I'm Back After 6 Years!!!

Nov 06, 2015

Well it's been a while. 6 years?? I am so ashamed! The fact is, I had the sleeve surgery and lost 20lbs but put it right back on because I started having back pain right after recovery. I still wonder if it was the way they had me on the operating room table that did it because I woke up with severe back pain that never went away. 2 months after having my sleeve I went to see a spine specialist and had an MRI. At that time the radiologist who read my MRI missed that i had a tear in my L4/l5 disk. Unfortunately that meant that my doctor didn't believe me when I said I was in severe pain. He ordered physical therapy but it was excruciating and I asked if I could do them at home as the co-pays were expensive. Remember I was also working 60hrs a week as a software engineer at that time as well so stress didn't help. 

 

So the entire year they sent me to a pain management center. I say that very loosely because they did not manage my pain but made it worse. These anesthesiologists are making money off poor people who just want their back pain to go away. These doctors go on weekend getaways where they are wined and dined and taught how to give injections and come home and start offering them to their patients at outrageous prices and the insurance companies pay it! Even though the FDA had the manufacturer of all steroids put a warning on the bottle "not to be used for epidural steroid injections". Doctors are not warning their patients. If so, it is in the very time fine print. Just this past October the issue was revisited with the FDA where they had a chance to ban the use of steroids for epidural injections and they decided to leave things as they are. In other words, do nothing! Thousands of people are getting injured which is where my point is coming to. I have Arachnoiditis now because of these injections. It is an injury to my spinal cord. The doctor missed the nerve he was supposed to bathe with steroid and instead punctured my spinal canal and shot steroid into my spinal canal. Any foreign object in the spinal canal acts as a binding agent. There are nerves in there that run up and down the length of the canal. So in certain places, or the place where the injection was done, the nerves will clump together. That's it, there is no saving them or un clumping them. It has been tried. Picture you trying to do this to spaghetti noodles that you forgot to rinse the starch out of? 

 

Anyway I had to tell my story I'm case anyone reading might be having back trouble. Do not get the injections! It is a temporary fix for a problem that needs to be worked out by a neurosurgeon or good sports orthopedic Doctor.

 

so here I am, mostly bed bound or in a wheelchair. Some days are better then others. I have therapy sessions to learn that my life isn't over, it's just different. It's hard getting used to my limitations. My husband is a rock. I do need to lose the weight. I was thinking of getting my sleeve revised since it has probably enlarged since 2009. I k ow it has. I used to only be able to eat half a cheeseburger. Now can eat a whole one with everything I it plus half the fries. No that is not what we normally eat. Your yeah we need to get our act right. My hubby has the sleeve and has only had one fill. He has been afraid to get it filled any tighter because when he is stressed his band tightens up and he can't eat. 

 

So so that is it for now. I hope I will be joining in on some of the conversations again. 

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About Me
Arlington, TX
Location
50.5
BMI
VSG
Surgery
06/02/2009
Surgery Date
Jan 16, 2005
Member Since

Before & After
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Taken in Galveston TX 2004
280lbs
Feb 2006 180lbs -100lbs!
180lbs

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