Hello and quickly this is my story - and I know it's probably so
long, you'll lose interest and fall asleep, so here goes, anyway:

The beginning of February, I noticed a pain in my left buttocks, to
me it felt like a pulled muscle, not too bad, and I thought it would
heal up in a day or two. It didn't. It kept getting worse. After
about two to three weeks of this, and then noticing some pain down
the back of my thigh and calf, I went to my doctor. I don't remember
now what exactly he said it was, or what to do, something about an SI
Joint and he gave me a few samples of Vioxx.

A couple weeks later I went back to my doctor because I wasn't any
better, and this was the first time in my life I had ever heard the
word piriformis or sciatic nerve, which he felt was more than likely
the problem; he ordered X-Rays and they came back normal. He handed
me more samples of Vioxx and was told to give it time, and to stand
in the shower and let the hot water run down my back side, and said
that these things eventually heal themselves.

At this time, I took it upon myself to visit a chiropractor (the same
one who had helped me with a work related injury several years ago,
so I knew he was good) and he also felt that it was a sciatic nerve
problem that was ailing me. After seven visits and no improvement,
he recommended that I have an MRI and see a Neurologist. However,
because of the insurance company, he could not be the one to refer
me, my primary care physician had to, so I had to go back and tell my
doctor that I had been going to a chiropractor; I don't think he was
very happy about that.

I think at this point, it was the beginning of April. My doctor gave
me a prescription for Loritab (or Hydrocodone, the generic version)
and Prednisone (5 for 5 days) and he did order the MRI. He also said
he would refer me to a Neurologist, but he first wanted me to go to
Physical Therapy. He stated that if I didn't go ahead and try it
now, the Neurologist would eventually want me to do it, anyway, so I
may as well go on and do it. I did this for three weeks, three times
each week, a total of nine visits. And my MRI results came back to my
doctor, and he called and said that I was normal.

At the end of the third week, as I was driving to work, instead of
going to work, I turned around and drove to the doctor's office. I
walked in there (if you want to call what I'm doing at this point
walking) and broke into tears. I told Brenda, the receptionist, "If
I was a damned basketball player, they would have rolled me off the
floor, surrounded me with doctors, diagnosed me that day, and would
do everything they could to get me ready for the next game!" She
said, "You're probably right about that." She made an appointment
for me later on that morning to see the doctor. When I came back to
see him, he examined me once again, and I stressed to him as best I
could, that I just about couldn't take anymore of this. He wrote me
another prescription for the Loritab/Hydrocodone, and another one for
(I've probably got it wrong) a Medrol Dose Pack, something or another
(some other kind of steroid, start out with 6 and work your way down
to 1), and handed me some more of the Vioxx samples. He also said
that he would have someone make me an appointment with a Dr. Gilbert
in Lexington, KY, who is a spine and brain specialist. They called
me later on that day with an appointment for May 12th.

May 12th finally rolled around; my appointment was at 11:00 AM. I
arrived at 10:45, and of course, the paperwork is another story. It
was 12:50 before they finally called my name, and 1:15 before I
finally had the privilege of meeting this Dr. Gilbert.

But before I met the good doctor, one of his nurses, a guy by the
name of Jody, came in there and put up the copies of my MRI, looked
at them, asked a few questions, and was diagnosing my problem within
five minutes. He basically told me they could do nothing more for me
but write more prescriptions and that any kind of surgery for my
problem was out of the question. After he walked out, I remember
thinking to myself, "My own doctor could have done that! And I have
just sat in the most awful waiting room for the last 2-1/2 hours and
wasted another day off of work for nothing?" Personally, I think
Jody has problems, he is some kind of doctor wannabe with a bad
attitude.

Anyway, Dr. Gilbert finally comes in, and looks at my MRI. He says
he sees some arthritis and also sees a slight problem with a disc in
the lower part of my spine, I forget the word, bulging, herniated,
slipped, I forget what he said, but whatever it was, he said it was
minor, and pretty normal for someone my age. Nevertheless, he said
he wants more tests run on me, because he wants to know what is
causing this problem I'm having. He writes me another prescription
for Loritab/Hydrocodone, Ibuprofen 800mg and Tramadol 50mg. He
mentions something about a CAT SCAN? He wants Jody to make me an
appointment with a Neurologist. I'm sitting there thinking that's
what I thought I was doing, so after Dr. Gilbert walks out, I asked
Jody, "If Dr. Gilbert isn't a Neurologist, then what is he?" After
all, what do I know? Jody tells me he's actually a Neurosurgeon.
So, Jody tells me he will set up the appointment, but it will
probably be 6 weeks or more before I can see the Neurologist, and
that I have to come back to see them in 3 months. That will be in
August.

Today is May 15th, and Jody still hasn't called me with my
appointment with a Neurologist. I was wondering if he mean't 6 weeks
before the appointment, or 6 weeks before he makes the appointment.
I did call him earlier, to find out what was going on. He told me
that he hadn't got around to it yet, and when he did, he would call
me. I asked him for the name and phone number of the Neurologist,
and if I could call and make the appointment myself, because I didn't
want to wait for him to do it. I also explained to him that
apparently he had never had to go through anything like this before,
or he would understand why I was anxious to get something done.
After all, I have already been waiting since early February.

I called my doctor's office after I talked to him and asked them if
there were any other Neurosurgeons in the area, if I could see
someone other than Dr. Gilbert. The lady I talked to said that Dr.
Gilbert was the only one they referred to, because he was the only
one around, unless I wanted to go to Louisville or Cincinnati, but I
would probably have to wait even longer there. She said that Dr.
Gilbert was excellent at what he does, but agreed that his bedside
manner and the attitude of his staff can be summed up with one word -
ARROGANT - because they are the only ones available, and they know it.

Today - I actually was looking for someone in my area who does
acupuncture. I'm getting desparate. I've even applied for, and was
given a temporary handicapped tag. Believe me, if I didn't feel the
need for it, I wouldn't have done that. I parked in a handicapped
spot for the first time the other day, it was a very bad day, and I
was barely able to walk at all. I sat there and looked at the sign
in front of me and cried for 10 minutes.

I'm getting to the point now, where it's all I think about, or talk
about. Everyone is avoiding me, and I realize that, so now, I'm the
one who is avoiding everyone else.

I am a police clerk. I have a desk job. Yes, it requires me to sit
at a computer all day, data entry, transcribing tapes, etc . . . But
I have to keep working as long as I can stand it. I don't have very
many sick days on the books.

My husband and I also enjoy motorcycle trips, which for me now, is
obviously out of the question. In the summer, we take lots of
weekend camping trips, and occasionally we take an extended weekend
trip to go out of state. This is the only social activity we do.
This is what we spend all winter looking forward to. We always plan
out our trips, sometimes a year in advance. This year, I am
celebrating my 10th year on the job, and will be getting 3 weeks
vacation. For the last 3 years, we have been waiting for my 10 year
anniversaray so that I would take off work for two weeks, or longer
and take our dream vacation, a nice long motorcycle ride to the Grand
Canyon and to Las Vegas. Now, my 3 weeks vacation I'll have to save
to take for sick days instead. I can't even go very far in a car.

I'm sorry if this is a long story, but I wanted to get it all out,
all at once, not bits and pieces at a time. I'm not taking this very
well at all. I'm 41 years old and I'm not ready for this. But I
suppose you never really are. My summer is ruined. I'm beginning to
feel like no one can help me, or no one will help me. And I also am
beginning to wonder if this is going to be a permanent thing that I'm
going to have to learn to live with? Is there anything, anything at
all that I can do about it? I just want to speed up the process, and
get a true diagnosis and get all of this overwith, and get on with my
life. I've had different people tell me different things, and most
of them are not good.

I guess I better go ahead and end this message. I could just go on
and on. I will check back later on tonight to see if there are any
responses. I hope I've not bored anyone to tears. And to anyone who
has made it this far into my message - - - THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE
TIME TO READ IT!! I APPRECIATE IT SO VERY MUCH!! My name is Jo.