Thread: Not so good news from the Doctor.

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Thoughts and prayers that all works out well and fast for you Mike.

Originally Posted by 36 sedan

Thoughts and prayers that all works out well and fast for you Mike.

What he said.

Times 3 Mike! Chris and I will keep a good thought headed your way.

You are in my thoughts, Mike, and will continue to be. I hope you get some relief and it all works out well.

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Hope you can get the surgery soon and be on the path to recovery. Hopefully with the surgery it won't get any worse, it really sucks getting old. I'm thinking a wrist brace will helpful in the future. Good luck with your surgery.

Try to stay positive Mike, lots of people thinking of you!
Rich

Damn where I have been? Just seen this post?
Sorry to hear about the problems && hope the surgery goes well......joe

Yeah, I had one of those nerve conductivity tests and they suck. After about the 6th or 7th shock you're ready to beat the crap out of the person zapping you. Hopefully they get it solved for you. Just a bit of info, Mike; I was having a lot of elbow pain and numbness in my hand a few years ago and had two doctors tell me I needed surgery. I ended up having a chiropractor look at it and within 3 weeks she had me pain and numbness free. Not saying that's your issue but it could be worth looking at. I always thought of chiropractic medicine as voodoo science but it made a believer out of me.

Originally Posted by falconvan

I ended up having a chiropractor look at it and within 3 weeks she had me pain and numbness free. Not saying that's your issue but it could be worth looking at. I always thought of chiropractic medicine as voodoo science but it made a believer out of me.

I had exactly the same symptoms, and I too went (eventually,) to a chiropractor for exactly the same results.
The pain was such that I couldn't turn the page of a book with my right hand.
The numbness was such that I couldn't pick anything up in my right hand; I couldn't feel what it was I was trying to pick up.
Within three or four months I was swinging a hammer, can pick up a pin, and have had no further problems.

In my experience if you can find a GOOD chiropractor they can sometimes work wonders with nerve issues where the DO/MD's say cutting is the only option. If you find one of the type who preaches that you need to come in weekly for "adjustments" their magic generally is focused on moving money from your pocket to theirs. My experience was a pinched nerve in my lower back that plagued me until I bought an inversion table.

Thought I'd do a quick update. So far it's just been more frustration. After I had the EMG, the results were forwarded from the Dr back to VA (which took a week to get the results across town). Then another week for the Dr at VA to review them and tell me it would be well over a month to have the VA do the surgery so she referred me back over to the Choice program to get an appointment with a civilian Dr to do the surgery.

Getting the paper work from VA to Choice was supposed to take no more than a week, but ended up turning into 2 weeks because one or the other of the 2 bureaucracies dropped the ball (as with all bureaucracies the one thing they are very good at is pointing a finger at someone else. I finally got a call back from the Choice program who had tried to set up an appointment for the surgery but was informed that they couldn't schedule the appointment until I had a MRI. Of course I had to go back thru the VA surgeon so she can order the test. That request was made a week ago and when I checked on it today, it was still pending. Of course I was passed on to someone else to check the status and naturally my calls go straight to voice mail.

I am so damn glad that millions and millions of tax dollars are going to a newly formed bureaucracy that acts like every other government bureaucracy instead of being spent on Doctors and Technicians. I will say that every conversation I have had with one of the Choice program reps has ended with the person thanking me for my service........it would probably mean something if they were saying because they meant it rather than being told they have to say it......and they actually efficiently moved the paperwork thru the system.


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Hopefully they can get it all set up and get you taken care of before Christmas!

Originally Posted by falconvan

Yeah, I had one of those nerve conductivity tests and they suck. After about the 6th or 7th shock you're ready to beat the crap out of the person zapping you. Hopefully they get it solved for you. Just a bit of info, Mike; I was having a lot of elbow pain and numbness in my hand a few years ago and had two doctors tell me I needed surgery. I ended up having a chiropractor look at it and within 3 weeks she had me pain and numbness free. Not saying that's your issue but it could be worth looking at. I always thought of chiropractic medicine as voodoo science but it made a believer out of me.

I have to thank "Doctor Don", a very colorful chiropractor in Tempe, Arizona, for relieving me of neck pain and numbness in my left arm and leg. He administered traction by laying me on my back, wrapping a towel around my neck and pulling on my head for several minutes at a time, 3 times a week. I had an injury at C3 due to an auto accident many years before and he was the only one in a string of doctors who made a difference in the way I felt. I used to walk out of his office pain free and feeling like I was 10 feet tall. I last saw him 6 or 7 years ago and still have no pain or numbness.

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I had multiple physical therapies for my back when I got out of the army, only chiropractic really helped.

Where to start? Besides the surgery for my hand I’d been waiting for a since Feb for a dermatology appointment to have them look at a Basal Cell on my cheek (I’ve had a couple of them removed in the past and it’s no big deal so I decided to wait on the VA for them). That appointment was supposed to be on the 21st . On the 14th I got a call from the VA to inform me the appointment had been cancelled and they couldn’t get me in until September!!!!!!

I was pretty upset and ended the phone call and took about an hour to cool off. I decided to call them back, get some more information and names and then start calling our 2 senators and congress woman. When I made the call I talked to a different person at the clinic and asked for the reason the appointment was cancelled (apparently the Dr I was scheduled for had left) and asked when I could get scheduled for an appointment. The scheduler told me he didn’t have any appointments for the day I was originally scheduled but he could get me in the following day (22nd). I guess it just depends on what bureaucrat you talk to. Anyway I made that appointment and it went well.

Then there is the hand. Instead of going thru the Choice program they ended up setting me up with a Neurosurgeon at VA Monday of this week. He looked over the hand and tests and told me what I already knew, that it would need surgery (apparently minor) to correct it. He also gave me some good news that at least some of the muscles might come back. He also told me that it should only take a couple of weeks before I’d be able to start doing some light work with the hand. He told me this nurse would get ahold of me in a couple of days to set up the PreOp appointment and schedule the surgery. They actually called the next day and asked me if I could do the surgery on Jul 5 (Tuesday of next week) and if I could come in for the preop yesterday…….you bet I could. So anyway depending on how well I type with my left hand I may not be posting much for a while. With any luck I will have most of the wiring done on the 37 before I Tuesday however.


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