i had my catheter placed in on june 7th (thursday) and it was torture!! i would never go through it again i was supposed to have it done on the 6th, but my docs scheduled changed... because of that, i had to stay in the hospital 5 days!! they didnt release me until monday because none of the home health care people at the cleveland clinic worked on the weekend.. so if i would have actually had it done on the 6th, i probably would have been home before the weekend. and to make matters worse, they placed me on the floor with dying cancer patients. i overheard someone saying "no one makes it off this floor alive".. i bet they definitely thought i was wearing a wig.

the procedure itself was very painful. i think i said every bad word in the book, followed by me screaming bloody murder for about 30 or 40 minutes. you would think they would sedate you more, considering a huge needle was being pounded into my spine (or so it felt like it). i had severe head and back aches the whole time i was in the hospital. they were more worried about that than my leg. also, the antibiotic they placed me on made me very naseauted for about a week, and then they finally gave me the OK to get off of it. yay!! no more feeling like im going to puke all day long!

my back is still killing me, but atleast my leg isnt! that's the only good thing about all of this.. but once the catheter is taken out in august im sure the pain will be back. i hope not!! ive been working my butt off at physical therapy, and doing other exercises when im not there. i definitely think ill gain some of my muscle back.

i go for my first dressing change next week and a home nurse comes a few times to see how im doing and to change the med bag. the worst part of this is not being able to drive and shower... even though ive been insta-bathing, i would definitely be the stinky kid at school!! the weather has been sooo beautiful here and my pool isnt getting much use i guess im not allowed to drink either, and considering this is my first summer being legal im not having much fun!!

sorry to ***** and moan, but sometimes i think i would rather have my leg pain back than go through all of this.

Hi Katie,

Thanks so much for telling us how it went, but sooo sorry it hasn't gone that well - don't know much about the procedure myself, do you think they didn't do it quite right? Cleveland Clinic? We've had some not-so-good reports from there before...

Hope you feel a lot better very soon, thanks so much for the update!
all the best

Katie I am so sorry for all the pain that you went through!! You would have thought that they would have at least sedate you!! OMG Katie! Artist and Katie, I am due to go up to Clev. clinic in Sept(They are trying to bump me up further) My surgeon, that is, Now, I am scared!!! darn!! Desi

my mom is friends with a few RN's and they said that after this procedure you are supposed to stay laying down for the rest of that day. i had the procedure done at about 4pm and i was sitting up straight as soon as it was done. the laying down is supposed to prevent the terrible headaches that they warn you about before you go in for the procedure.. so it kinda made me wonder after hearing that. im not going to say anything terrible about the cleveland clinic, but i really liked going to my orthopedic surgeon down in pittsburgh. too bad he doesnt treat RSD!!! desi, what doctor are you seeing in cleveland? i wasnt happy with my doctor at first, but im kinda getting used to him. at first all he did was try about 6 different medications, but finally he is more open to trying different procedures. he said if the epidural catheter doesnt show results, he will try some kind of neurostimulator. he is a bit hesistant with trying that because he said i am too young. he also doesnt have much of a personality, but i guess if i was 70 some years old i wouldnt either!! another doctor in the hospital said my doc is 'known around the world for his work' so i guess im in pretty good hands. i was kinda shocked that my doctor didnt perform the actual procedure. some other doctor below him did the whole thing.. i think i saw my guy for about a total of 2 minutes during my 5 day stay there!!