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How the Healthcare system fails chronically ill people
(www.whitneydafoe.com)
I was diagnosed with lower lumbar spinal stenosis in 2008. Essentialy it feels as though my back is in the process of breaking, 24 hours day, every day.
When it first happened, I couldn't stand up. My brain was convinced it was broken and I could feel the broken ends grinding against each other.
Doc tells me they can do a laminectomy, cut out part of my spine. "6 week recovery time, that will fix the pain in your legs, do nothing for the pain in your back, and the pain in your legs will come back."
"Well, let's pretend we did that because pretending doesn't cost money or time. Pain is back, now what?"
"We can do cortisone shots straight into your spine."
"Well gee, that sounds appealing, but I hear you can only have so many and it's done, right?"
"That's right."
"Well, let's pretend we did the surgery and the pain came back, and then we run out of cortisone shots, now what?"
🤷♂️ "Vicodin?"
So for a year I lived on vicodin. I maxxed out at 10 a day just to function as a normal human being. 2 to get out of bed, 2 when I went to work, 2 at lunchtime, 2 when I got home, 2 to go to sleep.
After a year, I couldn't take feeling like my head was stuffed with cotton and I stopped. The health people were ZERO help. I control the pain with breathing exercises and meditation now. It's always there, but I can push it aside, like shouting from 3 rooms away.