Let me start by saying, Welcome. If you found me in a search I hope my thoughts help you not feel so alone in this journey of chronic pain. Here is my story.
I found myself at age 19 playing in life and enjoying many things. I was in college and about to graduate with my A.S. Degree in Early Childhood Education. I was to get my degree in 1998 at age 20. In April of 1998 I was a preschool teacher for toddlers, ages 10 months to 3 years old. I made $9 dollars an hour. To make a long story very short, I got hurt at work while protecting a large 30 pound two year old. I felt immediate pain in my low back and down my leg. I couldn't walk let alone work. I went home and started to make never ending Dr. Appt's.
Seveal months later- After several attempts at PT and no MRI for 6 months no one knew what might be wrong. They had an idea I might have pulled a muscle in my back. But because I was so young they didn't think it was anything to be worried about.
I was farely active, not in the best shape, but only 119 pounds. I swam in school 3 days a week, rode my bike a lot and also walked everywhere. So not a couch potato. I have always had a little tummy from lack of stomach muscles and hyper-extended spine (curving inwards not hunched).
During these months I could not work. I was making $3.05 per hour on Worker's Compensation Insurance (which is a crock of shit but I will get to that later). On my preschool salary I was able to make ends meet. After my injury I lost everything. After a year of being un-employed and unable to work I was $27k in debt up to my eye balls and nothing to show for it. I made poor choices and moved in with different friends so I didn't have to pay rent. I kept going to school because I was so close to graduating. I wasn't able to sit for the 3.5 hour class lectures anymore and ended up failing my astronomy class. I had to beg my instructor to let me pass so I could graduate. He failed me because I missed to many classes. I also failed one of the tests, but the points I didn't get from missing the first 3 classes after my injury were to blame. He finally gave in when he saw I wasn't graduating because of him. I spend money I didn't have and got further and further into debt.
So a year passing and the outcome is that I finally got an MRI and saw a specialiast in Palo Alto whi read my MRI and said there was a small interior lesion in my disc at L5.S1. I felt a relief that finally after a year in half someone knew why I was in so much pain. The worst part about my pain then, and now is the sciatic pain. I get spasm in my glute muscles and have to stop walking. Shake it out, whimper, scream whatever to get through it. Sometimes it lasts a few minutes in the store, sometimes all day and I can't get out of bed. It was all due to forward bending, lifting anything, or repetative stooping. Eveything a preschool teacher does all the time. The insurance company decided that I needed to be evaluated for possible re-training! What? Weeks away from graduating with a degree working with kids, and BAM, I have to stop working with kids. Yikes, life change!
No comments:
Post a Comment