Part 1: My Trials Begin

      On the way to my first appointment at the Mayo Clinic, I was scared and exhausted, but more informed about my health than I had ever been before. As my daughter and I started out from Madison, Wisconsin, on May 3, 2007, we were both apprehensive about what would happen that day. What else would I find out? What decision would I have to make? We were both quiet as we began the four-hour drive; I put my head back on the headrest and tried to relax. My mind couldn’t stop reviewing the events that led up to this trip, the events that had taken over the last fifteen years of my life, the trauma, betrayal and unnecessary suffering, which made any kind of normal life impossible.
     

     Sitting in that car, I remembered back to 1991, when I was 52 years old and working in a sheltered workshop as a Production Supervisor for 30 clients with disabilities. In the previous 20 years I had only had a few doctors’ appointments. However, I began experiencing some difficulties, so I chose a primary doctor, Dr. Randall Haas with Dean Health Care, to evaluate my complaints. In my role as Production Supervisor I spent most of my day on my feet working with my clients on the production floor. I had begun experiencing back and left leg pain, which I felt was aggravated by working on cement floors.
     In June 1992, I was sent for a non-invasive treadmill stress test for my heart. I had experienced a fluttering in my chest and some minor pain. The test ruled out a serious heart condition, but the test did discover circulation difficulties in my left leg, which prevented enough oxygen from getting to my leg muscles. As a result of the low oxygen in my muscles, I would suffer severe pains in my left calf. The cramping that results from a lack of oxygen in the muscles is called a claudication. Because their focus had been on my heart, they were not concerned with the difficulties in my left leg. Not much was mentioned regarding the claudication, and I returned to work, where I continued to have pain for the next year, due to what I assumed was from the work floor environment.
     In June 1993, I decided to change jobs because of the pain and went to Supported Employment (within the same agency), where I would work in a state office building. I had hoped that working in a different environment would help to relieve the pain. The state office building had elevators, which spared me the extra stress of walking up and down stairs, and carpeted floors, which provide a degree of support and cushioning when walking. Yet, this did not seem to help.
     In August of 1993, I saw my primary doctor complaining of left leg pain and he sent me to a vascular doctor, Dr. Paul Huepenbecker, who ordered an angiogram of my lower extremities. In September 1993, the angiogram showed 80% blockage of the common iliac artery in my left groin area. An angioplasty was performed, inserting three sequential palmaz stents in the artery to increase blood flow. This procedure provided relief for only a few months before the pain started again.