Can someone please steer me in the right direction? Please

Posted by skylee @skylee, Jul 22, 2023

Hi, I am Lori and I am at a loss. On March 7th I had surgery on my elbow. I have had 11 surgeries prior to this and I've never had a problem with anesthesia, and also know that it does burn for a couple seconds where it is inserted.
before my surgery on March 7th I asked the nurse if she would please put the IV in my arm and not in my hand. She ignored me and put it in my hand I just let it go. Then anesthesia, when the female anesthesiologist was putting the anesthesia through my ID it started burning and I was waiting for it to go away. However it did not, it was the worst excruciating burning pain I have ever felt in my life. It burned so bad for my hand up to my shoulder the whole time she put the anesthesia in my IV. I was crying I looked up to her and asked her to please stop, but she just looked at me didn't say a word and kept pushing the syringe. The male anesthesiologist turned on my heart monitor and it was going crazy. So he yelled at me you have to calm down. So I just laid there and cried until I went to sleep. I woke up went home I tried to forget about it. 3 days later my arm started going numb from my hand to my shoulder. this isn't a light tingling this is like when your foot falls asleep and you can't walk on it feeling. Sometimes I feel pain sometimes I feel burning. It is hard for me to grasp something get a good grip on it, and I even dropped a few items since then. This has been going on every day all day since March 10th. My arm is perfectly fine before I went into surgery now this. And that was of neurologist virtually, she said it sounded like I have carpal tunnel or overtime nerve damage and that maybe the anesthesia exasperated it. So on Thursday I had an EMG done to see if I have carpal tunnel or overtime nerve damage. The test was negative no carpal tunnel no overtime nerve damage. so the neurologist message sent me a message online and it just said your EMT was normal that's it. So I had a message back and ask her what do I do now? I like my arm is going on this I'm not faking this there is a problem and I need it identified and corrected so what do I do now? She responded I can get you a referral to neuro muscular that's exactly what she said and that was it. she put it to where I can't respond to her messages now. I am not out to sue anybody or anything I just want to find out the problem and get it fixed but I think that everybody thinks I'm going to sue so they don't want anything to do with me. So what am I supposed to do how am I supposed to prove that my arm is going numb and get it fixed when nobody will even help me? please somebody please if you're if you respond like nobody else does can somebody steer me in the right direction I'm getting frustrated and running out of options. Thank you have a blessed day Lori

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@bonez3861

I wish my primary was like yours. Mine just says it's out of her league. I have 2 types of neuropathy. My Emg showed that one effects my bodies ability to control temperature and my blood pressure keeps dropping so low I pass out. I guess it's in my central nervous system. The other affects my limbs. My Mayo neurologist did a needle test on me and from the knee down I didn't feel anything until he stuck me above my knee and I screamed because it hurt. Same on both calves on down to my feet. My hands and fingers are the same way. But nobody tells me how to make it feel better. I don't understand how they don't feel anything, yet I get horrible pain and burning in them? It's a pain like nothing I have ever encountered. Any advice would be appreciated.

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Hi @bonez3861, Sorry to hear that you haven't found any relief from the neuropathy pain. You might try looking through the information on the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy on their complementary and alternative treatments to see if you can find something that helps.

--- Complementary Therapies: https://www.foundationforpn.org/living-well/complementary-therapies/
--- List of some complementary and alternative therapies: https://www.foundationforpn.org/living-well/complementary-therapies/

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@uhenze

Probably a Medicare patient with very limited income. MAYO has only limited resources for does patients. Not like cash donor, railroad insurers, or regular insurers getting preferred treatment

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This was not through Mayo clinic. And the only reason I am on Medicaid is because I am on workers comp and lost my insurance when I got hurt.
This elbow surgery was my 4th surgery from this workers comp injury.

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@julbpat

The reason they can’t agree with you about what happened and what you are experiencing is liability. They can’t admit any wrongdoing in case you are planning to sue. I wish it wasn’t like that, but it is. There could possibly be some notes in your medical records from surgery that refer to your painful response, and even your visit with them yesterday.

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Hi thank you for your response. I have looked at all medical records from that surgery even the operative report and I do not see any notes about anesthesia except their names and that it was general anesthesia.
And there is no mention of that happening . Ugh!!!

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@johnbishop

Hi @bonez3861, Sorry to hear that you haven't found any relief from the neuropathy pain. You might try looking through the information on the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy on their complementary and alternative treatments to see if you can find something that helps.

--- Complementary Therapies: https://www.foundationforpn.org/living-well/complementary-therapies/
--- List of some complementary and alternative therapies: https://www.foundationforpn.org/living-well/complementary-therapies/

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Hi thank you. Now my numbness is lessening but feeling pain. Yesterday my therapist did myofascial release. He said in the comments there was signifcant muscle tightness.
He is considering trying Graston IASTM next visit on the 7th. I put a pic below of the notes of the exercises he has me doing. Thanks again.

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@skylee

This was not through Mayo clinic. And the only reason I am on Medicaid is because I am on workers comp and lost my insurance when I got hurt.
This elbow surgery was my 4th surgery from this workers comp injury.

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Medicaid paid for your operation
Nothing to do with Medicare Supplements or Adverse Insurance

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@skylee in defense of the nurse who started your IV, an explanation is necessary. I’m a retired nurse those n medicine who do this type of work we are trained to start looking for veins that are more distant from the heart that will work for the purpose of the insertion. This is because you want to leave larger veins above your hand for more emergent needs if it arises. If you crashed during the procedure and a large bore IV access is needed they have a big vein to use. The nurse was only following her training and the one thing on her mind is to have IV access for medications. Sorry for your bad result but the nurses intent was not to harm.
As for the operation report, it will only contain what the surgeon did. To see what anesthesia did you’d need to see that portion of the medical record, if you can decipher it which is not easy.

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