Patrick Keenan
My Life of Pain

I am a 39 year old male, married with 2 children.

I was hurt at work on July 27 1997 when lifting some heavy boards. I hurt something in my back but did not know what at this time. After seeing an emergency room doctor, I was sent home for many months of bed rest and physical therapy. I tried to return to work but was injured again a short time later. It became very painful to walk and nothing seemed to be helping.

At this time the doctors began running tests. They found a herniated disk at L5/ S1. On June of 1998 I had a discectomy and laminectomy. This did nothing for the pain. So in September 1998 I was taken back into surgery for a fusion done with Pedical rods and screws. The doctor could not believe how much scar tissue had grown in such a short time.

In January 1999 I was still in a lot of pain and was sent to pain management. The doctor recommended a nerve block to stop the pain. This was done but all I got was a spinal leak. If you have not had one there is no way to tell you how bad it hurts. Three days went by before a blood patch was done to stop it. Thank God I passed out when they did the patch because the pain was just too great to bear. After, I was told that I needed a pain treatment program. I was sent for a 21day stay at a pain treatment center for physical therapy and bio-feedback. Also they wanted to do more nerve blocks. I had 4 more, all doing nothing to help the pain.

I was sent on to another pain doctor who said that he needed more tests. A myelogram was done. Boy, was it painful! I will never have another one again. Because of the rods and screws I can not have a MRI done. This showed nothing was touching the nerve. This was the first time Arachnoiditis showed up on any reports. Nothing was said to me about this condition. It was a long time before I saw the report. I looked up the meaning of Arachnoiditis and found out what it was. I think doctors don't say anything about it because they can't do anything to treat it. All they say is that you have so much scar tissue and the nerve is damaged.

At this time I am recovering from surgery to implant a spinal cord stimulator. The medications are not working and my body can not take a stronger dose. I am on a Duragesic Fentanyl patch changed every 3 days. 175mg. Plus Demerol 50 mg, Esgis-plus, and Percocet 10/650 mg for break through pain and the bad headache that came from a bad leak in surgery getting the stimulator implant. I have had 2 more blood patches in the last 3 days and hope they have fully stopped the leak. I have allowed my body to be put through Hell to try and stop the pain. I pray this will work. Because the leak was so bad I cannot turn the stimulator on yet, maybe in a few days. The doctor said there is just too much scar tissue and abnormalities in the epidural space. This made the surgery very hard.

This is just the story of my physical pain. It doesn't begin to tell you of all the tears that I have cried over the loss of my job and my life as I knew it. I can't walk more then 50 feet at one time. I can't play out in the yard with my kids. I can't even go fishing. I can't even sit in my yard in the sun because the sun makes me sick on all the drugs. And of course let us not forget Social Security. I was turned down 3 times and had to sit in front of a judge in my wheel chair and tell him my whole story. I was given SSD but most of the back pay was withheld because of my workers compensation. No person should be made to go through this mental Hell after all I have been through.

This is my story and I thank my wife for typing it for me.