Guaranteed Healthcare

During my pregnancy in 2004, everything that could go wrong, went wrong. My gall bladder shut down, then kidney and liver problems followed. I was put on a pic line for five months, until the day after I gave birth to my son. I was told that my body could not handle the pregnancy and it was advised that I should not have any more children, (I do also have a 10 year old daughter and had no problems during that pregnancy), so they did a tubal ligation.

A couple of months after my son was born, this headache started. It would not go away. After 4 days of this headache in May of 2005, I went to the emergency room. They sent me home saying I have a migrate headache. I have never suffered from headaches before! 2 days later, I went into a seizure and was brought back to the hospital. They gave me a CAT scan, blood-work, all the tests you can think of, including an MRI. I thought I was getting the help I needed. My MRI results came back normal, my spinal tap came back normal, most of the blood-work came back normal. The seizures continued. They sent me home. The headache never went away.

A few months later, on the cover of the Flint Journal newspaper was an article about this woman who had every symptom I did! I brought it to my doctor who that day got me an appointment with this specialist from Hurley. I brought in my MRI photos that he asked for, you know, the ones that came back normal. His exact words to me were, "they told you this was normal, this is not normal". After doing another spinal tap, my pressure was up to 350. I was lucky I did not lose my eyesight forever, and luckier that I did not fall into a coma.

My diagnoses at this time remains Pseudotumor Cerebri. My doctor and neurologist from U of M in Ann Arbor, do not agree with this however. My doctor believes I have a tumor in my pituitary gland and it can take up to five years for one of these little boogers to show up on an MRI. He suggested that I get an MRI done every three months to ensure that they catch it early enough. State Medicaid (which is what I have) says they will only give me one every year, just once. That triples my risk of not catching it quick enough.

My headache is still there, like a enemy reminding me of everything I have to go through. I may not be that important to the government, but I am that important to my family. If health care is needed, take NIKE's slogan, just do it, I am sure they wouldn't mind letting the government borrow it. I have filed for disability since 2005. I have worked since the day I turned 16, and paid my taxes for the disability. I keep getting denied. There is no cure for me, the only relief I get is when I go to the hospital and say, "Give me a spinal tap and drain some fluid out for me, would you?" And apparently, that's asking too much.