Question
Hello,

I'm writing in because I'm at a loss as to what to do. My mom was in a car accident about 14 years ago. It sparked a whole list of problems starting out with her neck. She had to have her first surgery at that time to fuse together some of the plates in her neck. Since then, she's had about 4 more surgeries on her back and neck. The accident led to problems the doctors have diagnosed as TMJ, fibromyaligia, osteoporosis, degenerative disk disease, sleep apnea and many more. She is always in pain and is on a lot of medications. A few years ago, a doctor recommended a spinal stimulator. She was having numbness in her legs and arms, sharp pains and just had a hard time functioning in her daily life. They put in the stimulator and it worked wonders! She was able to drive again, go to the gym everyday to work on the eliptical machine; she was finally gaining her life back. This past November, the pain was increasing again. The doctor adjusted her stimulator many times and in December, the machine completely gave up. Her pain was getting worse and worse. All the doctor did was increase her pain medication and then it was decided upon that they would take out the stimulator, do a few scans to check everything and then put a new, better stimulator in. She had the removal surgery in March. After that surgery everything started to change. She was always sleeping, couldn't sit at a table, no more driving, going to the gym and her daily functioning was detererorating fast. The doctor did some scans and found that she had spinal stenosis. He said they would do surgery to help the issue then in 2-3 weeks after, they would put the new stimulator in. She had this surgery in April. After that surgery, she got even worse. She could barely hold a conversation with anyone, slurring her words, repeating herself constantly, was falling 2-3 times a day, hands and legs are trembling constantly so she can't hold even a cup of coffee. Sometimes she has these episodes which my family thought were seizures, she would rock back and forth, her limbs would spasm and have a blank stare on her face. The doctor refused that it was anything related to the surgery they did and passed her on to another doctor saying they wouldn't be able to put the new stimulator in for at least 4 months, now changing their original story. As of now, she's gotten the worst she's ever been. Monday night she wasn't able to feed herself (couldn't use her arms), was falling a lot (she'd be standing there and it was like her body just gave out on her), repeating herself, falling asleep and incoherrent. We've now taken her to the hospital and every doctor says it is something different. They've resulted to keeping her for "further tests" and that is all we can get out of them.  

I know that without lists of specific medications and all of her medical history it is impossible to say what it is. However, I'm just at a loss and so frustrated because no doctor seems to be able to give us any guidance on what to do. Most of them just want to give her more medications and she's already on so much that I don't know how her body can handle it. I'm really just looking for more of a direction to go or some inkling of what may be causing all of this.

I appreciate your time and thank you in advance for any help you may be able to give me.

Answer
Hi Ashley,

I am sorry to hear this and understand the frustration. I think this is somewhat beyond the scope of chiropractic at this point. Her rapidly declining neurological status is certainly concerning. Since you are in Florida, it may be worth looking into http://www.nrimed.com/

I wish I could be more helpful, however, the link might provide some hope at this point. They treat chronic neurological problems from stroke, brain injury and arthritis due to high levels of inflammation.

Regards,

Dr. Steve