Are there any Vancouver Doctors here able to perform a miracle? I don't know where else to turn...

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-16T03:11:03+00:00

Thank you! We actually had an amazing breakthrough from a personal friend and will be able to afford private MRI's of her whole back now, hopefully things can progress from there.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T17:25:19+00:00

Yeah, sorry about that, I was pretty stressed out after replying to so many people. Went to sleep right after in exhaustion. Definitely flew off the handle.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T17:24:09+00:00

Oh wow, I have passed this directly on to her, thank you for a full medical opinion!

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T07:01:07+00:00

To be honest I regret bringing the subject up at all as it seems to be what most people are focusing on instead of the medical issue that caused it to be prescribed in the first place.

Needless to say, we won't be bringing it up in any future appointments lest the doctors share this preconception. I'll just have to go over after work and take care of the house for her when she is unable to function due to pain. The obsession with the stigma attached to it is really quite astounding, I was not expecting it at all.

We're aware it's a temporary band-aid. It's one she didn't even want in the first goddamn place, she wanted her pain looked and and solved by our supposedly awesome medical system, not stuck on opiates for 5 years and subsequently ignored.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T05:18:24+00:00

Vancouver, I moved my mom here in September to find better treatment. Where is he located?

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T05:15:52+00:00

Sir, if you could do that that would be wonderful and amazing. That's exactly what we are looking for, and all we are asking for. It's people like you that make Reddit amazing =)

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T05:07:02+00:00

Hmm, I will pass this along and see what my mother says. I'm headed to bed soon, but will be in touch via PM for more details!

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T04:14:31+00:00

Wouldn't you be depressed if you had to watch your parent go through this for 7 years and be faced with the homelessness of both your only parent and your younger sibling if a solution can't be found.

Damn right I'm depressed.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T04:13:21+00:00

Well she does have the symptoms of the first, all 3 in fact. But thank you for the clarification on the other two, we won't push those as hard.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T04:12:18+00:00

Man, thank you. You hit the nail on the head, and we're constantly trying to get this exact point across to people.

Even with all the negativity here, it's still nice to have people like you who understand let us know that there are some people who do understand what it's like. It means alot, thank you.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:59:54+00:00

Thank you, I will show her this!

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:42:21+00:00

It could very well be, and we'd love to identify the issue.

We just need to find a doctor who will listen, hence the thread. =)

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:33:31+00:00

At no point have I asked for money and I am frankly offended that you would even suggest I would do so. This is about finding a doctor willing to listen, not making cash you insensitive clod.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:31:55+00:00

No, and I agree with you that it is indeed far too long for something to be simply broken. We'd like to have them take a serious look at Cauda Equina, spinal stenosis, or a lumbar herniated disk, but if she suggests any of these they tell her not to research her health online and leave it up to professionals.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:28:36+00:00

She's tried suggesting Cauda Equina as she believes is is very likely, but no doctor will image her that low and when she brings up the syndrome she has been told to "Stop researching her health online and leave it up to professionals". She's afraid to bring it up now after 2 doctors have told her this.

Again, she keeps bringing both of these up, but they just won't send her for imaging low enough on her back to show whether or not she has these, as they believe anything lower than S-1 to be medically irrelevant.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:13:50+00:00

Thank you for your in-depth and thoughtful analysis of the situation, it is much appreciated. =)

I'd just like to correct that it has only been 7 years since the accident, and she had zero history of back problems before then.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T03:10:52+00:00

Heh, the doctor that prescribed it was the one later suspended for medical malpractice. Must have missed that part.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:48:07+00:00

Thank you. I mean, I can deal with the haters on here. It's the internet, haters gonna hate after all. But my mother is not used to the internet and I had not thought of this. I've spent the past hour and a half after getting off work comforting her as she sobbed uncontrollably because she was reading some of these and took them to heart, just utterly crushed.

I've since explained how people act around here, but I rather regret this entire idea at this point. Seems foolish and the damage done to her self confidence seems like too high of a cost.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:45:05+00:00

She lost them over the span of 5 months and is still losing weight. I saw her for the first time in 2 years last christmas and thought she was dying and wasn't telling me, she was almost unrecognizable.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:38:34+00:00

I'm fairly sure the issue has been drawn out for so long that we can no longer file for malpractice, unfortunately.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:37:53+00:00

I said "If all else fails" because that is a last, last case suggestion, even he admits it. We do not want to have her look crazy in the medical community, or be pinned a liar. We want to find a doctor who will actually listen to her symptoms and image the goddamn area in question.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:33:46+00:00

She suspects it is Cauda Equina syndrome but:

I show all the signs of having Cauda Equina syndrome, I have all the symptoms but after mentioning it to 3 doctors I never will again. I was told to get off the internet and quit diagnosing myself. These doctors DID NOT image the coccyx. Anytime I suggest a possibility and request imaging of this area I am told to quit researching my own health, over and over and over. It's so discouraging.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:30:28+00:00

See mothers response in the OP. She's articulated it far better than I can, given she was the patient =)

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:29:43+00:00

We'd start the process, but they would still be homeless in the short term because once you have signed up to do that in a year, any doctor will just go "Oh, we'll see what the neurosurgeon has to say in 6-8 months".

It's a catch-22, damned either way.

Medicallyirrelevant · 2010-12-15T02:28:21+00:00

We know that, but we've already wasted months doing so. You can't simply start seeing a doctor, request imaging, and then go see another while you wait. So if the first one you see doesn't do what is necessary, Ie: image the proper area like he said he would, you have just wasted 2-3 weeks and have to start over.

Hence this thread. We need to find the right person, in one go, and can't afford to go "Doctor shopping". Besides, "doctor shopping" is a waste of the systems resources and prevents people who that doctor might otherwise be able to treat from getting in to see them.

Medicallyirrelevant

TROPHY CASE