Spinal Injections

[lsemmens]

I'm thinking some very rude words right now, I'm glad you are still around to tell the story. It's situations such as this that make it hard on those of us who do not know you in RL. If you did fall off the perch, and all your online friends did not know you in RL, we may be left wondering what happened. I'm blessed that, so far, nothing has had that sort of effect on me. SWMBO, OTOH.......

[admin]

I'm thinking some very rude words right now, I'm glad you are still around to tell the story. It's situations such as this that make it hard on those of us who do not know you in RL. If you did fall off the perch, and all your online friends did not know you in RL, we may be left wondering what happened. I'm blessed that, so far, nothing has had that sort of effect on me. SWMBO, OTOH.......

One positive is that it gave us a reminder to get off our arses and get our wills up to date.

I am also going to put something in writing for my wife should I run out of luck next time. I do everything, she knows nothing....thats about it. She knows none of my passwords, I pay all bills etc. She would not have a clue who our power is even with.

Austech would keep going if I kicked it, until not enough people paid Premium Membership renewals through Paypal and payment bounced for web hosting. Or the domain didnt renew (cant remember if it is auto or not).

[admin]

Just adding this as a follow up as someone will read this one day Googling spinal injections.

After nearly dying getting this needle, pain started coming back after only 4 days ! At the moment, it is as bad as what its ever been....6 days later.

While I realise the severe reaction I had is very rare, the amount of time this pain killing injection worked for was very very disappointing. I was looking forward to a minimum 1-2 months pain free.

[fandtm666]

[lsemmens]

SWMBO lives with chronic pain, so I understand. Hers has no relation to your own condition. In the early days we tried just about anything and everything, no matter how far fetched to try and alleviate it. Nothing worked, she now lives with it. Chronic illness, or anything similar is a sure fire way to the poor house.

[mutanti]

Ouch.. Glad your OK Admin..Would have been scary for your wife had she been close by watching... I have a L4 - L5 Bone on Bone issue, the Gel crap in between has been crushed ..... been a issue for around 18 Months. had 2 Cortozone injections in spine, helped a little but the weekly and now fortnightly Massages and Myothearapy have helped the most, Local Chiro just wanted to keep taking from my wallet, wasnt happy wit him at all... these days still have pain but 2 / 10 provided i keep the Myo up and running....

[Splinter17]

How short of $$$ are you for a year's private health insurance admin?

[alpha0ne]

If the trial is successful, the drug could be commercially available in Australia within the next two years.

It always seems help is near (but never near enough) with similar pain cures mentioned occasionally, fingers crossed in two years this does pass all med trials and is available to ppl everywhere, not just one location/med facility that costs $???? wayyyyy too much

[WhiteOx]

Glad your ok Andrew - sorry I missed this earlier.
If you need to you can get your medical records to find out what happened.
Cost me $30 here in NSW.

[mtv]

Glad your ok Andrew - sorry I missed this earlier.

Likewise, mate.

I hadn't read through the whole thread until now.

I had a scary experience with a spinal procedure by an incompetent doctor, many years ago.

I was lucky in one respect as it rendered me unconscious.

Hope things improve for you mate.

[Neddie]

A totally scary experience for you, sorry to hear about the pain, we can only hope it subsides somewhat once the effects of the procedure wear off, have they got you on any ongoing pain killers? I was on Targin for some while with Endone for when the pain was terrible. Off both of those now but taking Meloxicam, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, to keep things settled down.

Austech would keep going if I kicked it, until not enough people paid Premium Membership renewals through Paypal and payment bounced for web hosting. Or the domain didn't renew (cant remember if it is auto or not).

Please ensure someone who knows about hosting and domain names has the details of the host and registrant as well as the username and passwords. I was on another forum that ceased to exist some while after the owner disappeared, plenty of us willing to chip in, but no one knew the required details to take over the site.

[Tactile]

Public system = house of doom!

If you want a solution go private find the best specialist in the country and use him/her.

There is a delusion that all doctors and nurses are competent, they are like Tradies (or any human endeavor); there's good ones and bad ones and REALLY bad ones!

[admin]

Got the collection of test results today.

I have to go back and have 2 of them again. I had a high white cell count (which apparently can be a result of trauma...such as the Alfred event) which they want to see if it had gone back down. The other is an ECG, it is in reagrds to a heart blockage but I don't know if it is in regards to an actual blockage in my heart or .

Man, the wheels certainly fall off when 50 hits

[admin]

I am just updating this as Austech does show up in a lot of Google searches and its always nice to find a reason why something happens.

I saw an anesthetist at a private hospital last week and spoke to him about what happened. It was no mystery to him, he said it is a known side effect and "if the operator didn't know what he had done, then he certainly hasnt performed the procedure too many times" .

He was nice enough to get a plastic model spine and show me exactly what happened and why. Basically there is a small sac near the nerve root, and they injected in to that. I did a bit of Googling when I got home, and found it listed as a 1% risk listed as a Dural Puncture. Basically this is when the needle penetrates in to the sac that encases the nerves within the spinal canal. It causes leakage of Cerebrospinal (also known as Brain) Fluid.

He said he has performed this procedure thousands of times and it does happen. He said the last time it happened to him, he thought the lady was just a bit quiet until he realised she was unconscious and not breathing

I asked him if he would mind advising my GP of all the above and he did. He also left this scathing assessment of the doctor who performed it :

"This is a well recognised complication of the procedure and certainly does not speak to the competence of the operator"

As I mentioned earlier, when he gave me the needle he was really moving it around in my spine like he was trying to find the right spot. Obviously he didnt. So much for CT guidance.

If I was told there was a 1 in 100 chance this would happen, I would not have had it done.