Saw the doc at UCSF yesterday and after both he and his resident asked me a ton of questions and did their exams he says I have Chronic Pain Syndrome. Not just the pain, but an actual syndrome. It was triggered from my burn back in late 2011. FINALLY! This is good for my lawsuit because I knew it was related but every doc was too afraid to put their name down saying it was related.

From what I can tell, it's one of those all encompassing things that have a ton of symptoms, just like MS. My nervous system went haywire from the pain and I guess has shorted my body. He said that I don't have true neuropathy, but if he did a skin biopsy he'd guess that at least a little would show up. This is why I don't have numbness, just the buzzing and such. He said yes, it can flare (just like it did a couple months ago). It brings fatigue and mental fog, which I'm suffering.

He said I need to do more physical therapy to help. From the little bit I've read online it seems that a steady diet of both exercise and rest is needed. I really don't think I'll achieve that while working full time. I really need to take some time off work in order to heal. Once I go through my mediation hearing next month I'll know how much I'm getting. I really hope it's 7 figures so I can buy a house and take at least a few years off. I'm just getting worse and worse while working. My PCP was ready to take me off work a few months ago.

I asked him about supplements and he suggested a good multi-vitamin instead of the separate stuff. Not sure if that's good or not.

Anybody else have this?

Is this a work related injury? If so, I have never heard of a settlement in the 7 figures. Any settlement would be more along the lines of keeping you alive and solvent, and a lot less like winning the lottery, I am afraid. The largest settlement I have ever seen was for a burn victim who was burned over 75% of his body in a propane gas tank explosion, non-work related, and a case of clear liability. Mediation usually means "settle a dispute," which usually means compromise. Big awards usually come by way of jury trials.

What are the details of your injury?

Oh no, it'll be sizable. I've looked up some non-confidential cases like mine. I've found one that was as low as $600K, and one as high as $2.65M. It was a chemical burn from my cervix, out my vagina, down and around to my tailbone. I had my disposition hearing in July and the only thing they were waiting on was the neuropathy issues, this doc appt yesterday.

The mediation hearing will be us going back and forth to decide on an amount. I've been dealing with this for almost two years.

OMG, how did that happen Chaos?

I hope you clean their pockets!!

I had to have a LEEP procedure where they take out precancerous cells from your cervix. Since I had to have endometriosis cut out as well as an ovarian cyst, I asked them to do it as the same time, while I was knocked out. During the LEEP they swab you with 5% acetic acid. They gave me undiluted acetic acid. And yes, there are still many scars, both emotional and physical.

OMGosh, that just sounds like medical malpractice to me.
i'm sorry for all you're going thru. i hope you get the biggest bucks possible.

can i ask what kind of dr you saw that made the chronic pain dx?
i am in 24/7 pain, mainly muscular, but i havn't had any trauma like you did.

thanks

I saw the Neurologist at UCSF. The doc said something about that the signals that are going back to the brain are just not working right due to the overload of pain, hence the constant pain and feeling of neuropathy. I still have a lot of reading to do about this. That doc did say I could come back and see him, but he thought my PCP should be able to order the PT and deal with my meds.

My sleep study kind of pointed to the same thing, that I'm in pain all night and it's not allowing me to sleep deeply (alpha disruptions in my alpha-delta sleep state). If I can't sleep, I can't heal.

I think seeing the university doc, who sees lots of extreme cases was the key. He just had more experience to be able to pinpoint what it was. I did see the MS doc there a few weeks ago and all she could say was it's not MS. The more general neuro was the only one who could see the bigger picture.

Sheesh, they didn't mean 5% of the bottle of Acic..

Holy crap they gave you undiluted acid? I had a LEEP. It's not the most pleasant experience but with the mess up you must have been in severe pain. Ouch!!!!! Did they do a hysterectomy or take out your cervix.

I'm sorry you have to deal with this. What a nightmare.

just make sure you're documenting and keeping a log of everything!!

Hope you can get some pain relief-have they mentioned a nerve block?