My Story - Rev Ronald Davidson

My name is Ron; I'm a retired Minister and have had "A" since 1966.

I was 11 years old when I crawled out of a big drainpipe that ran under the road. Ten feet above me a friend, playing around, dropped a big rock on my lower back. It knocked the wind out of me and I felt like it had broken my back.

From then on (1954) I had back problems that slowly got worse.

In 1965 I had a disc slip out when I bent over to pick up a part where I worked. I couldn't walk and could hardly breathe. The company Doctor told me to go back to work, but I couldn't. I had to take time off work while the Doctor's tried all kinds of tests, traction etc etc. Nothing helped. Meanwhile the disc burst and CHEWED half way through my Sciatic nerve. There's no way of explaining the feeling of what it was like, but I'm sure some of you do know or at least have a partial idea.

Later they gave me my first Myelogram and operation. They only took out the parts that burst and left the rest in.

Six months later I was back to have the rest of the disc removed. This time I had 15 myelograms, on one occasion, they hit the sciatic nerve. I've been electrocuted a few times as I used to work with electricity....., but this was much worse than being electrocuted. Sweat poured off of all sides of the X-ray table and made puddles on the floor. The next day they removed the rest of the disc and some scar tissue.

Over the next few years I had 4 more surgeries (about one every year and a half). I had more myelograms, 3 discs and more scar tissue removed. I kept thinking I needed surgeries, when it was the surgeries that made me worse.

The Doctor's finally realised it and said they wouldn't operate any more.

I took pills for several years until the Percocets had eaten at the lining wall of my colon, I took 2 ASACOL 400 Mg 4 times a day for 2 years to clear that up.

Meanwhile (1983?) I went through detox in a hospital for 2 weeks and had a spinal stimulator implanted. It kept shortening out and electrocuting me. What a charge, hair standing on end, eyes popping out, screams, fainting and that was just the nurses watching me, as for me I was waiting to be pronounced dead. :-)) Had it taken out and a year later was back for another one. The new one concentrated on my private parts and I won't even try to tell you what that was like. I couldn't go to the bathroom so I stopped using it, :-) the stimulator silly! not the bathroom. :-)) I left the stimulator in for 8 years until I started getting sensations like someone suddenly drove a pickaxe in my spine. It took my breath away and knocked me to the floor, so I had that implant taken out.

One day my family Doctor (Really a caring doctor) put me on MS Contin (oral morphine). I felt really good for about 2 months, and then I started getting used to it and had to take more and more, till it finally started shutting down my breathing.

Meanwhile I had gone to a pain clinic, received 2 epidural injections and they just made the pain worse. The pain clinic increased my morphine, I told them I was suffocating and they said to ignore it and go on. I took myself off the MS Contin and for 2 weeks straight I was on a trip to HELL. The uncontrollable spasms, jerks-- shake rattle & roll, I almost tore my recliner up. Even my wife prayed for me to die.

I learned from that experience that the higher you go on drugs the further you've got to fall when you have to come down, and its a long hard fall. Also I found that taking pain medications for long periods of time, start creating a pain of their own, even worse than the normal pain from "A". So I try to stick to lower doses of pain medications. I take drug holidays and try to bear the pain that way.

To date I've had 9 back surgeries, 20 - 25 myelograms, 3 disc removed, 2 epidural injections, 2 stimulator implants and tried VARIOUS other things. Even considered having a zipper installed in my back. :-)

In November of 1997 I had to put my mother (whom I took care of) into a nursing home with a bad case of Alzheimer's. Then in January, just 2 months later, my wife died. That and the pain were almost too much to handle! Stress seems to aggravate the pain even more.

Finding a Doctor who can understand what you're going through and will give you pain medication is getting pretty hard. I went to a pain clinic in February 99. Filled out a questionnaire, one question was, "What do you expect from this visit?" I wrote, nothing but a bill! When the Doctor came in, I politely told her I had arachnoiditis and I knew there wasn't anything that could be done for it. She said, "Well, I used to work for the Cleveland Clinic!" I said, "So, I called them and they turned me down, wouldn't even see me." She left and "1 hour" later her nurse came in and said, "Your case is to complicated, we'll have to think about it and call you back." That was in February. In September I called them and asked if they had, had enough time yet. I guess they were trying to give me just what I expected - "only a bill". :-)) They gave me another appointment, gave me 5 different kinds of pills, I had complications with all of them. I called back asking for something else and was told I couldn't have anything else till I saw the Doctor, she couldn't see me for 3 weeks!!!

I went back to my other new Doctor, he tried to tell me I didn't have "A" and wanted me to see a Psychiatrist. He didn't even check my records to see that I've been to Psychiatrists, Pain Clinic's, various other doctors, hospitals who all confirm that I do have Arachnoiditis!!! After putting up with this pain for 34 years and him telling me it was all in my head, I felt hopeless, lifeless, in despair and knew that once again I had to search for a Doctor who understood and cared. I think I've found that Doctor, she doesn't know much about Arachnoiditis, but she cares. I know nothing can be done for Arachnoiditis, but having a caring and understanding Doctor helps more than they may believe.

Rev. Ronald A. Davidson