Neurosurgery

Eh so, yeah...
I was hit by a drunk driver last December and started having problems about a month or two later. At first it just seemed and felt like whiplash so I continued to work, etc. and treated it as such.

Now I'll be having the first surgery of my life soon (date not set exactly yet) and at 24, almost 25 years old, it will be to remove a 2.2cm arachnoid cyst on one of the membranes between the brain and the skull. It's benign, thank God, so there's that. Unfortunately I have about 14 of 17 possible symptoms associated with it but it took me 10 months to get diagnosed and a proper MRI because of two reasons. One is the fact that I am prescribed to Wellbutrin and have been stable with that for years, so because of this I was diagnostically overshadowed by a neurologist four months ago who should have followed through with a complete scan order based solely on HALF of the symptoms I had at the time. She told me it was most likely psychosomatic and would go away on it's own. I waited three months for that appoinment. Wow. Anyway...

I go see a highly respected chiropractor and start a treatment plan getting adjustments with an activator and other run of the mill therapies. After almost two months, there was some obvious improvement in body functionality and posture however my neurological symptoms were skyrocketing. So they ended up ordering the MRI and it came back with that news a couple of days ago and so here I am.

It's been a pain in the ass, cause bros, I don't know if any of you have ever suffered from severe neck/back or neurological pain but it's an absolute bitch to properly explain, work through, diagnose and maintain daily life before you even have hard proof of something wrong. In the past year, with little to no treatment I have had vasovagal attacks several times, inward trembling and tremors combined with muscle weakness and soreness every single day, erratic body temperature and nerves that stand on edge several times a day no matter how relaxed I am, nausea/dizziness/balance loss so bad that I could not walk or leave bed for more than a couple of hours a day/migraines with aura and halo effect/loss of muscle control a couple times a week/speech problems/extremely weak and painful left shoulder and arm/wobbly and weak knees/tension under my breastplate/loss of facial expression and recognition with facial pain in related muscles including severity areas in jaw and eyebrow area/blurred vision and light sensitivity that made me cry one time it was so bad with all of the other symptoms/deviation of my entire frame because the nerves have altered the contour of their normal route to go around the cyst so it caused ulnar deviation I correct myself with wrist-wraps and insane spinal problems/tortacullis (sp?) in my neck among them and I don't even want to continue. Throughout all of this I still had to work at one point, then spent every moment afterwards still having to actually go through with daily life and prove something was wrong with me because my doctors weren't seeing it and family & friends are difficult to explain. I have a great support system, but you can only do so much. I am eternally grateful for everyone who has been here for me though. Some of the hardest months of my life...

They're not over, either. Still playing a waiting game while having been out of work and on bedrest for months, I have to call the neurosurgeon on Monday to explain that I've been symptomatic for almost a year and because they don't know that yet, hopefully that will push them to do the surgery faster because I'm losing a lot of my health in some of the hardest ways to heal. For those of you who don't know, a typical cyst like this is milimeters and mine is two fucking centimeters and then some. It's disrupting my glossopharyngeal and vagus nerve roots as well as spinal accessory to nerve roots 9-11 and possibly involving 7 and 8.

I've just been toughing it out, staying calm and doing as much as I can. I quit smoking (for real) and completely changed my diet, which was already pretty healthy in the first place. I'm anxious, feel completely overwhelmed by the lack of sense of urgency from those with the ability to assist me and I'm in a ridiculous state of either pain or debilitating neurological effects.


Does anyone have any advice on any of this? Has anyone ever had a surgery like this before or know anything about it? I'm a bit scared, but I've accepted it and have a lot of faith in these particular doctors but I'm so very uncomfortable all the time. I have never been given pain medication or anything this entire time, either...

Anway...that's that. I hope it goes well so I can get back to arguing about EverQuest full time.

The chiropractor was a last resort and I was getting practically free treatment anyway. As an overall health professional he is personally fantastic and is 80% of the reason I've made any progress.

I've been to a chiro that lets you walk in, hop on a table and manipulates you for ten seconds and that's that. This is a bit different and even so, I don't give much of a fuck about the chiropractic treatment. It was always about the neuro issues.


@Oneofone - Believe what?

I thought this was the moderated forum for adult disucussions with no bullshit?

You guys are reflecting the situation I came here to vent about. If you're someone who thinks I'm making this shit up, I swear if you had a stethoscope around your neck I'd strangle you with it. It's infuriating, why the fuck would I even bother?

Here. I have more that would prove it beyond a doubt but it's confidential and I'm not about to post all that shit for everyone on the internet to see. This alone is already too much, but if it can actually have someone respond with something meaningful then I'm willing to put this out there. If this isn't enough, then forget it.

Word man. Thanks.

Thanks Tuco.

I guess with the Potam/CTV incident and the cancer issue mentioned above, the hidden trannies, the exposed pedophiles and all that I can start to see why some skepticism is warranted.

This is a forum dedicated to this kind of shit though, and it's not like I came here asking for money either - this is like an $80,000 (ballpark) procedure, shit. Advice or not, the support just helps a lot. The escapism of a somewhat anonymous brotherhood over the net is just a different catharsis for me and helps me clarify things, so I appreciate the sentiment man.

Even worse (and fucking weird as it turns out) is that it was a hit and run at first. He hit my backend, cracking my bumper in half while pushing me straight through a turn going 50mph (it's a 40-45mph curve) and I went through a small ditch and the curve speed sign swiped my entire left side, took off my rearview and door handle. Anyway, before he hit me I saw his vehicle in my rear view mirror because I noticed he was accelerating oddly fast considering a turn was coming up.

I get out and pull myself together to call the cops and the dude is nowhere to be found. Cop shows up and insists I'm drunk and that it was my fault - until I made him help me find my bumper which was split in half and had paint from the other vehicle on it...No way I did that shit myself.

So how could I know I was hit by a drunk driver if it was a hit and run? Well apparently he gets pulled over in the next city (that I was also going to be passing through) for reckless driving or swerving, some shit. I forgot the exact terms. Anyway, this was a couple of hours later after I had already filled out an entire police report that included no other parties involved to be held legally responsible - the cop contacted me and asked me if the vehicle met the description and a bunch of other shit anyway though (apparently his vehicle had damage that would have matched accordingly). So I ask the cop if we can still charge him after the fact and he says it's a possibility - but then I talk to my insurance company. I share a policy but I have a literally flawless driving record for insurance. They were going to raise my rates wether or not he was held responsible for the damage and the raise was so expensive that it would be less money to fix my car out of pocket than have to pay raised rates for who knows how long...
I have health insurance too so it's not like I have to sue for that either. Just a fucked up situation really.

And thanks Kuriin.

That would be nice...

I still have the police reports and every doctor bill/diagnostic report since but I hadn't thought of backtracking and hunting him down. Guess I'll have to make some calls.

That's comforting. Thanks man.

I'm aware of all of the chiropractic stigmas that exist but there are a couple factors that make my situation a bit different -
1 : Neurologist I saw before chiro did literally nothing and dismissed my case entirely
2 : I had my MRI that caught the cyst ordered by the chiro's own clinic and I have a phenomenal neurosurgeon *through* this chiropractor by his referral. They did everything to get me there.
3 : I am actually not a huge fan of chiropractic treatment myself but it was a last resort and honestly probably saved my life, even if my case is rare. This chiropractor works with the NFL and also other really hard to treat and off the wall disorders and doesn't always do direct typical chiropractic work...if that makes sense.
4 : I just want this shit taken care of, I don't care who, how, or what does it but I just had to do something.

Solid advice though, cause I mostly do agree.