Definitely not going to Leeds

Mark had his MRI Monday this week, we got the results Tuesday and they were sent over to Leeds. Mr Timothy(Leeds consultant) viewed them, had a discussion with the consultant at Bradford and told him he wouldn't be seeing Mark because he didn't think the arthritic growth was causing the problems, therefore it wasn't appropriate to do anything about it. He didn't know what was causing all the pain, it was possible it was the syrinx (the bubble of fluid that builds up around the trauma area) lower down his spine, it could have moved a tiny amount to start making a difference, but he couldn't be sure. His only suggestion was to implant a tens system on the vertebrae above the arthritic vertebrae. This is a system that passes electrical pulses between two points and stops the pain signals getting to the brain. His consultant at Pinderfields is not keen on this idea as the area where Mr Timothy is suggesting is very high up - C4 - and it's a very dangerous area to operate, if anything went wrong Mark would be paralysed from the neck down. We really need to know more about this. I collected a copy of Marks scans this morning and took them down to his consultant at Pinderfields as he hasn't seen them yet.

We both felt very low and abandoned yesterday, it seems no-one is really interested in trying to help him. His consultant at Bradford has been great. He's organised scans that Mr Timothy and Mr Raza (Pinderfields) have requested and tried to get everyone talking to each other but beyond that he can't help, it's not his field of expertise, so there's no more he can do.

So what next.....

We're being passed to yet another consultant at Bradford who does the implants, to discuss options, understand side affects and see what he recommends. If he really thinks the 'tens' system is best for Mark we're going to ask if we can try that with an ordinary externally operated Tens machine first to see if it makes any difference. Mr Raza is also going to discuss the implant option with him and he'll also have some input. So we're no further on and very frustrated.

As time has gone on we're finding out just how broke our NHS must be, in addition to taking Marks drugs in from home because they can't or won't order them, I now have to supply towels for Mark now cos they don't have enough on the ward. Lets see what next Monday brings.