Trying to Figure Things Out:
Hi, All!
I am so sorry if you weren’t able to access my blog in the past few months. I apparently changed my features, and I had no idea that I basically, blocked my blog completely.
I guess even after all this time, I’m still learning how to manage it.
I hope that you are doing well! I can’t report any major changes in regards to my health. I still have the cramping with typing, and even just writing these few sentences, my muscles are tensing, but I am going to try to make every effort to overcome my pain to reach out to you.
I really hope that you are reading this just for information. I hope that you haven’t been personally impacted by CPM or EPM. If you are struggling with this brain injury, please feel free to reach out to me with questions, and I will try to do my best to answer them.
For me, it has been three and 1/2 years since my injury, moving closer to four. I have seen improvements in some areas of my injury, like with speech, but I continue to struggle with other parts like, Parkinsonism, short-term memory issues, fatigue, cramping, etc.
I found the most relief, in regards to the Parkinsonism, from taking Baclofen, Gabapentin, and Carbidopa and Levodopa. I’m on a mild dose of these, but that said, I’m still dealing with problems. It would probably make sense to increase the doses at this time, but I hate the effects of the drugs. I have also had relief with massage therapy. I really do love the massage therapy. It helps to relieve the tension in my muscles, but it’s kind of expensive. It’s been suggested that I try water therapy, and I absolutely not against it. It’s just difficult locating a place that practices it, and by the time, I find a place then I lose the prescription or it expires. By the time, I get the prescription, I forget where it was that has it.
Personally, I think I have hit another plateau, but it is really hard to say really because when you suffer from memory issues, you really live in the moment of now. It could be that my health is declining. I know it hurts when I get up to walk in the morning because one of the fantastic symptoms of Parkinsonism is plantar fasciitis. Basically, the muscles in your leg cramp which cause cramping pain in your feet. I try to stretch things out, but I really should try harder. I’m supposed to stretch several times a day, and I did that for awhile, but I didn’t find a lot of relief, so I kind of stopped doing it. I don’t think I’ve noticed much of a change since I’ve stopped doing it either.
Ok, so I know I need to practice at this writing thing again.
I’m a bit out of it. This week has been particularly rough because I finally closed the chapter on the medical mal practice lawsuit. I will try to walk you though the ins and outs of what to expect if you decide to pursue it.
You’re kind of put in a tough spot. You have been hurt due to an error by the doctor or hospital treating you. In my case, the doctor admitted that he didn’t treat me appropriately, so you would think that’s it. The doctor made a mistake. He admitted to it. You were hurt. Boom. That’s it. How could it be more clear-cut?
Well, in my case, the doctor was fine with settling the case, but it’s not really his decision. He is represented by an insurance company, that at the end of the day, cuts the check. And unlike what you might experience with an automobile accident, these insurance companies are represented by lawyers, who are paid to stop that from happening.
The insurance companies have spent years, maybe even decades, convincing the public that people that push for medical malpractice cases are horrible, money-grubbing, fakers. They have pushed state governments to set caps to prevent people from receiving compensation due. So, if a doctor kills you or a loved one, in most states there is a cap on pain and suffering of about $250,000 to $500,000. If you receive any more compensation than that, then it has to be from economic loss. Let me stress, that is not what people generally walk away with. They are lucky if they get anything. Most cases are lost.
In summary, doctors pay extraordinary amounts in premiums to insurance companies. The insurance companies have (through advertising and other methods) convinced the public that the reason your healthcare costs are so high is because of frivolous lawsuits, and the insurance company backs out quietly with all the money.
It’s a painful reality that I hope you never face.
In the mean time, if you are the person who filed the med mal suit, then you will spend the next several years of your life under unimaginable stress. You will be told that because a person can’t physically see your injury that you are exaggerating your problems or that the problems are actually psychological caused by every previous painful event that has happened in your life. It doesn’t matter if you were a productive member of society that worked, went to school, or both. It doesn’t matter if you’ve made every attempt to get back to normal because it doesn’t take you long to realize that a lawsuit will NOT solve anything. You will be lucky if you walk away with anything after you pay back your lawyer, court costs and the insurance companies (health insurance).
After choking on that extremely bitter pill this week, I have been extremely depressed. Not because I was expecting millions of dollars to put me on “easy street”, but because I really expected to have enough money to break even. I was hoping to not LOSE money. I have a brain injury, and I have LOST my ability to maintain steady income. I wasn’t rich prior to the brain injury. Heck, I live in a 750 sq foot condo, but now I am actually financially crippled because of the brain injury and I have to suffer from the physical impacts of it for the rest of my life. That is depressing! It hurts me deeply.
But when has life ever been fair?
I know a woman that had breast cancer. She has several kids. She has worked hard her entire life. Life dealt her a cruel hand by giving such a lovely person breast cancer.
What can you do but suck it up buttercup?! Try to make the best of the worst possible situation. It isn’t fair. It does SUCK! You wouldn’t think life could be this way. And you do ask, why me? But at the end of the day, it’s what you do with that bad hand that makes the difference. I could lie in my bed every day and cry, or I could put one painful foot in front of the other, and try to enjoy whatever I have. It could be worse. It absolutely could be worse, and I know that’s hard to believe or accept as you go on this journey, but you opened your eyes, and a lot of us with CPM and EPM don’t get that far.
So stay brave, and let’s focus on making sure what happened to us, doesn’t happen to anyone else. Let’s make a difference, and let’s be strong for one another.
Have a Great Night!!!
Hyponatremia and Central Pontine Myelinolysis 