Part 4: Surgery Does Not Help the Leg Pain

It was January 19, 2000, when I had the back surgery.  By February 16, 2000, about four weeks after the surgery, I was back to work.  Even though I was weak and moving very slowly, I had used all of my sick and vacation time, and I could not afford to be out of work without pay.  Working with my disabled clients helped me cope emotionally.  My clients had to deal with their own serious disabilities on a daily basis. They understood my limitations and I fit right in with them.

I believe I had more empathy and patience with my clients due to my own problems.  I did not expect to be moving normally after the surgery, so I did my best to cover up how I was feeling.  I concentrated on holding on to my job and merely existed.

By April, I went for a check up with Dr. Bogdanowicz.  He was still left with the impression that there was, as he wrote in his notes, “still some component of vascular neuropathy to her problem.” In the months that followed, after I was recovered and able to walk fairly normally without risking any strain to my back, I began to experience pains in my left leg once again.  After my back surgery, Dr. Bogdanowicz had ordered me to begin working closely with a Physical Therapist (PT).  In one of the PT's reports, there is a notice of “pains radiating down [my] left leg through the calf with walking.”  The PT also noted that there is “no endurance in her left leg and no strength walking grades.”  Months after performing the back surgery, Dr. Bogdanowicz still felt like the problem was likely caused by a vascular problem, and my PTs took note of the same problems that I had been reporting for years.   I mention these observations here because they became increasingly important in the subsequent year.  Rather than taking these indicators as a sign that there was a different strategy needed, and that the back surgery was not the solution, starting in June of 2001 I was sent back through the same cycle of consultations and tests and, eventually, into another back surgery.

To give a fuller picture of the disorienting effect of my experience in this second round of tests, which led to that subsequent surgery, let me provide some further context for my medical visits at this time.  I hope that this will give a sense of the maze that I was walking around in, from one doctor to the next.  In November, I began more acutely experiencing the symptoms in my ear that I had starting having back in 1996. My medical records show that I had been mentioning intermittent head-aches, dizzy spells, ringing, light headedness, and shooting pains in my left ear.  On January 17, 2001, I was seen because I had lost my balance getting out of my car, slipped and injured my left shoulder. Over the years I had never experienced balance problems or any clumsiness.  As a dancer, I had always been graceful on my feet, so this fall really surprised me.  I just attributed it to getting older, but it soon became evident that this fall may have been caused by a new condition – as noted above, a growing acoustic neuroma that was finally diagnosed in 2004.

      I continued with my PT throughout this time period. Whether it was working with a specialist, walking in a lap pool, or doing my best to keep up with my peers while walking at the senior center, nothing seemed to ease the recurrent pain in my left leg.  The doctor's notes from this period show little activity but reflect one continued complaint: the pain in my left leg had continued, if not grown worse.  By June 7, 2001, I was sent for consultation to another back surgeon, Dr. Kahle.  He too questioned whether the pain was not caused by a vascular issue rather than by a back problem.  He consulted with Dr. Huepenbecker and once again it was concluded that my vascular problem was stable.  While this should have been ground for reassurance, this marked the beginning of the second round of tests and consultations that would result in a second back surgery.