I Feel Like Crap

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

So, about 3 weeks ago I got some chest cold thingy. I never really felt sick at all. My chest hurt.. like, burnign fire in my lungs. Coughing was about as unproductive as it could get and felt horrible. Sometime during that week period of burning lungs I coughed hard... hard enough to blow at least one disk in my fragil neck. This is bad. really bad. The pain is almost unbareable now. it feels like someone is pulling the flesh from my right arm while holding a hot poker between two vertabra in my neck. Thats on a good day. On top of that.. I can't really... it's hard to explain... my arm isn't numb... I can feel it.. but I cant grip anything hard.. and even scratching my left arm with my right feels like I am trying to lift a ton of weight...

I want a good nights sleep with out waking in a state of pure pain.

I don't want surgery again.

Someone wave a magic wand and fix me before I loose all sensation in my arm.

[Msterbeau]

Have you seen a doc yet? It sounds fairly serious if the symptoms span a bunch of different systems.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

No. It's hard to explain why, but I currently have no insurance. The guy who used to be reginal manager screwed a bunch of us so that we now have to wait till nexdt year to get back on the insurance. Anyway...

I would first have to go see a regular Doc who would say I need to go see a Neurologist. The Neurologist would send me to a specialists to check for nerve damage. (which is not fun...) then go back to the Neurologist for a prognosis... there are various other tests that are involved in this process... MRI ($1200), CAT Scan ($500), X-rays (last time it was around $800), the nerve test ($1500)....

I have to wait till my insurance kicks back in... if it does... in July. by then, i should be paralized... wooohooo!!!

[Msterbeau]

No. It's hard to explain why, but I currently have no insurance. The guy who used to be reginal manager screwed a bunch of us so that we now have to wait till nexdt year to get back on the insurance. Anyway...

I would first have to go see a regular Doc who would say I need to go see a Neurologist. The Neurologist would send me to a specialists to check for nerve damage. (which is not fun...) then go back to the Neurologist for a prognosis... there are various other tests that are involved in this process... MRI ($1200), CAT Scan ($500), X-rays (last time it was around $800), the nerve test ($1500)....

I have to wait till my insurance kicks back in... if it does... in July. by then, i should be paralized... wooohooo!!!

Yeah. I'm off insurance until 1 month after my start date at the new job... basically Jan. 1.

Hopefully whatever's going on doesn't do any serious damage while waiting. Or kill you.

[torn asunder]

seriously, it sounds like you have a vertebral subluxation. find out how much a chiropractor might cost you, because i practically guarantee that's what's causing your arm trouble. (i say that, because i've been through almost exactly the same thing.)

really, man, chiropractor. no shit...

[phee]

Yikes

[Homicidalheathen]

Thats one thing I count my blessings for everyday....that I have medical insurance. And thats what I hate about this country. I spend 3 bucks for a loaf of bread...7 bucks for laundry detergent.......ect.....ect....and we don't have national health insurance. It doesn't make sense. They cut funding for schools.....the roads are shit.....and still no insurance.

My cousin in law is in Germany and she said even though they have it you have to wait forever to see a doctor and then they aren't very good. I hear the same thing about Canada.....that you have to practially be on your death bed otherwise there is a waiting list.

[pomba gira]

No insurance sucks big donkey dicks. I was totally freaked when I woke up last Fri. & discovered I was dizzy whenever I tried to walk... I mean you always hear about people with some horrible rare crippling illness that started w/some weird out-of-the-blue symptom like that. I never qualify for any kind of health care assistance when I'm unemployed 'cos most programs go by your income for the past year. So I figured I better start shopping for wheelchairs or whatever... then heard about a new free clinic, went there only to be told they aren't taking new patients... BUT they did sign me up for this new county health plan which, thank all the gods, only looks at your current income, period, no questions asked. So I was able to go to urgent care & then my own doc. Turns out there's pretty much nothing to be done for the vertigo issue, but at least I know I'm not gonna wake up tomorrow totally paralyzed or something. Added bonus, the Ingham Care plan will pay for my antidepressants... and that is truly a blessing 'cos I've been having major difficulty maintaining since I ran out.

long story which prolly no one wanted to hear... the point being, yeah, we need a better system... there are a lot of local & privately-funded health assistance programs out there but finding out about & getting access to them can be a daunting task even for someone who knows how to "work" the system and isn't sick, on the edge, and/or terrified. Just doesn't make sense... if someone ends up in ER & then hospitalized for weeks w/complications from some simple illness, the state or whoever ends up paying the whole enormous bill anyway, or the hospital ends up eating it. So wouldn't it be cheaper all around to treat that simple illness in the first place? But I guess that's too much like the "money for schools now or prisons later" reasoning to win any fans in policy-making circles.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

I can't go to a chiropractor... i broke my neck when I was 16 then walked around with it broken for like 15 years. About 8 years ago I had major surgery to repair it. They had to remove about 25% of my 6th vertabra and a huge wad of scar tissue/cartlidge. At that time, I had lost use of my right arm and was loosing my right leg.

Since then some odd things have gone on with my spine... about 4 years ago I had an MRI that showed 5 more buldging disks in my neck... when they did the comparative 2 months later to prepare for surgery... the disks had repaired themselves. No one could understand how they did that. I also have been diagnosed with severe arthritus in my spine... you know.. my bones are crumbling apart as I get older and the soft tissues are "hardning".

My point is, chiropractors wont touch me. Way too much risk of killing me or paralizing me because of all the damage to my spine.

[The Void]

"...sucks big donkey dicks."

Hey I thougth I was the only insane person to use this saying. Who knew. *lol*

Technically can't you go to any hopsital emergency room and they have t take you? Problem is that yes they will send you the bill in full but you can pay it off $1 per month and then never pay it off later since well....if it's not major money they'll write it off and perhaps send nasty persistent collection letter but suing is for big money, like operations.

Anyone???

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Frustrating situation. Seems like you have thought about it from all angles though. This deal were shit costs $$ sucks.

I know it might put you in some seroius debt but how seriously do you think you might fuck yourself over by waiting? Debt is often easier to repair than some parts of the body.

I'm not suggesting one or the other becasue i totally can understand the problem with no insurance. Its a very suck-ass situation. Just need to think about it long term and pick the lesser of two evils.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Actually.. I could tell them I smell maple syrop. Cause when I get my odd headaches I do. I went with my wife to one of her Nurologist visits and she mentioned that to him. he wanted to schedual head CRT and MRIs for that day.

Honestly... I'm a dead man walking. I have emphasemy. My spine is crumbling. I've broken over 40 bones in my body. My wife and her doc think I have a brain tumor.

I don;t care.

I have about 10-15 years to live at most.

The last 5 or so are going to be hell as my lungs give out and the pain sets in deep.

I look death in the face every day.

Dieing from a brain tumor would be mercy.

I have a friend who knows what to do if this neck thing paralises me from there down.

I just want to spend this next 8-10 years without constant pain.

I want to be able to play with my boys.

I want to be able to hold my rifle up long enough to feed my family.

I don't really care about long term... I don't have a long term to worry about.

Gah... I need to do something and get my mind off this crap...

[pomba gira]

"...sucks big donkey dicks."

Hey I thougth I was the only insane person to use this saying. Who knew. *lol*

Technically can't you go to any hopsital emergency room and they have t take you? Problem is that yes they will send you the bill in full but you can pay it off $1 per month and then never pay it off later since well....if it's not major money they'll write it off and perhaps send nasty persistent collection letter but suing is for big money, like operations.

Anyone???

hehe of course there's also my favorite variant, "sucks big camel cocks"

anyway...

ER only has to run whatever tests are necessary to determine your condition isn't life threatening. And if it's a receiving hospital they're prolly under a lot of pressure not to run expensive tests on uninsured patients. Bottom line- they are under no obligation to provide care for non- life threatening conditions. sucks [insert large animal genitalia of choice] but there it is.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

exactly... it deep throats Blue Whale cock (get bigger than that), but my condition is not life threatning. With no insurance I would get sent packing with a $200-$300 bill for them taking my temp and vitals.

[JaneDead]

...

[JaneDead]

I can't go to a chiropractor... i broke my neck when I was 16 then walked around with it broken for like 15 years. About 8 years ago I had major surgery to repair it. They had to remove about 25% of my 6th vertabra and a huge wad of scar tissue/cartlidge. At that time, I had lost use of my right arm and was loosing my right leg.

Since then some odd things have gone on with my spine... about 4 years ago I had an MRI that showed 5 more buldging disks in my neck... when they did the comparative 2 months later to prepare for surgery... the disks had repaired themselves. No one could understand how they did that. I also have been diagnosed with severe arthritus in my spine... you know.. my bones are crumbling apart as I get older and the soft tissues are "hardning".

My point is, chiropractors wont touch me. Way too much risk of killing me or paralizing me because of all the damage to my spine.

sorry i didn't read this post before i made my big pro-chiro post :(