Post by pringleman on Mar 23, 2014 1:49:30 GMT -6
Hi Kurt,
Sorry to hear of your situation. One of the things that is hardest about spinal tumours is to adjust to the fact that you are not the strong person you once were. Your attitude should allow you to overcome both the army bureaucratic bulldust and the tumour itself. The first thing I would recommend is educate them. There is a good book you can order from Amazon called, "Intermedullary Spinal Cord Tumors", by Georges Fisher and Jacques Brotchi. It is published by Thieme. It is an expensive text book aimed at surgeons but it helps to know your enemy. It covers everything from diagnosis, to surgery and recovery.
I have mate who used to be in the Australian Army. He cracked a vertebra trying out for the SAS but could not convince them there was anything wrong. He had to threaten physical violence on the army medico just to get a Xray. Even after that they would not allow him time to recover and it got worse. Then they discharged him. Seems to me that there is an unwillingness to accept people are not machines.
It sounds from what you have written that the main symptom you have at the moment is pain. This is not to belittle pain, I know to well how debilitating that can be, but what that means is you do not have any permanent damage to your spinal cord as yet. As you are probably aware as the tumour gets bigger it will stretch the spinal cord and compress it against bone and you lose strength, feelings and control of your limbs bladder and bowel. This is not something you want. As your tumour is currently small it maybe that your workouts are making the situation worse. I assume you are doing weight training. If you stopped that maybe your pain and numbness would decrease and allow you to train with your platoon. And allow you to retain face with your Platoon Sergeant. Ependymomas are slow growing so you should have time to get the right people to treat you if you manage your symptoms. You need someone who has treated many people.
When I was first diagnosed I stopped all hard physical activity and in the two or three weeks I had to wait for surgery a lot of my problems disappeared. It got to the point that I was seriously questioning whether I needed the operation.
Ultimately you will need to have an operation. The sooner it is out the better the outcome. But you have to have a good surgeon. And money to support your rehab. From my experience it is an expensive business. And unless you are miracle man you will not be back to full strength for about 8 months.
Can't they put you on lighter duties till then?
Good luck and fight like hell
Sorry to hear of your situation. One of the things that is hardest about spinal tumours is to adjust to the fact that you are not the strong person you once were. Your attitude should allow you to overcome both the army bureaucratic bulldust and the tumour itself. The first thing I would recommend is educate them. There is a good book you can order from Amazon called, "Intermedullary Spinal Cord Tumors", by Georges Fisher and Jacques Brotchi. It is published by Thieme. It is an expensive text book aimed at surgeons but it helps to know your enemy. It covers everything from diagnosis, to surgery and recovery.
I have mate who used to be in the Australian Army. He cracked a vertebra trying out for the SAS but could not convince them there was anything wrong. He had to threaten physical violence on the army medico just to get a Xray. Even after that they would not allow him time to recover and it got worse. Then they discharged him. Seems to me that there is an unwillingness to accept people are not machines.
It sounds from what you have written that the main symptom you have at the moment is pain. This is not to belittle pain, I know to well how debilitating that can be, but what that means is you do not have any permanent damage to your spinal cord as yet. As you are probably aware as the tumour gets bigger it will stretch the spinal cord and compress it against bone and you lose strength, feelings and control of your limbs bladder and bowel. This is not something you want. As your tumour is currently small it maybe that your workouts are making the situation worse. I assume you are doing weight training. If you stopped that maybe your pain and numbness would decrease and allow you to train with your platoon. And allow you to retain face with your Platoon Sergeant. Ependymomas are slow growing so you should have time to get the right people to treat you if you manage your symptoms. You need someone who has treated many people.
When I was first diagnosed I stopped all hard physical activity and in the two or three weeks I had to wait for surgery a lot of my problems disappeared. It got to the point that I was seriously questioning whether I needed the operation.
Ultimately you will need to have an operation. The sooner it is out the better the outcome. But you have to have a good surgeon. And money to support your rehab. From my experience it is an expensive business. And unless you are miracle man you will not be back to full strength for about 8 months.
Can't they put you on lighter duties till then?
Good luck and fight like hell