“Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.”
Anton Chekhov
More morning shots of the sun. The sun is starting location is migrating south as most of the birds have soon very short days are coming along with the snow. Yes I know the sun isn’t moving, but it really is, our whole galaxy is moving.
It rained most of the night and this morning everything is frozen, I decided today was not a good day to make the long drive to the hospital. I thought I would take the time to record some problems I am having mostly, so I can relay all that to whatever doctor I see. Maybe, just maybe I can find one that will listen.
I also don’t want to forget anything there is too much going on and I don’t trust my memory.
First, a brief, well as brief as I can make it, History.
Before 1979
Tonsils out
Eye operation to correct lazy eye
Head injuries, one from my little brother throwing a coke bottle in the air, strikes the back of my head. Bleeds everywhere first stitches.
During a high jump practice, one of the kids pulls away the safety mats while I am in mid-air. I still have damage to my skull from hitting the pavement headfirst.
Ten years old move to a new school, the toughest kid starts a fight with me. During the fight I break a front tooth on his forehead I learn what real pain is when I take a drink from a water fountain and cold water hits the exposed nerve.
I learn more about pain, getting that fixed from the dentist who is sadistic with kids, later he is charged.
Damage done during an adventure on a Friday read about that here.
Skipping ahead
1979: Now wearing a uniform Canadian Navy Our Government saves money by rebuilding our warships instead of buying new ones. The ships are stripped down to bare metal and refitted. This includes many hours grinding the insulation from the ship for many hours no masks were supplied. The ship was originally built in the early 1960’s. The insulation used was asbestos.
1980/81 New Year’s Eve. I end up in a high-speed chase, drunk and high I decided to end my life at a 140 miles an hour. I roll 13 times and am thrown through the sunroof. The van was about to tip over and crush me but falls away to the other side sparing my life That account from one of the police that witnessed the crash. I am transported to a distant hospital against the advice of the doctor in the first hospital. The pain was so severe I fell into a coma during my trip.
I end up with my first broken back. One of many. I learned then that suicide wasn’t ever going to be an answer.
1986 Aug 1
I pick up a crippled guy to take him to a 12 step meeting, I was clean and sober 5 years. I see a Honda CRX heading towards me at high speed, he bounces off a tent trailer being towed ahead of me. I swerved hard down the shoulder to avoid being hit. It doesn’t matter he hits me corner to corner The engine and transmission pushed my knee up into the steering column.
I do what I was trained to do. I crawled out of my car, assessed the situation , take charge. walking was not possible, So I am instructing people while lying on the pavement. One to direct traffic one to pickup the hundreds and fifties on the highway, (the two kids in the Honda were on their way to do a drug deal. I got one to take my dog and call my girlfriend to tell her I am ok.
I looked at the Honda the engine was in the back seat, blood was dripping out where the doors once were. I had to assume they were both dead. One was not.
Our injuries were too much for the first hospital, so we were taken to a larger center two hours away. I had to ride with the driver of the car that hit me I could still smell the alcohol. He thought the whole thing was funny, I wasn’t laughing.
Surgery came three days later for me, 12 hours the first time, the surgeon told me later it was the worst injury he had ever worked on. My knee joint was completely severed and smashed into pieces. My right ankle was destroyed, and I was told it would have to be fused. I declined that.
The surgeon then told me I would never walk again, I set out to prove him wrong. It took four years of hard physio. I did walk not very well and not without pain.
1999 I moved to Fairview Alberta to take two Motorcycle mechanic courses I am diagnosed with CFS. The fatigue was so bad I had to quit school.
2005 summer
My Harley rear brakes lock up on Beaton hill, I have to keep the bike from crushing me using my legs as we skidded down the hill, smashing my shoulder repeatedly into the high cement retainers.
Dec 2014
Two days after my birthday.
I stop at the stop sign near my house like I have a thousand times before. There was a little frost on the side window, the sun at the exact angle it needed to be at, to blind me for a second. Two kids in a large pickup with a fully loaded fuel tank in the box tboned me.
I remember seeing their faces as they hit me. When I regain consciousness I notice smoke coming from my dash, remembering I have a fuel can in the back, I shut off the key, grab my cell phone and crawl out on to the ice.
My neck and back were broken, I did what I always do at car accidents, assess and take charge I call police ambulance and fire, I call someone to take care of my animals. One dog is dead, probably broke my neck and back as he was ejected out of the car. Thank god he didn’t suffer.
45 days later I returned home. I am not going to go into the bad things that happened to me while I was in the hospital, The crazy charge nurse that tortured me, the halo that tore out of my skull form being over-torqued, and was not included in the medical record, that is a subject for another post. I had a spinal surgery on my neck my back was completely ignored. 90 percent of the pain was from there.
This never happened huh , except it did
For the last year or more I have been experiencing, dizziness, balance problems, headaches, problems swallowing.
I have been to the hospital many times, been misdiagnosed over and over again.
I dared suggest that I have many of the symptoms of MS. Again I was refused the scans I needed to prove that. I had that doctor tell me I had sleep apnea, and that I needed a home sleep test, I said ok, only it never happened I never got a call.
I was told a long time ago I needed to have my knee replaced, I had a surgeon told me he would do it when I turned 60 I am now 62 and nothing, That same surgeon said he would send a referral to Edmonton for my wrist, a year later nothing, I phoned his clinic and was told I would be called, I wasn’t till I saw that surgeon again in person.
I finally got a call to see the specialist in Edmonton. He tells me I need to go to a spinal clinic because of the numbness in both arms and hands. He thinks there is another spinal injury that was missed near C5 . He told me he would refer me there. A year later no call, so I called his clinic, someone tells me that someone will call, I remind her it has been a year. Next day I get another call saying my scans are too old I need a new ct scan of my spine That was four years ago.
I go to a local hospital to get that arranged, I am told because I don’t have a family doctor they refuse. Only problem all the family doctors refuse to add me as a patient. No scans no spinal clinic, no knee replacement because the surgeon who has stalled for two years says he needs a new scan as well. Quite obvious these are stall tactics hoping I will go away.
Back to current issues. I finally get a doctor to refer me or a pulmonary test. I get that done. I suspect a few things. Maybe asbestosis from exposure while I was in the Navy. The other below
More current issues. I spend a lot of time in my recliner, because of the back injury. Lately I feel a warm spot in my right thigh, I take a pic and there is a lump there, so I spend time looking that up. I come up with DVT from sitting too much, which could trigger a pulmonary embolism. It could have killed me. The story about the bad day I had chopping wood is here.
If I move more I can avoid that without being prescribed rat poison.
I just got a call from an assistant for the doctor that sent me for the test, they want me to come in ten days, to talk about it.
I already received the results of that test, and they show there are problems. I did try another visit to ER I wait 4 1/2 hours to see a doctor, the pain in my spine was so severe from sitting for so long I had to leave.
I will try again maybe tomorrow In Peace River. Is that all that is going on no way, suddenly the joints in my shoulder are hurting so bad that I can’t put on my jacket without yelling, I have two bone spurs on my elbows, my throat pain and pain in my carotid are worse.
Oh yea forgot that doctor story the one where a doctor promised to send me for a stress test and carotid scan, guess what those never happened either, more lies. But the good that came for that visit was the doctor mentioning working in a brake shop, and that’s, when I realized he was talking about asbestosis and that, led me to research that. And I found stories of other sailors that served in the Canadian navy who were also exposed. And some that died of Mesothelioma.
And the last things I can think of, I had a hammer fall from a ladder and hit me in the head a few days ago, I didn’t think much of that except I can’t remember the rest of that day, and a real ugly looking mole on my forehead. Which fell off.
So glad I shaved my head just before the cold weather to make sure that there weren’t more of those.
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