Hi Derrick. re your question to Gary. As you have the same injuries as my daughter, I can tell you that it was about 8 years or more before her injury was discovered, Her gp ignored the fact that she had problems with swollen legs, falling over suddenly, things dropping out of her hands, lost of balance,., when you look back you can understand what all these things mean , but in a young lady with good job, that entailed lots of traveling, he put it down as water retention, over tireness dehydration numbness icy cold .etc. she just stop going to the docs in the end, then she had a knee injury that was not treated properly acl rupture, by the time they got to grips with that she also had foot drop, they decided something more serious was wrong and send her to the ROH at Stanmore. So the answer to your question things can remain hidden for a long time, and progressly get worse, then a light bulb comes on and further investigation happen.Hope that helps.
Cate
Cate,
Thanks for the info Cate. I know when I first sustained the injury I was not taken to the hospital. It took about a month before I started to feel symptoms which were not right. My gp gave me pain meds initially (Feb). Then in May I went to my gp again because I could barely walk. My gp even asked how I got there in my condition. He does further tests, which didn't amount to much, so he referred me to a neurologist. So in July I go to my neurologist appointment and let him know what happened and how I have been feeling ,etc, problems, tingling, etc, etc. He does some reflex tests, makes some notes and he can't figure me out either. So next, MRI appointment. So I go to my MRI which is two hours away in the big city. Do the test; low and behold my gp calls me and he wants me to see a spinal cord specialist. Hmm, I wonder what is wrong, I ask myself. So I chose a young spinal cord surgeon who I meet with in November to discuss my MRI results. He says I have a Brown Sequad injury, incomplete spinal cord injury, spinal stenosis, caudi equina , etc, etc, which are all foreign terms to me. So I ask him what is the next step and he informs me that he has booked me for surgery for January to decompress my spinal cord. Surgery-14 hours under the knife- my family a little concerned. 9 weeks post-surgery rehab in hospital. They had to remove 4 vertebrae in my neck and put titanium rods on each side of my neck. I am bionic now, a little anyways. Continue my follow ups with the specialist and after a year he releases me as his patient because it is what it is and it may or may not get better. SO here I am today, not able to work, due to balance isssues, chronic pain, tingling in right side of my body, ambulate with forearm crutches, difficulty sleeping, and just not very good signs for recovery.
So I am here to let you know that I have not given up and continue to exercise and workout so I DO NOT deteriorate to oblivion. I live at home and do have some care from family but I am trying to be as independent as I can be. I asked my gp and spinal cord specialist this question: If they would have done the MRI asap or x-ray asap, would the damage to my spinal cord been as severe? There reply: I don't know and they don't want to say YES; get your hopes up and then nothing happens; and they don't want to say NO: so they don't discourage you. They told me the spinal cord is so delicate and any type of trauma, from what I experienced, can be so damaging but you can not assess the amount of damage because of the intricacies of the spinal cord and nerves. I am in litigation right now so I do have a fairly good case. Don't mean to sound to discouraging but that is the hand I was dealt and I am dealing with it as best as I can.
Derrick
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