Linda Coheley's Story:

I had my first brain surgery in 79, I did not have "A' at that time. I was also having back pain in 79. They did some dye work with a myelogram, and at that time found 2 bulging discs. I also had endometriosis, which lead to a hysterectomy also in 79. I had the
hysterectomy in March of 79. They then found the tumor in my head in August of 79, had head surgery. Also had to have bladder surgery in Nov. of 79 to remove polyps from my bladder, because the endometriosis had spread to the bladder causing pain. I could not get the infection cleared up, so the urologist told me he would have to do surgery as nothing else was going to work. My pap smear had come back one stage before cancer, and they had to take everything out. This all happened in one year 1979.

The spinal leaks I had came from spinal surgeries. About 4 years later is when I had my first back surgery. I had ruptured 2 discs, but at this time the neurosurgeon. told me I had 'A'. I was diagnosed with "A' in 84, the neurosurgeon said pantopaque dye was left in my back, from the myelogram in 79. But, when he did the surgery for removal of the discs, he also decompressed the nerve roots, and this was my first spinal leak, as he didn't properly fix the spinal leak. I got meningitis. One week later, I had to have a shunt put into the brain, because my brain was swelling from the spinal leak. They had taken the growth out of my brain in 79, but it came back because of the spinal leak and had increased in
size, so back into the brain again.

In 1988 I had to have another brain surgery to clean up the scarring in the brain, because the "A" did increase scarring, since it's a disease of the lining of the spine AND the brain, this created more problems with the growth that had been in my head. They did not know how long I had had the growth, it could have originally been caused by a lick to the head as a child, as it was the size of a large egg when they found it in 79. But the many spinal leaks that I developed from both spinal surgeries, 84. 92, also made the head problems worse, because spinal fluid has to go some where. That's when I got swelling of the brain.

Now because of these complications, no neurosurgeons want to put anything in my spinal column or spinal fluid. as it could prove to deadly. My records state I have a complicated history, as I've been told 3 times, "we hope we can pull you through", last time being in 92, when they cut the growth out of my back and decompressed the nerve root again. This was when I developed 4 separate spinal leaks, and they had to open my back up 4 times to try and stop the leaks. But still had to put more shunts in my back and brain, as they had to stop them from both areas, because of my brain swelling. This is also the reason I have glaucoma, because all the neurological problems through the years. I'm sorry this has been so long, but it is complicated and hard to explain.

Then I lost Bob, my husband, and with the way my family has treated me, it's been unbearable to say the least. There were many times I prayed to die because the pain was so bad, not only from the "A', but the terrible pain of the surgeries, especially meningitis. That's one reason I know I need surgery on my hands, (carpal tunnel syndrome) but I just can't handle much more!! 

I Thank you for listening, I've done my best to explain. Probably don't have all the spelling right, but I abbreviated a lot because it was so long. I've had other surgeries also, like a lump in my breast, but in all it's been 14 now with all the leaks. I hope this hasn't been too depressing, as this is a reason I don't always go into a lot of detail.

Linda