I that my surgery would take 4 to 5 hours,& that I would be allowed to go home in 7 to 10 days.Then my nightmare began.
My 4 to 5 hour surgery took over 12 hours, & although my actual surgery went great,due to FILTHY conditions & slip shod care, I contracted Necrotizing fascitis--better known as "Flesh eating disease." My 7 to 10 day hospital stay ended up being 2 & 1/2 YEARS.I was at Mass General for 14 weeks,I transferred to "Upstate Medical" in Syracuse, (to be closer to home) & after over 1 year there, I transferred to "Binghamton General" hospital which is about 7 or 8 miles from our house.
From 10-84 to 6-87,other than getting out of Mass General on an "overnight pass" for Christmas eve of 1984, & 12 days that I got to spend at home because Upstate discharged me with infection,I LIVED in hospitals having surgery (63 operations) on my back, chest, & abdomen in an attempt to stop the infection.At 1 point in time I was getting 200mgs. of Demerol IV q 2 & 1/2 hours because I had developed such a tolerence.
I was finally discharged infection free in June of 87, I weighed 80lbs. I was "drug free" within 1 month, & within a year, I was feeling so great that I was trying to get pregnant.I got bored & in the fall of 89 I got a part time job delivering flowers.I felt fantastic, & in January of 1990, I got a job at a different florist working at least 48 hours per week.I was working 80 to 90 hours a week during "flower holidays" with energy to spare.
I am going to send this out now, (I don't want to risk "losing" a letter that took me 2 hours to "peck" with 1 finger! I will tell you "Part 2" of my nightmare in another letter. Tami
Hi again,
Part 2 of my nightmare began at 4:57 PM on July 18th of 1990.I had just made my last flower delivery of the day, & I was driving down Interstate 81,I was going back to "the shop' to punch out for the day.I was on the southbound side of the highway, & a northbound tractor trailer "lost" 2 of his (400 lbs. each) wheels.I braked, but the wheels hit the passenger side of the mini van that I was driving,demolishing the van, & my life.The wheels pushed my van from the southbound side of 81,across the grass median--sideswiping a huge sign post along the way, & I ended up in the middle lane on the northbound side of 81.
I hate to stop here, but we are being hit with a SEVERE thunderstorm, & I'm going to play it safe & log off.I'll finish soon. Tami
Hi all, I apologize for leaving you hanging the other night, but that was one nasty ass storm, & with the way my luck is, I didn't want to push my luck & get fried!
Well, heres the rest of my story--when the tractor trailor wheels hit my mini van, my left shoulder slammed into the driver side door & back down, & when the van sideswiped the pole, my mouth smashed into the steering wheel, (chipping & cracking a lot of my teeth) & then as the van finally stopped on the opposite side of the highway, I had been slammed back down on the seat, damaging my lower back. Another tractor trailer & a corvette just missed hitting my van when it was sliding across the other side of the highway.The guy driving the vette thanked me for not hitting his car, :-) & he took the shirt off of his back & used it to wrap around my bleeding leg. He told me later that my foot was still pushed on the brake pedal after the van stopped.
So my injuries were--numerous cuts, bruises & abrasions, (obviously) a severely sprained right ankle, a very tender left shoulder, & severe low back pain.I also have sciatic (sp?) nerve pain that shoots from my back, though my right cheek, (& I'm not talking about my face!) down to my foot. After the accident my right knee started to "give out" on me, no pain or warning of any kind, it just "buckles." My ankle does not bother me at all, but my shoulder aches (arthritis type of pain) a lot, especially if I sleep on my left side.I have an area of numbness in my right leg, & severe pain in my back & leg, & muscle spasms in my back that are so strong that the doctor can easily "see" the spasms.
Since I was working when this happened, I got worker's comp, but I got screwed because all of my overtime was paid under the table.I was making $4.85 per hour when I had the accident, (minimum wage at that time was $4.25) so I only got $243.18 ($121.59 per week) every 2 weeks.I did file a lawsuit against the trucking company, because the investigation intothe cause of the accident showed that the accident happened because they failed to do routine maintainence on their trucks.But when you are on comp, you have to repay them every dime if you have a "third party action" & they put a lien on your lawsuit to make sure that they get every penny.
Now I'll tell you why the amount of their lein was over $180,000.On October 23rd of 1992 I was stepping into the shower, & my knee gave out.I "semi-caught" myself, but I scraped my left hip onmy way down.Since I am prone to infection,I showered & when I got out I put Neosporin & a band aid on it.It eventually scabbed over, but it had not healed by January of 93, so my GP sent me to a surgeon.My operation for an abcess on my hip turned into 34 operations on over 100 abcesses.I spent 4 months in the hospital, having surgery every 10 to 14 days, & receiving IV & IM antibiotics & shots of morphine.I finally talked them into teaching me how to give myself antibiotic & morphine shots, & having my surgeries done on an outpatient basis.I have more scars than I could even begin to count, starting at my hip, & covering the entire front of my thigh, down to my knee.
While the infection was still really bad, my surgeon hurt her leg & she was unable to work for about 6 weeks.While she was off, 1 of the surgeons in her group operated on me 3 times.He is an arrogant SOB, & his attitude was "I'll end this infection, because I am the worlds best surgeon." (He wanted to show that he could stop the infection that my Female surgeon had not been able to stop) He was really aggressive,cutting numerous big deep inscisions.He did not suceed in stopping the infection, but thanks to Dr. SOB, I have nerve pain in the areas that he "operated" on,he obviously damaged nerves.The infection was still spreading, & in February of 95, my GP told me something interesting--he told me that bacteria can't grow through honey.I decided to stop having the abcesses opened surgically,I let them "burst" open on their own.I had about 10 or 12 "holes" in my leg, (various sizes & depths) that were packed with "NuGauze." Every day before I showered, I removed the packing, & showered. When I got out, I would lie on the bed, & fill each hole with honey & let it sit there for at least an hour.Then I went back to shower the honey out of the holes, & then I had to re-pack them.No surgery, no antibiotics, & within 3 months the infection was finally gone.By that point in time, I was taking 18 mgs. of IM morphine every 2 & 1/2 hours.
My doctor informed me that there was NO way that I could get off of the morphine at home.I am te type that does not like to be told that I cannot do something, so I said "give me some valium,& watch me." It was not easy, I went through 3 solid days of pure hell, but I did it! Shortly afterward, my doctor dumped me.
I found a great GP in May of 85, but he had a massive stroke in December of 97.I was on Duragesic 75, 8 percocets per day & 3 1o mg, valium per day.I found a new doc who ws willing to write my scripts, but not for long, he dumped me less than a year later.
I hate to leave you hanging AGAIN, but I'm hurting bad & will have to finish later.
Tami
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Nov 04,1999