February 19th, 2010 → 6:24 pm @ admin // 3 Comments
I need help! I am in a terrible situation like most americans today. My position in accounting was disolved and moved out of state in November 2007 after 7 years of working for them. Of course I could not afford their steep charge of Cobra Insurance at about 900.00 a month. So, I lost it. I am currently on unemployment. The job oppurtunities here in Ohio are terrible. No jobs that can pay decent. About 3 months ago I awoke with terrible pain, I could not move, if I did, it was the greatest pain I have ever felt. Went to ER 3 times without much help except pain medication. After 3 weeks of bedridden got in touch with a free clinic that could possible aid in an MRI. The ER refused to do this because of no insurance. The clinic saw me and refered me to another hospital that could help. Instead of MRI I recived an Cat Scan which works just as good. As it turns out,I have narrowing (degenerative disk) in L5-L4-L3. A herniated disk in the L-5 . The L5 is the area that sits right the nerve roots. I got in contact with a orthopedic surgeon that really did not want to take me because of self-pay. He did see me. He prescribed pain medicine and some steroids, to see if the steroids would work. Well they did a little. I still am suffering. My left leg is partially numb. I can’t walk without a limp. My daily diet is IBU Prophen-Vicodin-Flexirill-Tramidall. He explained first, that I would need to have surgery for this to be corrected. He would need to remove disk and fuse the vertebre’s back together with screws. (This will not fix on it’s own). Well, I am so frustrated because I can’t get any help. I make to much money on unemployment, which will be ending in Feburary. (I never have heard of such a thing)! I am a full time student with a 7 year old and 2 sons who are in college.I am about $300 over the state poverty guidlines. Omg..I have never been on unemployment nor have I ever had to ask for assistance throught the state. We pay into Social Security and Medicare all our lives. Why is their not programs out there for the 40 something? I need this surgery, this is preventing me from finding a job and finishing my degree. The doctor told me that we could try some pain management (spinal blocks) .I found out yesterday that I could not even have this done. The doctor that would be doing this will charge $700-1200.00 per shot. OMG..I don’t have this kind of money. So, basically I am stuck. I have written letters to the State Of Ohio senate office as well as the Governors office. This is not right. I have paid money into the state insurancce and can’t get it because I am not the the elderly, nor am I permantley disabled. This is a short term disability. Don’t they see that I could loose everything by Feburary If I do not find a job. I can’t get a job until I can be halfway mobile in order to be 100% effective for my new employer. Who will hire me in this condition. Can somebody help me with any answers to this. This is affecting every aspect of my life. I feel the pain of the millions of people who are uninshured. The rules should change, especially today, in this economic crisis that we are all going through.Please help on Ohio!
TBICKIYA
6 months ago
ask some of your close friends or relatives to help you pay for the necessary insurance that you need to get surgery, this is a really tough time economically and if you don’t have people in your family helping you out, your going to be stuck like you are for quite some time, don’t rely on government either, because they could care less,
cowgirl
6 months ago
If you have a hospital where college students work at like uams here, they have a program that you can apply for to have them pay for all or a percentage of the cost. I applied and got 100% discount, and all i had to pay for was $20.00 office visits, and they paid for my test and surgery. You’ll have to have proof from medicare that you don’t qualify, and income, and you’ll be approved. Good luck!
Richard C
6 months ago
I am sorry for all that you are going through! What you need to find is a physical therapist that will work with you. This can be done on a self pay basis and doesn’t have to break your budget. What you are looking for is someone that will work on you with a hands on approach. There are some movements that can be done to move the fluid portion of the disc off the nerves. The fluid portion of the disc is made up a material that is like yogurt and not water. It can be influenced away from the nerve. There are other aspects of this that also have to be taken into account. For one most surgeons will tell you that back surgery is not anywhere near perfect. By their own statistics it is only successful in fifty percent of the cases and the long term studies show that the success rate is not much better than doing nothing. The steroid injections are only good for at most six months. So the therapy should be able to help you long term if you follow those guidelines forever. There are things that you can do to help yourself also. One if you are overweight start to loss it now! Find a pool and start walking in chest high water. The water will cut you weight by as much as forty percent and that will ease the stress on the lower back. When standing squeeze the buttocks as hard as you can as often as you can. This simple maneuver will help to strengthen the buttocks but it will also help to bring the pelvis into a neutral position. That position helps to move the disc back into the correct position. Watch your posture! Avoid slumping and sit up straight. Get a high back wooden rocker and sit in there and rock. The rocking is very sediative to the nervous system and the position is good for the back. Before going to bed lie on the bed on your stomach. If you can tolerate lying on your stomach with the weight on the forearms even better. Stay like that one to two minutes. What you are looking for is a change in the pain pattern. Right now there is numbness in the leg and with this pattern you want that to start to move up the leg towards the buttocks. That is a very successful treatment when that starts. So at this point you need to start calling therapists to find one that will work with you and do the other things.