New member, Here is my story (Motor Vehicle Accident: fractured L2/L3)

[Marslauncher]

Car accident and resulting treatment.

Feb 28th 2011, 12:50pm

Driving down US Hwy 290 svc rd coming up to Brodie ln, Was in right hand lane and came up to the junction, Yield only, Maroon car / SUV coming from left, Yielded to traffic, and was about to merge onto Brodie Ln, when the car behind me rear ended me with no warning, unfortunately for me I was leaning forwards looking left to look for traffic and was not braced for the impact, loud noise and jolt, signaled driver behind me to follow me to the nearest parking lot (Lubys Restaurant)

Got out of my vehicle after parking and called 911, 911 Police advised unless EMS needed no need for them to come out unless requested.

My vehicle 97 Grand Jeep Cherokee was warped on the right hand side and I was not able to open the tailgate because the rear end was buckled but was driveable.

Her vehicle 08 Toyota Sienna had impaled itself on my tow hitch and had damaged the front end needing a complete replacement.

My back and neck started to hurt straight away and I called my wife who advised to go home and wait for her to get back as our Son was in daycare at the time.

Wife got home and we went to an Urgent Care despite my protests of wanting to go the ER.

1st Dr visit Feb 28th 2011 3.30pm.

Diagnosis,

Multiple sprains in all muscles on my back neck and shoulders, 4/6 weeks recovery time, No X-rays taken, given Vicodin and muscle relaxers.


2nd Dr visit March 03rd at 6pm.

Advised meds not working and had not had x-rays taken, given x-rays and valium as a sleep aid.


3rd Dr visit March 08th, Pain meds still not working, prescribed Tramadol instead, referred to orthopedic specialist.

Advised work needed FMLA to cover absences.

4th Dr visit March 09th, Orthopedic specialist, nothing major, referred to Physical therapist.

Went to Physical Therapy for 4 weeks.

March 18th, at work, developed stroke like symptoms, confusion, unable to verbalize what I was trying to say, repeating self, slurring words. Hospitalized St Davids North.

CT Scan negative, Multiple X-rays negative. Referred to Neurologist.

5th Dr visit 24th March 2011 9am

Neurologist did not review CT scan or X-rays, asked about family history, instantly prescribed me with Antidepressant, pressed occipital nerve on back of head and said, yep swollen, take Aleve for 2 weeks and have an MRI which will not show anything wrong.

Called Attorney, requested they send me to someone else. more competent.

April 5th Advised work I could no longer function with the meds I was taking as the pain in my back was too severe to be at work and not take the drugs which in turn left me in an intoxicated state and could not function.

Off work since.

April 8th new appt with Dr Joshi (Pain Care Specialists)

Scheduled MRI / X-rays (which a few people have seen on my other post)

MRI results showed Disk Degenerative Disease and a couple of bulging disks.

Scheduled for EMG (19th April) EMG results confirmed additional findings of MRI which showed "Some marrow edema of the anterior superior L3 Vertebral body, adjacent to some end plate irregularity" which the Dr informed me was a significant fracture of my L3 Vertebrae and the marrow that had escaped was inflaming the surrounding nerves and tissue which is why I was in so much pain.

Time to heal 1yr, Dr scheduled me off work until at least August 1st.

Spinal Epidural Cortisone shot scheduled for Wednesday at 7.30am

Current meds I am now taking.

Tramadol 50mg : Pain 1/2 3x a day as needed.
Tizanidine 2mg : Muscle Relaxer : Every 8 hours.
Citalopram 20mg : Antidepressant : 1 a day before bed.
Gabapentin 100mg : 1 x 3x a day for anti seizure / nerve spasms.
Trazadone : 1 at night for sleep aid.

Meds also taken since start.

Vicodin,
Valium,
Flexeril,
Naproxy Sodium

So 7 weeks to determine root cause of pain. 15k+ in medical expenses.

Lost all my sick time, personal time, holiday time, down to 75% pay until July 4th weekend when it will go down further to 66% pay.

Hoping the epidural shot helps, I want to get back to work asap.

Other driver completely at fault, my attorney is gathering all of the medical expense records at the moment to send the compensation demand to the other insurance agency.

I have no idea yet what type of compensation I will get, Although I know I will get all of my vacation and sick time and personal time compensated, plus the extra 25% of my pay reimbursed. After the epidural shot that is pretty much it for treatment, I have 5/6 months of meds I need to take, possibly longer depending on the pain, I have a back brace I need to pick up tomorrow.

It is hard to put a monetary value on the time I have lost being able to play with my son, the vacation we went on to LA that was ruined because I was in so much pain (vacation 5 days after the accident pre-scheduled), the impact it has had on my marriage and my career and of course any impact it will have in the future after the case has been closed.

It has just been an agonizing experience and I do not think it would have been any different had I been in England with the medcare there either. Just glad to have an attorney (33%).


Epidural did not work as the damage is on the anterior and not superior and was thus rendered neutral.

I also have some facet arthrosis and will update where.

Second MRI revealed marrow edema of L2 and L3 with mild spondylosis around T10/11.

So fractured L2 / L3 with third pain generator around T10/11

I now have been upgraded to Morphine Sulfate tablets and am back at work, I have a Nuclear imaging appt on the 27th to see more in depth the damage and the Dr does not think that surgery is needed (phew) just time and morphine which he will increase dosage as necessary.

He has prescribed me a full T.L.S.O brace and I have to try that on next week.

I had hoped todays appt would either be there is nothing else that can be done or you need surgery and just be done with it and I guess that is what it amounted to because as he said it *the test* would have to light up before he would consider surgery. I may look into the marrow stem cell treatments to see if that will help?

What do you guys think?

Thanks

Thats me, John Cooke 29 Austin Tx.

[KBear]

Hi John and welcome to the forum! Another fellow Texan, I'm in North Texas, have a sister in Round Rock- actually going there this weekend for my niece's birthday. What doctor/ practice are you going to? Have you got multiple opinions?

I'll start with your story sounds similar to mine (and sadly like a lot of others on here.) I was hit by an 18 wheeler that came into my lane, was 2 weeks postpartum with my 2nd daughter, both kids in the car, 2 week baby on impact side, 2.5 year old behind me (driver) and I was in a Nissan Altima. Initially I felt nothing, was too worried about my kids, right when the ambulance was taking the girls to the ER, I started to hurt a bit, by an hour into it, I was hurting very badly. I was also given pain meds and muscle relaxers and told I'd be better in a week or two. That was January 2006, since then as you can see in my signature below, I had tried every treatment known to man to no avail. I was told repeatedly that I wasn't a surgical candidate (after trying conservative measures, be sure to exhaust your options you do not want surgery if something else might work). You will also run into the same problem a lot of us who were younger with spine issues have, the doctors a) don't believe someone so young could have these problems or b) they won't operate because of your age (I was 25 when it happened and 29 when I had surgery.) It took me 2.5 years to get to a doctor who diagnosed me and recommended surgery, at that point I would have stood on my head all day if it had a shot at working. I started researching, saw 3 surgeons for opinions and sent a pre-certification request to insurance. First denial was because it wasn't 'medically necessary' and the second was that "with my age, the long term results of ADR are unknown". I was in too much pain to fight anymore and went into a clinical trial. Surgery in March of 09 (38months after the wreck). It wasn't until October of 10 that I became completely pain free, about 18 months after surgery.

So, I would suggest getting multiple opinions, keep doing conservative treatments for at least 6-12 months, then consider surgery at that point if you aren't better. I believe the statistics are that 90% of people will heal without surgery (and most within a year, hence why they suggest/require 6-12 months conservative before going to surgery- most insurances will require this.) Surgery is a huge step and there are no guarantees on what the outcome will be. Start researching now and be educated in the event it comes to that, but don't jump the gun.

On the lawsuit part of it.... I also hired an attorney when it became obvious the trucking company was trying to screw me (seriously offered to only pay part of the kid's ER bills.) I told them that I would rather not settle and leave it open until the kids are 21 (legally if they don't settle that child has a right to go back and sue anytime before they turn 21), hung up and called an attorney. If I were you, I wouldn't even think about settling your case at this point, way too early in the game, you don't know what will happen. Yeah the attorney charges 40% if they file a lawsuit, but honestly, your going to get screwed if you settle this early. The attorneys like the open and shut cases because it's not a ton of work for them and it's a quick buck. Those of us that drag on for years take lots of work. I used my personal injury protection on my car insurance policy, used my health insurance (my lawyer filled out a form or something to say that he would not disperse the settlement until insurance was reimbursed). I payed all the co-pays, deductibles and prescriptions out of pocket (after insurance) and kept impeccable records. In the end, when we settled 4 years later, I was $35,000+ out of pocket (medical costs as well as babysitting fees for me needing to go to doctor appointments, therapy and for when I wasn't even allowed to hold my newborn and had to hire help). My medical bills, including my out of pocket were $115,000. I was in no hurry to settle and let it go on, even telling my lawyer that I wanted to wait until I was close to better to settle. And your right, no amount of money can make up for those years I lost with my family, kids, the marriage strain, depression, etc. If I was offered 10 million to do it again, I'd say heck no and not have a second thought. Lawyer took a big chunk at 40% plus fees and settled for a lesser amount with insurance (about 2/3 of what they actually paid.) I've also know more about insurance, spines and lawsuits than I ever wanted to know

I hope yours doesn't drag on and does resolve with conservative care, but as the saying goes- hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Kathy

[Justin]

Hi John,

Welcome to the Spine Patient Society.

I was also injured in a motor vehicle accident (actually two: one in 1999 and one in 2003; not at fault both times ). I used to love cars, but they are capable of tremendous damage and can ruin people's lives (and often take them ).

I'm sorry that you are dealing with all of this. Kathy has offered great advice and I do hope that the SPS can offer you support through this very difficult time.

I wish you the very best and please keep us posted on your progress.